This could be the first time I've heard anyone state that Bonds' is loved by the sports writers. And I'm not sure what "political correctness" has to do with any of this.
Really? Funny, cause it seems to be that he's been dogged with questions of steroids for at least the past four years. By sports journalists and pundits. But, hey, lets go a step further. Let's move completely to a guilty till innocent mindset for every professional athlete? Will that take enough joy out of sports for you?
One is cheating to gain an edge on your competitors with substances whose very design is to defeat detection. The other should have given the competitors an edge on the Babe. The whoring transcends eras.
Yeah, but he "didn't know" they were steroids, let alone "designed to defeat detection." Wait...ha! ha! ha! ha!...I couldn't type that last sentence without losing it. Sorry. What? You don't think the Babe got a little extra power from all that weight? Yeah, but his was the stuff of legend, especially in his day. Now, he'd just be another pro jock slapped with a zillion paternity suits.
Out of curiosity...what sort of "extra power" can you really get out of rubbing a cream on your body? I'm not trying to debate the effectiveness, I honestly don't know. Does it contain the same stuff that we think of when think of "shooting 'roids"? Whether or not we think Bonds did it on purpose, would it be as effective as McGwire used?
Apparently it's just a different way of ingesting the drug. It's absorbed by the skin and gets into the bloodstream, and once it's in the blood it works the same as if it had been injected with a needle.
Arrest them then and let them watch their bodies decay in prison. I said I liked watching them, not that they were above the law. I know a lot of people that have done things that should have put them in prison and yet they aren't, figures it would happen in baseball too. I also totally agree the players union has screwed the people it represents. When 10-20 years from now the "stars" of this generation are wasting away people will wonder what the MLBPA were doing, but since the people in charge will probably be gone no one will be held accountable Mention Tanyon Sturtze with CY Young if you want, it won't effect me in any way who gets mentioned with who. I can mention Bonds with Ruth and you can argue about it, isn't that what sports is about anyway? Well I bought 0 extra tickets since the whole "steroid" craze started and bought one jersey in that time (Kerry Wood, maybe roided up maybe not) so if they're banking on me they're in trouble. Wrestling? All I know is the Vikings would be undefeated if the had Brock Lesnar on the team You think there'll be a "steroid boost" button in MVP Baseball next year? or were all the righties juiced this year and the lefties not?
How many is acceptable to you? Less than 10? Less than 20? I'm not going to argue Bonds' ability to read and recognize pitches nor the mechanics of his swing, nor his ability to put the sweet spot on the ball. But aside from ability and technique, bat speed and power are generated by your muscles. How much time does it take for a pitched ball to leave the pitcher's hand and travel the 50 some odd feet to home plate? Anything, no matter how slight, that one could do to increase the performance of their muscles so that the bat gets from the ready position through the hitting zone faster is a huge advantage.
** laugh track ** I remember reading some article in the paper a couple months ago (during the Olympics) which pointed out that substance abuse for performance gain, as well as many other methods of cheating, have been an Olympic mainstay since ancient times. If American sports are really supposed to be about legitimate competition, it's time to put them under Federal jurisdiction and appoint a Sports czar. Otherwise, people will constantly point out the inconsistencies in sports culture. One of my favorites is: why is it okay for pro bodybuilders and weightlifters to dope, but not pro team sport athletes? (Bodybuilding and weightlifting are such farces, each has separate, much less popular drug-free championships.) Actually, I agree totally with your ideal that sports are supposed to be about legitimate competition. In a perfect world.
And you make a good point. There are competitions where the participants insist that the competitions be free from the taint of cheating. Until the MLBPA makes it knows to their monkey, Fehr, that the current situation is unacceptable and insists that they work together with MLB to clean up the game, nothing will happen. The players who doped are at fault, but MLB is equally at fault for ostriching the whole situation for so long. And I still can't believe that the Players Union doesn't give 2 sh!ts about the health and well-being of its membership. Oh well, they'll be putzing around in gold plated wheelchairs with 24" rims on them when they're 50.
Everyone stop for a moment and realize this: A player taking steroids affects more than his health or the Babes records. It affects EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in Baseball, from A to AAA to the Majors. Why? Because if 300 players (or just 1) in the Majors are taking Steroids to ENHANCE their performance, by doing so their improved numbers are diminishing the numbers of the 2000 others FIGHTING for the same JOB!!! If a player in AA ball is taking steroids his cheating could possibly cost another non cheater a career!!! This almost forces others to also use the drug and risk their health or just run the chance of stocking shelves for a living! Its absurd that Baseball and the clean ballplayers would want this around. It helps nobody but the cheaters and worse directly affects the clean players.
