B. The Asterisk
Many baseball writers and fans believe there should be
asterisks placed by records believed to be tainted in some way.[i] This advocacy for the use of asterisks in the
official record book is a tool used to strengthen the dominant group (white)
narrative. Almost always, the asterisk
is mental, as opposed to the actual placement of an asterisk printed in the
record book. In baseball's history,
there have been three primary instances when fans have advocated for the use of
asterisks: when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record,
when Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single season home run record, and when
Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career home run record.
First, in 1961 Roger Maris hit 61
home runs and broke Babe Ruth's record (60) for most home runs hit in a single
season.[ii] However, it took Maris 161 games to break the
record that Ruth set in a 154 game season.[iii] There exists debate as to whether an asterisk
ever was put next to Maris' record, but the debate over the asterisk raged on
for decades.[iv] Eventually, Commissioner Fay Vincent stepped
in and removed the asterisk from the record books.[v]
The uproar over the asterisk
displays baseball fan's reverence to the record book. Ruth's record was cherished and is still a
part of baseball lore. For many, the
singular fact that Maris played more regular season games warranted a lessening
of his achievement by the fixture of an asterisk.
Maris' record of 61 home runs in a
single season stood until 1998 when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs.[vi] McGwire's record stood for only three years
when Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001.[vii] Not long after Bonds breaking the single
season home run record, sports media began to report on the use of performance
enhancing drugs in baseball. Following
these reports, Major League Baseball began drug testing players and implemented
a performance enhancing drug ban.[viii]
The pressure for an asterisks near
Bonds' home run totals increased substantially after he broke Hank Aaron's
career home run record in 2007.[ix] In fact, Bonds' 756th home run ball (from the
home run that broke Aaron's record) was sold for $750,000, brandished with an
asterisk, and given the Baseball Hall of Fame.[x]
The proposition of asterisks
reiterates the important role that statistics, especially records, play in the
telling of baseball's history.
Statistics allow fans to compare players and teams across generations,
because the rules of baseball are
essentially the same today as they were in 1900. However, these instances where commentators
and fans have proposed asterisks next to certain records display a inequality
in this comparison. Essentially, playing
more games in a single season or using performance enhancing drugs that inflate
statistics makes the otherwise (supposed) like comparisons different.
[i]
Brad Berkowitz, The Sports Asterisk,
Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/article/the-sports-asterisk (last visited
04/07/14).
[ii]
Charles A. Sullivan, The Under-Theorized
Asterisk Footnote, 93 Geo. L.J. 1093, 1116 (2005).
[iii] Id.
[iv] Id.
[v] Id.
[vi]
Mark McGwire, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcgwima01.shtml
(last visited 04/08/14).
[vii]
Barry Bonds, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bondsba01.shtml
(last visited 04/08/14).
[viii]
MLB, Drug Policy Event Timeline,
MLB.COM, http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/drug_policy.jsp?content=timeline (last
visited April 9, 2014).
[ix] Barry Bonds, Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Bonds
(last visited April 9, 2014).
[x]
Associated Press, Designer to brandish
asterisk on ball; Hall of Fame to accept it, ESPN.COM, http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3036756
(Sept. 26, 2007).
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