Barry Bonds. Asterisk?
Barry Bonds is the home run king. Man are people pissed at this reality. All this anger, all this vitriol directed at the "evil" Barry Bonds. He represents everything that is wrong about professional athletes. He's a cheater. He's a jerk. He's really, really mean. And I think he hates kittens too. Not sure. He's not an All-American type of guy.
Look, it's obvious that he did steroids. I would be incredibly surprised if somehow, some way it's able to be proved that the guy hasn't been juicing for years and still is. He was a Hall of Famer before he ever started juicin'. Or, as Gary Sheffield said, "Steroids is something, you stick in your butt". Great interview by the way.
My only issue with all of this is how the media and baseball fans in general go after him and just can't bring themselves to talk about anyone else. Maybe, just maybe, this is only all because Bonds has made this run to to the top of the home run list. I just don't like the hypocrisy of the media. They have made it a habit to, "look the other way" when other players are bad guys, jerks or cheating. The 1993 Phillies' is yet another example of this practice. Take this paragraph from a Philadelphia newspaper on Lenny Dykstra (Who I was a fan of) when asked about how he put on the 30 pounds of muscle over the winter:
Dykstra was the one who opened the door into steroid speculation with jokes about the "real good vitamins" he was taking to add 30 pounds of muscle in the early '90s. Everyone had a wink-wink, nudge-nudge relationship with Dykstra. Stories about him and his goofy behavior are legend around the Phillies.
Dykstra's trainer was constantly hanging out with and training with "half the guys on that team" and yet no one reported this. This information went by the wayside. Just some innocent reporters who didn't follow a lead, right? The media for years did not like Mark McGuire because he was a brooding, jerk ('Roid rage perhaps?) but never told the public of this. You have to ask yourself why. They seem to be so anxious to talk about how much of a jerk Bonds is. And this is not new news. This has been reported on for years. Bonds just happened to be the best player in baseball for years (before the allegatons of steroids). When you add that fact, it makes the reporting of his personality even more rare. McGuire was just the best home run hitter on his team and reporters didn't want to report on it. Can you imagine if Bonds would have said he gained 30 pounds of muscle because of his, "really good vitamins"?
The hypocrisy of this, to me, is just disgusting. In a sport littered with cheaters, Bonds, and subsequently steroids, gets nothing but hate. Spit balls, scuffed balls, corked bats, stealing signs, vaseline on balls, etc. It's not a short list. Gaylord Perry is in the Hall of Fame and he WROTE A BOOK titled, "Me and the Spitter". Reggie Jackson (another jerk who was widely reported to be a jerk) got thrown out of a game because he went nuts after striking out against Perry when everyone knew he was cheating. His former manager, Gene Mauch, stated, "He should be in the Hall of Fame with a tube of KY Jelly attached to his plaque." Cheating. No other sport can even come close to baseball in that statistical comlumn.
Now all you're going to hear from here on out is, "Hank Aaron was all class", "Babe Ruth was hands down the best player of all-time", "Hank Aaron was the best player I ever saw", etc. Meanwhile, no one was singing the praises of Hank Aaron when he meant so much to so many for so long for much more than just baseball. There will be nary a mention that maybe Ruth should have an asterisk next to his name for playing in a league separate from his. Of course it's not Ruth's fault, but there should be an asterisk next to his name. No question about it. Satchel Paige wasn't allowed to pitch in the Major Leagues until he was 41. He pitched for four full seasons after that and was still a real good pitcher. He wasn't even the best pitcher in the Negro leagues when he was allowed to join and still excelled. Can you imagine what he would have done if would have been allowed to play in the Major's? Or Josh Gibson for that matter?
The bottom line is that there is no question that Bonds cheated. We all knew. The same way we all knew that McGuire was cheating when he did, even though the press and America lived and died on every word that he uttered when chasing Maris. Sosa cheated during that race too for that matter. Brady Anderson clearly cheated when he hit 50 HR's for one season and his neck disappeared from his body. But i still don't understand how people pick and choose who they go after. Bonds was a no-brainer pick for the Hall of Fame before he started juicing and he still is. And if you decide to put an asterisk nest to the records that he's breaking, you should reconsider your logic. There would be a whole lot of players accomplishments that would need to have asterisks next to them for not, "playing the right way". For cheating. A big can of worms would have to opened at that point.
