King Kaufman's Sports Daily

ESPN's shocking but not surprising poll: The Barry Bonds story is all about race.

Read more: Sports, Racial Issues, Baseball, Race, Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball, King Kaufman, Sports Daily, MLB

May 7, 2007 | An ESPN-ABC News poll has found that black baseball fans are more than twice as likely as white fans to be rooting for Barry Bonds to break Henry Aaron's career home run record, and white fans are more than twice as likely as black fans to believe that Bonds knowingly used steroids, and more than three times as likely to believe he shouldn't go to the Hall of Fame.

To repeat for the million trillionth time: This is America, and race always matters.

Last week we learned about an academic study of NBA foul calls that found a slight racial bias on the part of officials, and there were the usual, predictable dismissals. Racial bias? In America? Nonsense!

Now here comes the ESPN-ABC News poll, a scientific telephone survey of 799 adult baseball fans, 203 of them black. The margin of error is 3.5 points overall, 7 points among blacks. Some of the more interesting results:

Do you think Bonds did or did not knowingly use steroids?
Blacks: 37 percent yes
Whites: 76 percent yes

Are you rooting for Bonds to break the home run record, or do you hope Bonds falls short of it?
Blacks: 74 percent rooting, 18 percent falls short
Whites: 28 percent rooting, 60 percent falls short

Do you think Bonds should or should not be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame?
Blacks: 85 percent should, 10 percent should not
Whites: 53 percent should, 37 percent should not

On "Sunday Night Baseball," ESPN reported the poll at the start of the third inning of the Philadelphia Phillies-San Francisco Giants game, which Bonds sat out, with the emphasis in a graphic and Jon Miller's description on the overall percentages of fans who are rooting against Bonds (52 percent), who think he should be recognized for the home run record (57 percent) and who think he should be voted into the Hall of Fame (58 percent).

No mention was made of the far more interesting racial breakdown in the poll until the next half-inning.

ESPN baseball columnist Jayson Stark, who is white, wrote on the Web site that he was surprised to hear that only 52 percent of fans don't want Bonds to break the record. "If those percentages are accurate," he wrote, "many of us [in the media] have misread the mood of the nation on this."

Next page: Bonds treated unfairly because of race? Blacks are 27 times more likely than whites to say yes