Baseball's "Golden Age"

Timothy Gay, the author of 'Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend reminds us that baseball's "Golden Era" was never quite so golden.

As Bonds bids to surpass Babe Ruth's home run record, we (self-appointed) custodians of the game need to take a deep breath and remember two unshakable truths: The pastime will survive this latest mess; and Ruth's era, baseball's ballyhooed ''Golden Age," was seriously tarnished.

Gay's piece deals with the longstanding tradition of gambling in baseball during Ruth's era, including allegations that games were tarnished even after the martinet Kennesaw Mountain Landis supposedly cleaned up the game in the wake of the "Black Sox" scandal. I have long argued that those who ring their hands over Bonds passing Ruth need to take a step back. Ruth's record is no cleaner or more virtuous than Bonds -- and in all likelihood it is less so. Keep in mind that steroids were not banned in baseball during the period when Bonds was alleged to have been taking performance enhancing drugs. So by baseball's own rules, Bonds did nothing wrong. Ruth, meanwhile, never had to play against black players. Never had a swift black outfielder rob him of a home run by leaping the fence. Never faced some of the great Negro League pitchers who while improving the overall Major League talent pool would have taken more than a few of the bums off of whom Ruth jacked home runs out of the league. The multiplier effect for this is baffling, and nearly limitless. (How many extra at bats did Ruth get a year that he might not have had better pitchers and fielders been able to cut innings short before he got another appearance?) And, as Gay reveals, baseball was not always on the up-and-up during Ruth's era. How many times did pitchers, on the take or with a bet on the game, groove a fastball to Ruth -- after all, who is going to suspect a guy for giving a home run to Ruth? Did Ruth ever bet on games in an era when betting was rampant?

"So," as Gay writes, "as Bonds rounds the bases after whacking number 715 -- and Selig and George Mitchell perhaps fail to touch every base in their steroids inquest -- don't despair. Our beloved pastime has been through worse."