Today In 'Man Writers Are Weird'

Came across this nugget whilst reading Joe Posnanski's piece about Kevin Youkilis, the beloved Red Sock who was just traded to the White Sox. On Gay Talese: 

The magnificent writer Gay Talese used to write out a sentence in big block letters, hang the sentence on his office wall, and then go to the other side of the room and look at it through binoculars.

On LeBron James (Updated)

I wrote a lot about LeBron James yesterday. Too much. Spent half my day on it. Tried to defend him. Tried to criticize him. Tried to imagine what things could be. But I couldn't commit to hitting "Publish" on any of it because I couldn't fully believe any of it. And now here I am, just starting over, from scratch. The more I wrote, the more I realized I didn't really have all that much to say. 

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Son of Bold Venture. A new blog by a great writer who actually fails, too.

Sorry for the blogging letdown the past couple days. I have plenty in the queu, and have been wanting to post some more lighthearted stuff, but it has been a heavyhearted week. There's a post in the queue about that too. Hopefully it goes up by the weekend. 

Anyway, I'm here now to tell you that

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Five Ways I Fight Writer's Slog

Some days, like yesterday, writing is hard. And some days, like yesterday, I really need writing to come more easily. This post explores five things I sometimes try to break out of writer's slog.

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When Barry Bonds Became a Super Villain (also: ARod, Eminem, Pres. Obama, and my dreams about them)

Barry BondsThanks to Joe Posnanski, I found myself today* getting all wrapped up in imagining the life and mind of Barry Bonds, and what the arc of his life looked like and why. 

*(When I should be working or packing for our upcoming vacation. But whatever. I'm ahead of schedule. Well, I was. Now I'm behind because I've been reading and am now writing about what I've been reading. What's wrong with me?)

Alex Rodriguez -- that infamous cheating Yankee -- hit career homer 599 last night and, if he hits another sometime within the next few months, he'll become the youngest to ever reach number 600. Now, of course, none of us really care. We all know that a better and cheesier nickname for him is A-Fraud. But that's what Poz gets to ruminating about today on SI.com. 

I love baseball. Honestly, I don't know why. It's sort of like my love for God. I don't understand it. But I heard someone say something once that's stuck with me: "Women were meant to be loved, not understood." It sounds mean, but it's actually rather profound, and really applies across the board in life. People were meant to be loved, not understood. Things we love, like sports, were meant to be loved, not understood. Maybe even God is meant mostly to be loved, not understood. Trying to understand something or someone is a drain and will almost always end in frustration. Learning to love someone, on the other hand....you can't go wrong that way. 

Anyway, I digress.

The whole point of all this was just to share a portion of what Poz wrote:

I had forgotten this until I watched a preview of Ken Burns’ “10th Inning” documentary — which will premier on PBS on Sept. 28 and 29, more on this as we go — but Barry Bonds hit his 400th homer in 1998, the year of the McGwire-Sosa chase. I don’t want to give too much away, but the documentary runs with the popular theory that Bonds was so furious after watching lesser stars Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa pump up and win America’s heart with a summer of home runs that he decided to pump up himself, obliterate their numbers and show the country what REAL power looked like.

And the impetus, according to the documentary’s visuals, was how little attention Bonds got for his 400th home run. Of course, it was no ordinary 400th homer… it made Bonds the first and still only player in baseball history to hit 400 homers and steal 400 bases in a career. By then, though, nobody really cared about puny number like 400 homers. Bonds hit his 400th homer at Pro Player Stadium in Florida on the same day that Mark McGwire hit his sixth homer in six starts (and 53rd for the season), and the same day that Sammy Sosa hit two homers off Jose Lima (51 for the season). Bonds was barely worth a blurb. And, the documentary’s narrative suggests that’s when Bonds turned super villain and decided he was going to take over the world.

(Read the whole column by clicking here.)

Barry Bonds -- and Alex Rodriguez too, now that I think about it -- has always intrigued me. Both are the types I want to really get to know. I know, who doesn't, right? And I should go watch that documentary Poz mentions because it sounds like it explores what I'd like to explore about Bonds, which is the very simple question with an undoubtedly labyrinthine answer: Why?

* * *

If there was a baseball hell I'd be going to it for saying this, but I like Barry Bonds. I honestly have no idea why. It dates back to my youngest days as a baseball fan, back when Ken Griffey Jr.'s baseball video games were getting really popular. I began pulling for Bonds back then, because it seemed like he was always overlooked or underestimated or....something.

I starkly remember going through the player ratings in one of those Griffey games, and noticing how amazingly similar Griffey's and Bonds's ratings were. In fact, the only thing that I think was different was their arm strength. Griffey's was a 10, which means that a little white trail turned his throws into lasers. Bonds's was a 9, meaning that, well, yeah, he was good, but his throws just looked like a normal, white sphere sailing through the air. 

For some reason, that seemed wrong to me. I mean, Griffey was a phenomenal player. I loved him, too, as a young baseball fan. He was why I tried to get away with wearing hats backward. But what about Barry? I'd think. Why doesn't the have a video game? As much as I loved Junior at the time, I liked Barry more. 

Now, I know there's more to all of this than video games. And because of that, whenever Bonds is brought back up, he's slammed. Most sportswriters seem to be on missions to ensure he's forever tarnished. Which he deserves, I guess. But if what Poz says that documentary suggests is true, then I like the guy even more. He made a mockery of cheaters. Maybe that was his mission all along. Oh yeah, Big Mac? Oh yeah, Slammin' Sammy, with your stupid hop-step-peace-sign-kissing-or-whatever-the-heck-that-was? You're going to 'roid up and steal my thunder? Well, get Chris Berman out here, because your records are back-back-back, gone. 

I can see that. And I can dig that. I don't know if I'll ever know if it's true. 

Now, as for A-Rod....I think he was just a young kid who got caught up in the hype of becoming a slugger, and made some mistakes. Lord knows, he didn't need steroids. That's what mystifies me about him. But maybe one day, I'll get to talk to him too, and I can ask him.

* * * 

I dream about talking with people like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. I've dreamt of talking with Eminem, and President Obama, too. In these dreams, we're not so much going through an interview. We're just....talking. Which is how the best interviews are, anyway. But we're just talking like I talk with my buddies, and nobody's angry or defensive or judgmental. In fact, we're usually have a darn good time. There's nothing but honesty there.

And I'm asking these guys about all these things we all want to know. And they're telling me the truth. They're not rehearsing polished statements their agents or public relations gurus have had them memorize. The feeling I always take away from those dreams is simply peace. And refreshment. Because in those dreams, I get what I want, which is to know the truth....but I also convince them that hey, none of us were ever meant to be perfect, so it's OK that you're not. It's OK to be honest with all of us. And they are grateful. 

In these dreams, I'm not even always me. Which is to say, I don't care if it's me showing them peace. I just want them to see it.

So it seems that's my greatest fantasy now. Or one of them, anyway. I used to dream of playing baseball. I still do somedays. But more often, I dream about talking with people of great influence, to know what their truth really is, that all of us might know peace. 

Ah, to dream.