10 comments:
First off, I don't think that Barry did steroids knowingly. He admitted (in leaked Grand Jury testimony) that he did the cream and the clear, substances given to him by his trainer Greg Anderson, who got them from Pete Conte. Anybody who thinks that Bonds did 'roids needs to show me the proof.
And please don't tell me about his head and body getting bigger. Dude, I'm way bigger today than I was when I was 20 (50 pounds to be exact) and I've never juiced. Bring me real proof not specutlation and we'll talk.
As for the media, unfortunately journalistic integrity is not what it used to be. Columnist (and yes my rant is aimed at these idiots)generally write articles that will sell newspapers and get hits on websites. If they didn't they wouldn't have a job. Writting that Barry cheats and that's he not the Greatest Of All Ttime(GOAT) is fashionable, it's the hot topic. Writing a good piece about Barry is not going to get as many hits on espn or sell as many NY Posts as writing an inflamatory article. I'm not going to get mad at the columnist, who along the way forgot what they learned in journalism school and sold their souls to the corportate devil. I just won't read their stuff and make up my own mind.
Is Barry the GOAT? We all have opinions. In my book he's in the top 5 with Mays, Aaron,Williams, Grifey Jr. (that's right I said it, Grifey Jr. What?)
Lou, I think you make some great points about this controversy. I am not a huge baseball expert, but when Roger Maris was going after Ruth's one season home run record, people were up in arms, because Roger broke the record playing a few more games than Ruth. Major League baseball decided to give the record to Roger, without any asterisks, which set a precedent, a necessary one I believe. In a sport obsessed with statistics, baseball would diminish the standard of its records if it allowed any system of asterisks, or in other words half-records, numbers whose quality are shaded by some non-numeral factor. The numbers never tell the complete story, but in statistical analysis, all numbers have to be created equally - even if the world knows they aren't.
That said; the sports media can sometimes have the same tone of a Bill O'reilly or Rush Limbaugh. Like those pundits’ vitriol dislike for politicians and government, some of these sports commentators seem to actually hate athletes. Why because they don’t want to talk? This must make their jobs annoying, and I think dealing with athletes’ egos would be horrid, but I also didn’t pick a job where I would have to interview these guys. I really think some of these guys are angry and envious and haggard and mean-spirited.
Also, speaking of Journalism. Rupert Murdoch, owner of NY Post, Fox News, and a lot of other stuff, now has the Wall Street Journal, and I think he has gone on record saying he hates intelligence.
I agree with you Ed... you have gained a lot of weight in your old age.
But seriously, folks... He's right. At this point there is no proof. So you celebrate the man for his accomplishments and move on.
The fact that this is all being debated is exactly what the media wants. It gives them something to write about, reasons for sports programs to get some angry white baseball historian to argue with Stephen A. Smith, ESPN's token angry black man.
New Home Run Leader Barry Bonds*
*suspected of using steroids**
**involved in feud w/ the media***
***hates kittens****
****is black
I'm not usually one to play the race card quickly, but baseball is one of the the oldest, most historically racist sports in America. And just like most sports, as Lou stated, there is a history of cheating in the league. But although there are some who obviously are racist, its not just because Bonds is black.
I mean, look at the first use of the asterisk (that I know of) with roger maris... I've heard my dad tell me the stories countless times, I saw "61*", that was ridiculous. They turned him into a villain, because he was better than babe ruth. Why? Cause Maris didn't play nice with the media. Hmmm.. neither did Bonds. "we'd rather see Mantle break the record!" or is it "I can't wait for A-Rod to take this title away from that cheater". In the great words of Yogi (who claims half of the things he's credited for he never said) "Its deja-vu all over again".
Drew, I think you hit it right on the head... baseball is obsessed with stats, numbers, and mediocre averages.
You mentioned, with some sarcasm attached of course, he's not an All-American kind of guy...
