Despite his being thousands of miles away in Rio, I could hear Joao Baleiano's hemorrhoids popping as I read his response to Zirin. Hey, Joao: Relax! In the world of sports commentary a knee-jerk anti-racist voice is not a cause for such stress. If you find Zirin so tiresome, go take a nap. Let us know if you're feeling any better when you rise.

As for the content of your dismay, you write, "Racism exists in the United States. No s**t! But the reaction to Bonds has little to do with race..." No s**t?! You make it sound like American sports pages are just overflowing with debates about how to fight bigotry and intolerance. Not quite the case. (It's worth noting that thanks to Zirin occasionally such ideas do appear.) But to say that the reaction to Bonds has little to do with race is delusional.

In July 1968, Newsweek ran a cover story featuring Tommie Smith sprinting, titled "The Angry Black Athlete." Most of today's talking heads will probably agree that Tommie Smith had something to be angry about in 1968. But most of them also believe that those days are gone. That's why Bonds's anger--his refusal to just "shut up and play"--makes no sense to them. They hate him because they don't understand him. And that's the definition of bigotry.

American racism doesn't much trot about in a Klan hood anymore--waiting for it to do so, you miss the messengers in suits and ties and whatever it is they're wearing behind the microphone at ESPN radio.

Chris Dols

Madison, WI

Everything is racism--right, Dave? Zirin's articles are becoming absurd. Even if Michael Vick broke the law, it's not his fault because he's just another oppressed black guy. People don't like Barry Bonds, but it's not because of the likelihood that Barry Bonds has cheated to break one of this culture's most sacred records, it's because he's just a black guy. How condescending! When reading Zirin, you'd think that M.L. King, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neal Hurston, Thurgood Marshall, Michael Jordan were from another planet. How could they have existed, and been revered by both black and white, in Zirin's universe?

Let's continue by saying that racism exists in the United States. No s**t! But the reaction to Bonds has little to do with race, and Zirin is presumptuously insulting to many good, discerning people with his implications that we are racists if we don't like the actions of Michael Vick and Barry Bonds. It didn't seem to bother most people that Michael Jordan was black (must be because he was an Uncle Tom--right, Dave?). And Mark McGwire's white skin hasn't stopped him from becoming a pariah (must be the freckles, huh, Dave?).

And Zirin has become some sort of Rush Limbaugh if he's trying to argue that the horrible "media" is unfair in its treatment of Bonds. Just like it's the media's fault that George Bush has a 30 percent approval rating!

Zirin's articles are becoming tiresome. It's time to move on to more important matters, and more important writers.

Joao Baleiano

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

I think that Bonds's tenure as the home-run leader will be short-lived. Alex Rodriguez has just hit his 500th home run, and he's only 32. If he stays healthy and plays for another ten years, he should easily pass Bonds and the whole business of asterisks in the record book will be forgotten.

Andy Peters

Tucson, AZ

As someone has already pointed out, and many others probably will in the coming days, the general distaste most of the public has about Barry Bonds breaking Henry Aaron's all-time home run record has a lot less to do with the fact that it's a black player doing it than it does with him being a man who, in the minds of many, cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs. If you'd open your eyes for a minute, Mr. Zirin, you'd also see that a large percentage of fans (even some in my hometown, where he broke Roger Maris's single-season HR record) are excoriating Mark McGwire, who is white, several years after the fact, for all but incriminating himself before a Congressional panel on steroids (the same one that Rafael Palmiero denied taking drugs in front of, when several months later he failed a drug test).

In these times, the racial component that was there when Aaron chased Ruth (doubtless magnified by the fact he was playing in Atlanta, and thus subject to the Deep South racial tensions of the time) is almost nil, and is replaced with people asking for the purity of the game to be restored--a fair trade, if you ask me. If you're chasing records, it doesn't matter to many Americans, including myself, what race or creed you are: We've moved past that in many ways. We care about if you're doing it without resorting to chemistry.

Kevin Gier

St Louis, MO

I know a bit whereof I speak. Bonds is from Riverside. His family still is here, and they are very proud of him. But...

He is not fit to shine the shoes of Ruth, or Aaron. His name will forever be a disgrace to baseball with his steroid use. If anyone bothers to look at his photo from years ago, and then his "Juiced Up" pictures, it is kind of like looking at Michael Jackson when he was 19 and now, and Jackson telling us he didn't have any plastic surgery--HAHAHAHAHA!

Barry will live in shame in the record books of history.

Long live RUTH & AARON!

Tim Williams

Riverside, CA

While there is no question that Barry Bonds is a baseball player of great skill, Dave Zirin's piece shamefully skirts the elephant in the room.

There is still an ongoing grand jury investigation into whether or not Bonds perjured himself on the stand regarding his use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This is is a legitimate cause for concern for many fans who would like to see records broken by those who play clean. To his credit, Hank Aaron appeared via video to congratulate Bonds for breaking his record, but to pretend, as Zirin does, that Bonds is a great player and that's the end of the story is to live in a fantasy world.

Jefferson Root

Los Angeles, CA