Letters to the Editor
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Bonds doesn't get it
Copyboy asserts that if Bonds had been caught with a corked bat like Sosa, the story would have dragged on and on. Yes that true because Barry would have let it drag on. The key point to remember is that Sosa immediately went on national TV that same night to issue his apology. While we can quibble about the sincerity of his apology, the point is that Sammy has a keen ear for public perception and knew that he had to say something right away. Now what would Barry have done? He would have stonewalled for days, even weeks, allowing speculation to grow and grow ever bigger.
Barry has a tin ear for media, teammates, and especially fans. Even after 21 years he still doesn't get it. Maybe if he declared that he used "stuff" that at the time was not banned by MLB he would have some integrity.
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So is there an asterisk for Mark McGuire(aka incredible hulk)?
You know what??? I am sick and tired of all of this ballyhoo about Barry Bonds. Get the fuck over it! He's a champion and hero. Nobody said a fucking word when Mark McGuire was walking around looking like the inredible hulk from all of the shit that he was taking. Interestingly so, european-americans were frothing at the mouth about how great he was when he was up against Sammy Sosa who should have won that record. Now if anyone should also have an asterik is your grand wizard in chief, Dumya. As a matter of fact, about 99.9% of you euro-americans voted for him anyway. comeupance is a mfker.
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One more thing
In a strange moment we'll have to let the ages decipher, Barry Bonds breaks the all-time home run record.
That's bunk. Plain bunk. I don't like this line of thinking. Okay, Nero apparently did little when Rome was burning. Well, instead of reading history books and thesis papers, I would have liked to watch it with my own eyes, within the context of the times. That's the best way to understand something.
I would have liked to seen Babe Ruth at Wrigley that one day, instead of having history say that he pointed to the right-center bleachers calling his shot.
Do you see where I'm going with this? Kind of? Okay.
I would have liked to seen the Battle of Bunker Hill. To see if Col. Bill Prescott really said, "don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!!" But, instead, the ages have deciphered that he did.
So, King, do you really think we need to wait until people who never saw Bury Bonds can judge him? Doesn't that seem absurd.
He's a juiceface freakshow who wipes his butt with the world. That's the context of the times, buddy.
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@arsene
You wrote:
"If Barry Bonds is to have an asterisk over his name, then every single white baseball player who is loved and respected without question and who played before blacks were allowed into the major leagues SHOULD ALSO HAVE AN ASTERISK.
The likes of Babe Ruth benefitted from that era's race-based apartheid system: the Negro leagues were full of brilliant, talented players who were not allowed to compete with whites. Joe DiMmaggio once said the most talented players he ever saw at the time were in the Negro leagues.
Players like Babe Ruth had the privilege of not competing against a complete pool of available talent. White players benefitted from this racial apartheid---their fame is far more tainted than Bonds' ever will be."
The problem with this reasoning is twofold really. First, you're conflating "active cheating" with "an advantageous situation". As much as you may not want to hear it - Ruth had nothing to do with segregation, it was simply the time in which he played.
The second, and far greater, issue with this reasoning is that it assumes that ALL players from the Negro Leagues were on par with Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. That there was no such thing as a journeyman black pitcher, that had the leagues been integrated all teams would be stacked with three ace fireballers and three sluggers of African descent. And the history books would be bereft of all white ball players, that Mantle, or Williams, or Snider or Spahn never woulda had a chance in the face of the far superior black talent.
Pardon me if I'm overstepping here, but this kind of reasoning veers dangerously close to "blacks are naturally better athletes" which, if I'm not mistaken, is sickeningly racist.
and besides, you can make almost as many arguments the other way that prove just how asinine this line of reasoning actually is. Off the top of my head I could say "and besides, Bonds benefitted from playing in an era where he knew the dangers of smoking. If Ruth had known that smoking kills you and severely limits your lung/muscle capacity, he'd probably have hit 100 more homeruns."
(i'm being facetious of course, i'm just trying to illustrate a point)
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Aaron must have been on roids too.
To this nonsense that Bonds is some kind of late career freak. Bonds was 36 when he hit his career high number of Home Runs while Aaron was 37 years old when he hit his career high. This is definitive proof that Aaron is a cheater.
If you read Baseball Between the Numbers you would see that Bonds is the type of player that is ripe for a late career power increase. He was a balanced player that lost his speed so instead worked on his power and low and behold by going for home runs the most disciplined hitter in history is able to increase his home run numbers.
I still do not understand what it is about steroids that on face value makes them the worst thing in history. It has been repeated several times. I think throwing spits balls is many times worse then using steroids. I still don't understand why training and taking supplements is hard work but if the supplement is a steroid it is cheating? I don't get why Speed is laughed off when it has been shown to enhance performance while steroids again are somehow self-evidently worse.