Letters to the Editor
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ESPN Original Entertainment Presents:
Bonds - Out on Bond
Barry Bonds - Michael Clarke Douglas
Victor Conte - Louis Lombardi
Bud Selig - Alan Alda
c'mon folks....help me out a little
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The Full Asterisk
* Barry Bonds was the greatest power-speed-defense combo player of all time, before he used steroids..... Then the entirety of baseball from fan to Commissioner was mesmerized by McGwire and Sosa. A total ass kissing, without reservation. Bonds then joined the club and became the all-time steroid record holder too.
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Worth Repeating...
It actually makes me sick to read the words "Home run king Barry Bonds indicted on perjury charges" as a headline. Look what has happened to our sport and our tradition. It's a crime to be sure. The commissioner should be indicted right along with him for letting his status as home run king come to pass. Is there any virtue left in baseball?
I mean I love this game of baseball, I love it's aura and its simplicity and nuance. It gives me great joy, but of late it has caused me so much pain. The game is all but ruined to me, now more than ever. If the strike didn't do it then this might be the nail in the coffin. I don't know what to believe anymore.
It's not that I didn't think Bonds was likely guilty of taking PED's before, or the fact that he became the HR king under that shadow. It's that now that it's all water under the bridge and he holds the title that it really burns when you read "Home run king (name of player here) indicted on perjury charges". It's the title he holds that is being defamed, its the game and the integrity of all that is baseball that is being defamed. That is what is unforgivable. Of all titles to be defamed in baseball, or sports, it just makes me sick.
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Evidence...
karrsic: "But one makes an extraordinary leap to go from "steroids make you stonger" to "steroids are the reason Bonds hit homeruns rather than doubles." I have yet to see a shred of evidence that supports that claim."
If it's evidence you want, then evidence you'll get. To wit: (from http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/
idUSN2040269120070920)
"PHYSICIST SHOWS HOW SETEROIDS CAN FUEL HOME RUNS"
Steroids can help batters hit 50 percent more home runs by boosting their muscle mass by just 10 percent, a U.S. physicist said on Thursday.
Calculations show that, by putting on 10 percent more muscle mass, a batter can swing about 5 percent faster, increasing the ball's speed by 4 percent as it leaves the bat.
Depending on the ball's trajectory, this added speed could take it into home run territory 50 percent more often, said Roger Tobin of Tufts University in Boston.
"A 4 percent increase in ball speed, which can reasonably be expected from steroid use, can increase home run production by anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent," said Tobin, whose study will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Physics."
Enough "proof" for you?
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dr. who?
It is an abomination that a piece of filth like Bonds could hold onto this record even if he gets 30 yrs.
As for the morons who try to diminish the import by asserting baseball is "just entertainment" tell that to the family of coach Mike Coolbaugh - who was killed after being hit with a foul bal.
Tell his family what he was partaking of was "just silly entertainment".,
my oh my oh my oh my. where to even start (assuming this isn't a troll).
if baseball isn't "just entertainment," then what is it? does it manufacture things? does it provide a necessary service? does it cure disease? does it resolve legal disputes? i'm curious what you think baseball, and every other professional sport, is? and along those lines, what is it about baseball and professional sports that make them so "important?" and i like sports ... i like them very much. but i don't think for an instant that they are anything more than a fun diversion from the "import" of life.
also, invoking the name of mike coolbaugh to refute the argument that baseball is just a form of entertainment is just as ridiculous as war hawks invoking the dead soldiers in iraq to refute the argument that the war was a bad idea. nobody is saying mike coolbaugh's death wasn't tragic. it most certainly was. but let's not pretend that he was doing something more important than coaching a team, the sole purpose of which is entertainment. why must people like you always try to make death more honorable than it is? all of us are going to die, and very few of us will die in the midst of doing something honorable. is that such a tough pill to swallow?
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The sanctimony of the Barry-haters is killing me
What in the world makes the home run record so precious? Do you really believe that that record in particular is an objective measure of anything? Do you think that somehow without the steroids, the record would actually offer a meaningful comparison between Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Mays and so on down the line? It's a nice thought, but it is ultimately nonsense.
OK, so Bonds derived some benefit from the steroids. But so did many of the other players, including pitchers. So unless you really believe that only a small minority was 'roiding, in which case there's a bridge near my office I'd like to sell you, why single him out? Anyway, I don't doubt that some of the home runs were 'roid-fueled. But how many? Can you come up with a precise figure? And once you've done that, can you adjust for ballparks too? And as Wes loves to point out, you then have to go back in your time machine and adjust for the fact that Ruth did not face all of the best pitchers of his era. And now that you've done that, could you please adjust Aaron's numbers for the greenies? Since you love the sainted Hank so much, we'll let you give him a few extra for the fact that some of his prime years were played in the era of the higher pitching mound, but then you'll have to take some back for 1969 and beyond when the pitchers were getting creamed while adjusting to the lower mound. But wait, there's more. You then have to adjust for the relative quality of the opposition in each era. How many home runs did Barry lose at the wall to faster outfielders with bigger gloves? And what about technology? When did players figure out that lighter bats translated into better bat speed and more homers? Oooops, better give some back to the Bambino because he was too stupid to realize that that huge bat he was swinging was hurting his numbers.
I could go on.
The point is, there is this persistent myth that baseball statistics are an objective measure that can be used to make meaningful comparisons between players of all eras. They aren't. Bonds' stats are a perfect reflection of his value relative to the players in the same era in which he played (or perhaps plays if all goes well for him). And by that measure he is a great, great player. Period. You can erase his records, you can stamp an asterisk on his ball, you can call him names until all the spittle has left your mouth and settled on your chin, but you can't change the fact that he is/was one great player. And heaven help me I actually agree with Wes: he was better before the roids, and not because he was pure, but because he was the best all-around player in the game. But to base your hatred of Barry on some mythical notion of the purity of the game is, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit. The game was never pure except in your imagination. Time to grow up.
Does that mean that we should just avert our eyes and pretend nothing is happening? Of course not. There are two very good arguments for keeping steroids out of baseball and other sports. First of all they are illegal. Second, to safeguard the health of the athletes. Neither of these arguments has any bearing on Bonds' achievements on the field, however, unless you actually believe that everyone in America who has ever assumed an illegal substance should lose their job, no questions asked. If you do believe that, well, good luck with that... especially when you are on the unemployment line with everyone else for that hit you took ten years ago.
But then it shouldn't be surprising. If there are two things that this country loves, they are the myth of the good old days, and getting all sanctimonious about stuff.