To be honest, there is no doubt he was right bastard. But then the song doesn't say he was an angel does it?
"You only get from me, what you pay me for!".....
It just just lays out a collection of interesting trains of thought, about him, in the third person and sometimes from the first person. The chorus "Do they come to see a man fall, or to see him fly?" is such a strong and very prophetic question on all the high octane motor sports. Let's be honest, Formula 1, Superbikes, Motorcross, Stock Cars, Rallying... What ever sport it is, the corners are where the stands are most full. The straights are full of corporate guests 90% of the time, those people are the passing interest folks. The punters who pay their own money, regularly will be on the corners, "where the action is!"... Or "where there is crashes...", that's a well known fact........
What ever drove him to using a baseball bat who can say?
None of that should detract from the validity of what I see as a great song, that chorus carries so much weight, melodically and more importantly philosophically that alone gives the song alot of weight. To me anyway. Interesting topic for sure........