My Arguments for Barry Bonds

[GeoffM]

So, with the media all opposed, I have thought of ways in which to support this guy. The media hates him and I am not surprised at the lashing he is taking for this issue.

First, and it is true, he is playing against pitchers that are also juiced up. In the days of Ruth and Maris guys would be throwing 70-90 MPH fastballs, today they are in the mid 90s, often throwing 3 or four other pitches to complement their blazing fastballs.

Second, the guy still has to hit a round ball with a piece of wood over 350 feet. I don't care how big you are, hitting the ball squarely alone is tough to do, but to get enough air under it to hit it out, incredible.

Third, the guy gets walked a million times a year. When he does see a good pitch, it's gone. This supports the above argument that he almost always hits a ball squarely.

Fourth, in the days of Ruth and Maris, pitchers also pitched a hell of a lot more innings, leading to fatigue. Maris and Ruth no doubt saw a lot more BP pitches in their day then Bonds will ever see nowadays.

Bottom line, if you are going to put an asterisk beside Barry Bonds in the record books, might as well also put an asterisk beside each and every player that broke any record in the last 5-7 years. This whole thing could have been going on with Ruth and Maris for all we know, because as long as they had the avenue to get it, they weren't being tested so how would we ever know.

Sports has became very dumb in my view. They are trying to catch cheaters, but cheaters are always going to be 2 steps ahead of them. They catch the hGH and how much you guys want to bet that is the old stuff, like 2 or 3 years ago. Bonds is likely still on roids and even with the MLB testing, won't be caught because he has moved on to a new super drug that can't be detected. Maybe it is time for sports to say "You want to use steroids, have fun when you need Viagra the rest of your life". Seriously, sports spends so much trying to stop people from juicing up but I got to say that they are never going to catch up. Thoughts? Please be kind if you disagree, which I am sure most of you do, I'm just trying to argue the other side of the picture.

[Penguinfan]

Sorry man, Bonds openly cheated, CHEATED and he put the asterisk there, nobody else. You can't say that people back then COULD have been cheating, you have no evidence to accuse them with, the evidence against Bonds is clear and present. I agree the media is against him, something else he brought on himslef. I wouldn't worry if your a Bonds fan though, MLB and the spineless Bud Selig will do nothing. In my opinion this makes the HR record useless now, completely useless. I would feel the same way if it were Sammy Sosa though, who knows how many of those blasts came with a corked bat? Again with him we have proof.

[BlackCoffee]

Who cares about records. All records are useless. North America is waaaay to big about records. Gretzky holds the record for 92 goals in a season. Who cares if anyone ever breaks it. People make a big deal about nothing. It about wins and championships and Bonds still has no ring.

[Penguinfan]

You would be correct to a certain extent. It is all measured by championships, yes that's true, but everything else has value as well. I am a gigantic Lemieux fan, but those 92 goals Gretzky put up is still one of the most impressive feats in sports. Every year ONE team get to win a championship in any sport, we need another reason to watch the games and individual accomplishments count. Why would certain players be fan favorites if all that mattered were championships, you would just be a fan of a team and not a certan player. The records matter, and for that reason they should be respected, not obtained by cheating, that is what would render them useless.

[TajaUk]

I am a massive Giants fan. I have watched them lots and lots of times whenever I got back to San Fran.

The main reason I go back to watch them is Bonds. I dont give two hoots about anything else as long as he entertains me.

North American "sports" aint really sports anyway, its all about TV schedules , entertinment and making wedge.

They could stop all the drug taking in Baseball very easily, just tell the players to take mandatory drug tests before games, but NO they might upset the players union and they might go on strike! Virtually no other country would tolerate this player power, America has totally lost the plot and has let this situation where cheats can prosper and win! *until recently the US atheltics team were famous for covering up positive tests, but the TV and public didnt care they wanted to see winners. Unless the public demand the sports clean and make the players do something, or they let the current situation continue and people accept cheats prosper in baseball.


If you want to see a fair sports game then go watch the local soccer games in the park.

[jillaj]

Barry is a putz. Does he really think the public is as dumb as he is? He looks roided out and has been since he found his power stroke.

[BlackCoffee]

Even without cheating, I already render records useless unless they have to do with wins and losses. I agree with you that there needs to be individuality in sports. You can be a fan of a player because of his great skill and talent or his personality not because of his 'numbers'. Cubs fans know that Sosa hits the most useless home runs in the world. He may get 60 in a season but 40 of them are when the games are 10-0. Gretzky's 92 goals isn't as impressive as you think. They were winning games 8-2 and the team was amazing. Hull and Lemieux scored 86 on lesser teams. And Selanne scoring 76 as a rookie for a crap Winnipeg team was just sick.

The US has gone stats crazy. Last year, I was watching the Giants/Dodgers/Astros pennant/wildcard races and they kept showing Ichiro trying break a record for a dead last-place team. Ridiculous.

Stats are for fantasy geeks only

[omahilo]

Bonds also DENIED using steroids after saying that stuff to the grand jury that he had to know was going to come out eventually.