How dare Bonds take someone elses job from them when he clearly wouldn't be there without the "dope"!!! Give me a ********ing break. I'm severely disappointed in Bonds and he deserves some sort of asterik next to his records, but we're still talking about one of the top two/three hitters of ALL TIME...juiced or not.
Bud Selig needs to do something about this. Steroids dont belong in Baseball or any sport. You should not cheat just to get an extra 10-20 homeruns.Bonds if he used steroids should not go to the HOF in fact no one who has used should go there.Thats total disrespect to Babe Ruth,Hank Aaron,Will Mays etc etc.Also why would someone who cheated get into the HOF but, Pete Rose who bet not be able to be in the HOF?
Who knows where Bonds would be today without the use of Drugs? Maybe his body wouldnt have held up. But thats not even the point. The point that juciying it up and hitting 70 Homers a year raises the Bar for that skinny kid coming up in AAA. If everyone hits 50 HRs a year in the majors that guy with 15 a year in AAA will never make the big leagues. Take the blinders off pal!
The Red Sox locker room isn't full of **************s. Barry Bonds is an **************, even if you remove the steroids. Seriously, he said he hated the town of Boston because we're all racist. Well you know what, Barry? Bite me.
Good point, in theory, but stop for a moment and also realize this: Pro baseball is about as hypocritical as it gets when it comes to drug testing. If you get popped for roids in the minors, you get HAMMERED for it...one year first offense suspension...and most of those guys don't make nearly enough money to miss a year. Meanwhile, the big bad major leaguers aren't exposed to anything remotely resembling a testing practice or an established system of punishment for first-time and repeat offenders.
No, his body wouldn't have held up had he been taking steroids for as long as everyone claims he has. Barry Bonds is still in near-perfect health (especially for a forty year old and twenty some-odd year ball player) and has been for a long time...something that does not happen when you are a long term 'roid user. And that is a fact.
See, here we go...this is what I've been saying. Bonds has rubbed people the wrong way his entire career, and people have been WAITING for this to come out. You're not pissed that he's on steroids...you're GLAD that he is, because now you're petty hatred of him is, at least in your mind, legitimized. P.S. I've been to Southy...he's not far off the mark.
I'm sorry, but Bonds was a very good player. Maybe HoF, but the requirements for that seem to go up every year. But I don't think he would have gone down as one of the best in the 90's, let alone ever. I'm leaving out the last 5 years, assuming they were juiced: Code: Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP 1989 24 PIT NL 159 580 96 144 34 6 19 58 32 10 93 93 .248 .351 .426 247 1 4 22 1 9 1990 25 PIT NL 151 519 104 156 32 3 33 114 52 13 93 83 .301 .406 .565 293 0 6 15 3 8 That one's fun. He goes from 58 to 114 RBI in one season. I've heard of breakout years, but c'mon, the guy played in 8 fewer games. He had 61 fewer at-bats. 20 more stolen bases, a .053 increase in BA (which I will chalk up as learning how to hit properly), and a gap of 14 homeruns. 19-33. Something's not right here. Breakout year on not, the difference there is staggering. His BA, minus the last five years, is .288. If Jim Rice doesn't get into the hall with a .298 BA, Barry Bonds doesn't get in with ten points less. Oh, and don't even try the 'he walked a lot' theory. He had the same number of walks in '89 as he did in '90. Barry Bonds has been on the juice for nearly fifteen years. Maybe he stopped recently? Back to the stats: Code: Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP 2001 36 SFG NL 153 476 129 156 32 2 73 137 13 3 177 93 .328 .515 .863 411 0 2 35 9 5 2002 37 SFG NL 143 403 117 149 31 2 46 110 9 2 198 47 .370 .582 .799 322 0 2 68 9 4 The year after he 'broke' the record, during which time we know he was juiced, his walks went up 21. But his average went up 42 points. With fewer homeruns, fewer hits, fewer games, fewer runs, fewer doubles, fewer RBIs. Need I go on? Thank you, come again.
From his rookie year in 1986 to 1999 the most homeruns Barry ever hit was 46. And that was in 1993. In 1999 he hit 34. In 2000 he hit 49. In 2001 he hit 73. Before 2001 he hit over 40 homers in a season 4 times. Since 2001 he has hit 46, 45 and 45. Prior to 2000 he had only one back to back 40+ season.