12/7/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON STEROIDS 8/31/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON THE OLYMPICS 7/22/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON LANCE 6/9/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON THE NHL 5/18/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP 4/28/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON THE KENTUCKY DERBY 3/18/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON MARCH MADNESS 2/17/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON NASCAR 2/3/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON JANET JACKSON 1/27/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON THE SUPER BOWL 1/20/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON AMERICAN EXPRESS 1/6/2004 JAKE'S TAKE ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL 10/15/2003 WHY LONG BEACH CANCELED SHOREFEST 3/25/2003 SHOREFEST REVOLUTIONIZES EVENTS AND SPONSORSHIPS 12/18/2002 JAKE'S TAKE ON HIATUS 11/27/2002 WHAT WE GIVE THANKS FOR 11/20/2002 7'-7" BOL HELPS HOCKEY REACH A NEW LOW 11/13/2002 SHARPIE AD MARKS A TURNING POINT 11/06/2002 TIGER, TONYA AND POSH FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS 10/30/2002 ANGELS TURN BASEBALL, MEDIA UNIVERSE UPSIDE DOWN 10/23/2002 MASTERCARD MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: MOMENT-LESS 10/08/2002 SUZUKI'S HEISMAN SPONSORSHIP AWARDS FANS 10/01/2002 MASTERS OF THEIR DOMAIN 9/25/2002 TRIBUNE CO.: THE REAL BLEACHER BUMS 9/18/2002 SATURN CYCLING DRIVES SAN FRANCISCO GRAND PRIX 9/12/2002 9/11 HELP FROM SPORTS, ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, CAUSES 9/04/2002 RETURN OF THE NATIONAL PASTIME 8/28/2002 DARWINIAN CONTRACTION SOLVES BASEBALL'S PROBLEMS 8/21/2002 RUST-OLEUM CRITICS: DRIPS AND ERRORS 8/14/2002 HOME DEPOT FINE TO FINE STEWART 8/07/2002 STRIKE BACK AGAINST SPONSORSHIP STUPIDITY 8/01/2002 NIKE FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT 7/24/2002 ENDURING THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER 7/17/2002 RACE ACROSS AMERICA: A WINNING STORY 6/12/2002 SPONSORWRITE TO RACE ACROSS AMERICA 6/5/2002 HYUNDAI STALLS, ADIDAS KICKS ITSELF 5/29/2002 WHY WE LOVE WORLD CUP 5/22/2002 THE POWER OF ENDORSEMENT 5/14/2002 WHAT'S IN A NAME 5/7/2002 COMPAQ DASHERBOARD DUST-UP A SIGN OF THE TIMES 4/29/2002 TV TURNOFF WEEK WAS A TURN-ON 4/22/2002 HOW NIKE SOULED ITS SOUL 4/15/2002 THE MASTERS: A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER 4/8/2002 WHY OUR SITE IS BLACK AND WHITE
	JAKE’S TAKE ON STEROIDS The weekend before Barry Bonds received his seventh Most Valuable Player Award, his Godfather, some would say The Godfather, was signing autographs at the Long's Drug Store at a strip mall in San Bruno. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Four years ago, Bonds surpassed his Godfather, three-time National League MVP Willie Mays, by earning an unprecedented fourth MVP. Since then, Bonds has won three more. That’s seven all told and an incompre-hensible four in a row, when nobody else in the 128-year history of Major League Baseball has won more than three. Now, a few weeks later, Bonds is disgraced, his records in question due to his testimony in the BALCO steroid scandal. And Willie Mays, The Say Hey Kid, star of the All-Time, All-American Sports Highlight – The Catch in the 1954 World Series – was signing autographs at the Long's Drug Store at a strip mall in San Bruno. To his credit, Mays packed them in at the drug store. The previous crowd record for that particular Long’s location was Free Bone-Density Testing Day. The line for Mays autographs formed at 4 a.m., eight hours before the signing session started. By noon, generations of Giants fans, the older ones wearing Number 24 jerseys and the younger wearing Number 25, wrapped around the outside of the store. They clutched memories and time-worn photos and smudged baseballs and at least one treasured 1970 Topps card, from which Mays gazed, equal parts competitive intensity and unbridled joy. Just posing for his baseball card photo, he was the picture of everything we wanted an athletic hero to be. Even as a singular star, the Michael Jordan of his day, who captivated the nation with skill unrivaled at the plate, on the bases and in the field, Willie Mays played stickball with neighborhood kids in the streets of New York. He was a man of the people, and he remains so, at least inasmuch as he did not charge fans for his signature and agreed to sign items other than those that Hallmark was pitching as sponsor of the autograph session. Still, for Willie Mays to sign at the Long's in San Bruno, there had to be some coin involved. When we inquired about his appearing at the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in 2003, his office asked for about $50,000. The sad part is that Mays feels the need for the money. If he peaked now instead of 50 years ago, he'd make twice as much as Bonds...or he'd be worth it, anyway. Whatever else Bonds may have learned from his Godfather – much in terms of hitting baseballs, less in terms of catching them – that education did not include public relations. By many accounts, Bonds is decent and charitable, although many other accounts say otherwise. Regardless, he never owned the public the way Mays did and still does. Post-BALCO, he never will. Thirty years after Bonds retires, he may not even draw a line at Long’s. Bonds’ use of steroids, knowingly or not, may mean his records carry asterisks. Facing expansion-diluted pitchers hurling from lowered mounds in smaller parks at smaller strike zones, Bonds' records are not comparable to those of Mays, Aaron or Ruth, anyway. That’s a shame because baseball, more than any other major American sport, derives charm from its history. The wonder of this past World Series was 86 years in the making. Unfortunately, discussions between grandfathers and fathers and sons about the best ever are increasingly meaningless. So the real damage to baseball was done long before Bonds did or didn't dabble, knowingly or not, in "the cream" or "the clear." These latest developments don't harm baseball any worse unless we hold the sport responsible for convincing children that steroids can make them the next Barry Bonds. When you consider Bonds and you see Mays, now 73, sitting at his autograph table having his signing arm massaged by an attendant, you realize once and for all that our father’s heroes and our heroes and our sons’ heroes are really all just people. They are more talented than most and as frail as any. As marketers and fans and fathers and sons we must take great care in what we attach to them. ©2002-04 info@sponsorwrite.com All rights reserved.