The American Spectator

so widely quoted during Sunday night’s ESPN baseball game which featured the Phillies and Mr. Bonds’s Giants. The poll, typical of those conducted by liberals — its total of 800 people polled included an oversampling of 200 blacks — still came to the conclusion that over half the country is rooting against Bonds’s pursuit of Henry Aaron’s homerun record. The results would seem pretty clear cut to all but those who conducted the poll: br> /p>

However, race plays a unique role. Black fans in the survey are more than twice as likely to want Bonds to break Aaron’s record (74 percent to 28 percent), and 37 percent of black fans think Bonds used steroids, compared to 76 percent of white fans.

br> The interpretation goes on to further dredge the racial waters without ever pointing out that the presumed white racists don’t wish to see Bonds break the record of another black player . Also missing is the inference that, despite the fact that Bonds has become gargantuan in a few short years, it may be blacks who are biased in their belief that no steroids were involved. It seems the specter of racism, actual or subconscious, isn’t a switch-hitter.

If there is white racism among fans in the sports world — where the percentage of minority players far exceeds their representation in the general population — they have a funny way of showing it; eagerly parting with billions of their hard-earned dollars year after year. If there is any animosity on their part, it is most likely a result of efforts to prove that they are what they demonstrate they are not. At least not consciously.