Barry’s Bond
He may be under indictment for perjury and a Giant no more, but Barry Bonds is sorely missed by some San Francisco baseball fans, reports Jim Carleton in The Wall Street Journal (4/28/08). “It’s not as fun,” says Mark Busch, while floating in a kayak in McCovey Cove, where Barry had made a splash 35 times over eight years, hitting home runs into the waters outside the ballpark’s walls. With Barry gone, kayak sales are down, way down. “I will be happy if I can break even,” says Ted Choi, who used to make good money not only renting kayaks to fans but also selling ad space on the kayaks for $20,000 a logo.
Other vendors are feeling Ted’s pain, especially those selling rubber chickens. Fans used to love to wave rubber chickens over their heads whenever pitchers would intentionally walk Barry rather than take a chance against his batting prowess. One ballpark vendor said rubber chickens used to account for about 20 percent of his sales, while another reported selling about 25 of the rubber chickens a day, at ten dollars each: “Now demand is so low neither of those booths stock them.” Not surprisingly, sales of Bonds memorabilia — such as teddy bears with the number “756″ (his home run record) on them — are also way, way down.
But the real pain is felt by some fans, who have had to endure one of the worst starts by the Giants “since moving here from New York in 1958, losing 11 of their first 17 games.” Attendance is “down 15 percent from last year. And there’s an eerie stillness in the press box” now that there’s no home run record to track. Gone is the mural glorifying Barry’s home run quest and the “tote boards that featured his latest home-run count.” On opening day, a sad-faced young fan held aloft a homemade sign, reading, “Bring Back Barry.” As sports anchor Vernon Glenn puts it, “I’ve never been through a divorce, but it feels like that.” [via link]
~ by Errant Aesthete on 04/30/08.
Posted in Cause Célèbre
Tags: BarryBonds, baseball, sports
