Sports achievements overshadowed by events

San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds managed to finish off baseball's season on Sunday setting records for both home runs -- 73 -- and slugging percentage -- .863, but his awesome individual achievements were necessarily pushed off the front page by the U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan.
On the same day, the San Diego Padres' Rickey Henderson joined the 3,000-hit club, and the legendary Tony Gwinn, himself with 3,141 career hits and a career batting average of .338, retired from baseball after 20 years with the Padres. But outside San Diego and Colorado -- the Rockies won the game 14-5 -- their attainments, too, won't receive the attention they deserve either.
Of course, few would argue that the war on terrorism should take a back seat to baseball. At this time in Americans' lives, the brutal murder of thousands on our soil must take precedence over America's pastime.
Still the fact that Bonds homered every 6.52 at-bats this season, breaking the record of a homer every 7.27 at-bats set by Mark McGwire, that he finished with an on-base percentage of .515 -- the best in the majors since 1957 and tops in the National League since 1900 and that he set a career high of 137 RBIs should not be forgotten or merely consigned to the record books.
Freedom: But we don't think it will. For all that Americans have been outraged or devastated or even frightened by the attacks of September 11, they have still exercised their right of peaceful assembly at stadiums around the country either not fearing or not caring about potential risks. Men and women, boys and girls, together.
In Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, 41,257 fans showed up to bear witness to Bonds' record-setting performance. In San Diego, 60,103 were on hand to applaud Henderson and say farewell to Gwynn.
In Columbus, 102,042 trekked to Ohio Stadium to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes upset Northwestern. while thousands more watched YSU beat Indiana State at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute.
As significant as which teams won and which teams lost was the simple fact that millions of Americans chose not to be intimidated by Osama bin Laden and his evil henchmen. Instead, they went about the business of being American by flocking to high school, collegiate and professional football games. They still showed up to cheer their hometown heroes when at nearly every baseball stadium division titles had already been won. They were at the golf courses and the racetracks and the ice rinks and the basketball courts.
And they were proving why bin Laden cannot win.