• Barry Bonds, the African-American star of the San Francisco Giants, broke on August 7 Hank Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs when he hit No. 756 over the right center field wall in San Francisco
• On New York’s amateur baseball fields, people are divided about how to view his achievements because of his alleged use of steroids.
• Latinos and African-American baseball fans clearly seem to have a better opinion of Barry Bonds than White people.

New York. The man standing in the shadow of a large tree quietly talks about baseball and his life. He speaks with the Spanish accent he has kept since coming to the United States from his native Puerto Rico. Pedro Marrero, 59, is the link to a vanished era. He is the bible, which will tell you good old baseball stories. Pedro Marrero still plays on Wednesdays in the “Grandfather league”. On Sundays, he comes to Red Hook (Photo Daniella Zalcman), an old industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn. Here, in the shadow of the large tree, he watches amateur baseball and softball games.

Pedro Marrero sighs when he speaks about Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs the 43-year old San Francisco Giants player broke on August 7. M. Marrero, a former marine, looks sad when he speaks about Bonds’ achievement. He prefers talking about a time, when baseball was a clean sport with strong values. For him, Barry Bonds is the poster child for a sport now perverted by incredible amounts of money and the use of steroids.

If he did not breathe baseball, Pedro Marrero would probably say that his sport is rotten and that Barry Bonds helped spoil it. But he has too many memories linked with baseball. He knows the art of home runs is something special and he cannot simply discard Bonds’ achievements. A lot of Americans seem to be like Pedro Marrero. They do not know how to view Barry Bonds’ future record.

The suspicions he may have used performance-enhancing substances weighs heavily on Bonds. The closer Bonds got to Aaron’s home run record, the bigger was the debate. Although Bonds has won more MVP (most valuable player) awards than anyone in baseball, he is not popular with the fans. He seems to have lost the public’s trust a long time ago. According to a recent poll, 25% of baseball fans have a favorable view of Bonds, while 36 percent have a negative one. On away games, Bonds is more often than not booed. A Washington Post columnist recently asked the player to lay down his bat before beating Aaron’s record. She argued it was the only way to “redeem the irredeemable situation that baseball is in”.

On the baseball diamonds in Red Hook, people are clearly divided about Barry Bonds’ legacy. This Sunday of mid-July, the Brooklyn Mexican league is organizing its “all star game”. Players are batting to the sound of mariachis coming from blaring loudspeakers. Standing next to food vendors cooking tacos. Manny Reyes, a tough right-handed pitcher with a proud look, says he respects Barry Bonds. Reyes, a 22-year old Dominican, played a couple of seasons in the minor leagues but was released this year by the Chicago White Sox. He is now pitching for a Mexican side to keep in shape before some trials with Major League Baseball organizations, he says. He has not given up on his dream to become a professional baseball player and face players like Barry Bonds. He does not think Bonds’ skin color plays a role when Baseball fans view achievements. “I have never seen any racism in my AA team, Reyes says. I would also like to add that steroids don’t make you hit the ball. You need talent to do that. And Bonds is not the only player suspected”.

Sitting on a stand by the field, Eduardo Lopez, a 19-year old catcher, disagrees with Reyes. “Baseball remains a white-man sport, he says. And a lot of people don’t want a Black man like Bonds succeed.”

“Barry Bonds is a cheater! He is juiced. ” On the other side of Red Hook Park, Frank Moran, an American of Irish descent, is drinking a beer while waiting to get on the field. Moran, an amateur softball player, does not think Bonds should beat Hank Aaron’s home run record. “But at the same time, he is the guinea pig for the steroids in baseball. They are all juiced any way”.

John Savinon, Moran’s African-American teammate, has a different opinion of Bonds. “He is the best player of my time, he says. He can do anything”. John Fallanga, a white softball player with tattooed arms, shakes his head when he hears the name of the man who is about to make baseball history. “How does somebody’s shoe size go from a 10 to a 13 at the age of 40?” , he asks. “He does not deserve the record”.

Bonds’ future record could soon be beaten by Alex Rodriguez, a Dominican-American infielder playing for the New York Yankees. ”People always have something to say when somebody is about to break an important record, says Carlos Ventura, a police officer form Dominican descent and a baseball player. Alex Rodriguez will be in the same situation in a few years”.

Still standing in the shadow of the large tree, Pedro Marrero speaks about his idol Roberto Clemente. The player died in a plane crash on December 31 1972 and his body was never recovered. “For Clemente and Aaron, whether a teammate was Black or White made no difference, Marrero concludes. A teammate was a teammate. I have a lot of respect for that because now players are just thinking about themselves.”

Jean-Cosme Delaloye
A French version of this story was published on August 3 in Tribune de Genève and 24heures.

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