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Barry Bonds (Juiced Merge)

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Dispatch

Bob Hunter commentary: Chase over, so we can ignore surly slugger

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 3:46 AM
By Bu Bob Hunter


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Woo-hoo! Time to celebrate. Barry Bonds finally did it. He completed his quest for major league baseball's career home run record.
Aw, all right. I'll admit it. My party favors don't say "Congratulations, Barry." They don't say "King Barry" or "Move over, Hank."
My party favors say "Thank God, it's over." They say "Whoopee ... The end!"
Bonds has the record, for what it's worth, and he can go back to being one tiny line of type in the San Francisco Giants' box score. We don't even have to look at it if we don't want to. Unless the Giants are playing the Reds -- now, there's an exciting prospect -- or we're addicted fantasy baseball fans, we can probably avoid checking Giants box scores until he is safely out of our field of vision.

Continued.....
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[QUOTE='BusNative;89849;3]Does anyone else think that Hunter is kind of a dick? Not just for this column, but in general.[/QUOTE]

Yes. But I'm okay with that. Hunter's approach is better than the rest of world trying lick the sweat off Barroid's nuts.
 
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I thought I'd start a little debate.

Why does America hate the home run record holder until 20 years down the line?

When Ruth held it, fans and media hated the home run because it wasn't "real" baseball at the time. When Aaron broke the record, fans and media hated the fact he had 3000 more at bats than Ruth and wasn't a pure slugger not to mention he was African American. Now Barry has it and obviously fans and media hate the fact it's broke because of the roids issue and he's an angry sob.

It seems Amercan's hate the person that holds that record until 20 years after it's been broken. Will Barry be in that same situation (assuming ARod doesn't take it) 20-30 years from now?

The same applies to the single season home run record (see asterick *invented by Roger Maris).
 
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harrydangler;898505; said:
I thought I'd start a little debate.

Why does America hate the home run record holder until 20 years down the line?

When Ruth held it, fans and media hated the home run because it wasn't "real" baseball at the time. When Aaron broke the record, fans and media hated the fact he had 3000 more at bats than Ruth and wasn't a pure slugger not to mention he was African American. Now Barry has it and obviously fans and media hate the fact it's broke because of the roids issue and he's an angry sob.

It seems Amercan's hate the person that holds that record until 20 years after it's been broken. Will Barry be in that same situation (assuming ARod doesn't take it) 20-30 years from now?

Agreeing with some of your points but IMO this is the long and short. The number of at bats, in this case, is immaterial because that's even more of a tribute of longevity and prowess.

Bottom line is that he did it with illegal performance enhancing substances which neither Ruth, OT liquor, and Hammerin Hank had.

Could he have done it without...maybe, but we'll never know. The whole message is that cheating is OK. Only in todays world.
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As far as the better player being Bonds vs. Aaron, it can be argued either way.

I'm relieved that it's over, so he can be more easily ignored until his career is over.

How about this stat for the effects of whatever Barry starting taking a few years ago (sometimes ESPN says something meaningful :biggrin:):

Bonds hit more HR's after the age of 35 than Roger Maris hit in his entire career.
 
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I'm looking at my copy of The Baseball Encyclopedia and it shows Aaron with 755. I see no need to buy another edition. This record (Bonds) is total bull shit. My only sense of satisfaction is that he had to do it while playing a position and not as a DH.

Most people have resigned themselves to the astronomical amounts of money that athletes make and I seldom hear that old cry about salaries ruining baseball/football/basketball but what has gotten lost in the shuffle is that management, owners and commish, have failed to do anything about the steroids issue and I suspect that it's because it makes more economic sense to just let things ride.
 
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harrydangler;898505; said:
I thought I'd start a little debate.

Why does America hate the home run record holder until 20 years down the line?
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I think it has alot to do with heroes. By the time Aaron was approaching the record he was going up against Babe Ruth. Babe Fucking Ruth! THE biggest star in baseball history. The people that remembered the Babe saw him as the greatest and like always it is very hard for a current player to be considered the best when you have that huge shadow from the past.

Now with Bonds passing Aaron it is the same thing. People have grown to love Aaron like the people of Aaron's time loved Babe Ruth. They heard all the stories of the death threats and thinking about the time he played. He became bigger with the passage of time.

It is also the reason Maris was not well liked when he broke the record. He was an unknown, and to make matters worse his more popular teammate was with him for most of the season. When Maris past it, once again it was Babe "freaking" Ruth he was passing.

Now when McGwire passed him it was slightly different in the perception of the fans. Baseball was looking for heroes after the strike, so I look at it as the weird circumstance of the group.

Now when Bonds passed McGwire there was one big problem. There wasn't enough time that passed between the new record and when it was broken. It was almost an afterthought as then people started questioning how everyone started hitting homeruns.

Now looking ahead if ARod breaks Bonds it will be interesting. How many years will have passed? What will become of the steriod situation? It will probable be too soon but people will celebrate it because Bonds will still be hated enough.

But what if... what if ARod doesn't break it and it lasts 30 years and some unnamed slugger that isn't even in the majors today breaks it? I will make a prediction, Bonds will be remembered more fondly than he is today. Bonds' career will be more looked at and his raw numbers will tell people he might be the best baseball player ever. Some people might bring up the steriods situation but it will probable be put into it's proper context. Heck, in 30 years the guy that breaks it might have questions about him too and thus the process keeps going. We love the older player and feel like this "new" guy doesn't deserve the record.

Time is funny like that. We glorify the older players and vilify the newer players. Why? Because they are changing our memories of the game we love and watched.

I for one don't care about the steriods. Was it bad for the game? Yep, but it was just a blip in time. Cuz you still have to have the talent to make it work. While I might not like Barry Bonds but I can respect him for what he is, the best baseball player in our era.
 
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jwinslow;898386; said:
Interesting frontpage graphic on CNNSI
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Not to be outdone, here's what CBS Sportsline has right now:

img10285545.jpg
 
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