I think Barry Bonds and his story epitomizes America. Baseball is after all, America's game. He became No. 1 on a list that American Sports Fans hold dear using all the resources at his disposal-his skills, first and foremost, and of course "really good" training techniques. That's American if you ask me.
Throughout America's short history you will see that those folk who make #1 lists have many times used morally questionable means to achieve successful ends. From the fortunes made on the backs of enslaved people to the no-bid contracts won on the back 9 of an exclusive golf club, no place makes cheating as normal a thing to do as America. Even America cheats-where do we get off calling it a World Series for so long if only two countries have been playing in it.
While America is a place of opportunity for all, those who are willing to push a little harder, bend the rules, or sometimes ignore them, too often have an easier time getting to number 1. I think enough players have taken Performance Enhancing Chemicals, both before and after they were banned, that the argument for the most part is moot unless you start from scratch. Make a clear line of what's allowable, cancel Baseball for a season, test everyone, send them to rehab, institute a regular testing program, start again. Nothing else will work to appease any doubts. Otherwise, Bud Selig is just Vince McMahon with a Bachelor's Degree.
I think you have to put Barry into consideration for the GOAT. People forget that this guy was the "hands down" best defensive left fielder in baseball for a little over a decade. It was like the Pirates had two CF'ers with him in leftfield.
As for the cheating part, Ernesto, you're one hundred percent right. Everyone cheats. But people of color can't cheat and get away with it. We're the ones that will get vilified for it. History has shown this to be the case. That Chris Rock bit that he did in his last stand up tour about the hypocrisy of this country hit it right on the head. The Rockefellers were "bootleggers". Just a nice term for drug dealers back in the day. The drug back then was alcohol (which is still responsible for more deaths than "illegal" drugs). They made their millions and are amongst the most powerful people in this country. The gun industry (more rich, white people) makes billions of dollars selling assault weapons to people and their lobbyists make it easy to purchase guns in this country and subsequently kill people. Black rapper SAYS guns in a song, there's a federal inquiry. The hypocrisy is what drives people crazy.
As for there being proof or not: I you're right. There is no certifiable proof that he has been steroids for years. But Ed, yes you've gained weight over the years. But, no offense, no one is left thinking in their mind, "Man. If I could take a pill to gain that body mass. I would. It must be illegal.". Humans just do not put on over 35 pounds of lean muscle mass after the age of 36. It just doesn't happen. I don't think you get that from hitting the weights harder or better. I don't think he just ate a bunch of protein bars to get that body. I, personally, think he did them. But you can't prove it. And I certainly hate the hypocrisy from the owners who knew that players were taking it for years and turned a blind eye to it. But now that one guy did it better than everybody else, they're appalled. Its ludicrous. And I don't mean the rapper.
So, I assume you guys who don't believe Bonds did steroids unless there's proof also feel O.J. Simpson wasn't guilty-after all, there was evidence in that case and it actually worked to create reasonable doubt.
As for GOAT, there are plenty of players right now who our kids will be arguing are the GOAT. Hopefully we'll be around to see them, and more importantly, we may even be entirely proud of them.
I do believe you can put muscle weight after 35. It's not aways lean but I saw Barry's show on ESPN and he wasn't lean. He was big not cut up. That is do-able. Work out 7 days a week like Barry does and see if your body won't change?
And you guys who think Barry cheated, what on what are you basing your opinions? I don't think Barry's innocent, but I don't KNOW that he's gulity. I'm gonna wait for facts then forumlate an opinion. Was OJ guilty? We'll never know cause the DA did such a lousy job.
I heard on a talk radio show recently that the "performance enhancing drugs" were not even tabbed as illigal until long after everything went down. You can't commit adultry unless you are married. If the rule dont exist how can you break it?
Bonds will be remebered as a great who set the new standard fot the MLB. I have known his name for as long as i can remeber, and I dont even like baseball.
Those of you who attribute this whole thing to the media going after people they dont like you are prob right. maybe its skin, maybe its attitude, its probably a combination, but in 20 years people will only remeber the asteric when they hear about the next "cheater", other then that this will all be history!
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