Barry's World: We Don't Hate Him <i>That</i> Much

Barry's World is the FanHouse's look into the season that is Barry Bonds.

A rather eyeopening poll over at ESPN today, only 52 percent of Americans are rooting against Barry Bonds to eclipse Hank Aaron's all-time MLB home run record.

More than half of baseball fans are rooting against Barry Bonds as he tries to break Hank Aaron's major league home run record of 755, according to an ESPN/ABC News poll.

The survey found that 52 percent of fans hope Bonds doesn't break the record, while 37 percent of fans want him to surpass Aaron's mark, set in 1974.

In addition, 73 percent of fans think Bonds used steroids, despite Bonds' repeated denials. Bonds has never tested positive for steroids.

It certainly seems like the percentage of fans who are rooting against Big Head is much, much higher than 52 percent. Perhaps, as MJD points out today, it has to do with the media's portrayal and coverage of public sentiment.

Race also played a big part of the poll.

However, race plays a unique role. Black fans in the survey are more than twice as likely to want Bonds to break Aaron's record (74 percent to 28 percent), and 37 percent of black fans think Bonds used steroids, compared to 76 percent of white fans.

Blacks are nearly twice as likely to think Bonds has been treated unfairly (46 percent to 25 percent). Why? The survey found that 41 percent of black fans think this is due to the steroids issue, 25 percent think it's because of his race, and 21 percent blame Bonds' personality.

For whites who think Bonds has been treated unfairly, 66 percent blame steroids. Virtually none blame race.

Jayson Stark has a good take on what this all means. I suggest you check his piece out. Because anything I try to write about it wouldn't hold a candle to his column.