King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Readers write: The sequel. This time, it's personal. Especially for Roger Clemens, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O'Neal and Scooter the talking baseball.

July 19, 2004 | I promised Friday that I'd get to your thoughts soonest on Roger Clemens and the All-Star Game, Bob Feller's rant against Muhammad Ali, and the Lakers trading Shaquille O'Neal to the Heat.

Can't get anymore soonest than the very next column, so here we go.

Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, a World War II veteran, criticizes baseball's choice of Muhammad Ali to help throw out the first pitch in the All-Star Game because Ali avoided the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector

Bomani Jones: Had Ali been asked to throw out the first pitch 30 years ago, would he have done it? The revolutionary Ali hasn't been around for a long, long time. The one thing about Ali that doesn't get much play is that he follows fairly closely to those who advise him. I see no problem with Ali being asked to aid in the ceremonies. It's just hard to fathom that he does such things.

Note: Jones has written for Salon.

Steve Dube: I like Ali as much as the next guy and that's part of the problem. He's too safe and iconic. His whole conscientious objector, Olympic medal-throwing persona has been retracted in favor of a a public image that's slightly more dangerous than a Care Bear. [Ali has claimed he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after experiencing racism.] Muhammad Ali's inspirational capacity is two miles wile but about an inch deep these days. Of course, that's why he was at the All-Star Game.

Peter Short: I feel a certain frustration with the recent canonization of Ali. It's not that he doesn't deserve the accolades, but does anybody think it strange that all this praise comes at a time in his life when he can't really speak. I mean, there's something unnerving about our white-dominated society's sunset affection for a man who can't disagree with anyone anymore.

I feel like we, as a nation, can project some reflection of greatness on Ali because he is incapable of pissing us off. It's a weird narcissism. In other words, is he the most beloved black public figure in America because he can't speak? Just a thought.

King replies: The thing is, he can speak. From all reports, his mind is OK, his troubles are physical. It's difficult and tiring for him to talk and be understood, but he's capable. That's how I understand it, anyway.

But I think there's a grain of truth to what you say. Ali is sort of cuddly and nonthreatening these days, and it's only since that's been the case that he's been lionized for the acts that, in their day, made him a much-hated figure. On the other hand, some of that is just generational. The old guys who fought with Bob Feller in World War II aren't filling a lot of column inches these days, and while I fell in love with Muhammad Ali in 1970, I wasn't writing a column in those days. I was 7.

And its not unusual for iconic public figures to have the rough edges buffed off of them in the popular imagination as time goes by.

Next page: Clemens is not (is too! is not!) a punk. Plus: Shaq washed up? Are you nuts?