868 Sadaharu Oh Japan Leagues |
800 Josh Gibson Negro Leagues |
Posted on 09/17/2004 8:22:09 PM PDT by rawhide
SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds hit his 700th home run Friday night, toppling another milestone and edging closer to Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in his quest to become the greatest slugger in baseball history.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsline.com ...
All sports records today are moot because they`re all set by steroid junkies. Mark McGuire for one should be banned for life and Maris` record re-instated. What a bunch of crap that was. One year the guy is skinny as hell, the next year he has the face of a pizza and looks like Arnold Schwarzenger, then he has the gall to shake hands in the stands with the Maris family. Freggin` drugged up phony moron. He must be related to Kerry.
What happened about the guy that bought a whole section of seats for 25 grand hoping to get it?
Indeed. The goal of the batter is to advance the runner not to be a glory hound.
You are so right-- the MLB needs to drop all power records after 1990 to regain credibility. Not that they care as long as revenues are up in major markets.
good point.
did that schmuck who bought $25k worth of seats catch the ball.
Let's see:
Ruth:
Dead ball era
Bigger Parks
Fewer teams means better pitching
Baseball being dominant sport means best athletes become pitchers
154 game season vs. 162 game season
Drugs of choice--hot dogs and beer
Aaron:
Some expansion
Ball no longer dead
162 game season
Played a lot longer
Mostly modern, smaller ball parks
Drugs of choice: Steak and Potatoes
HOWEVER: did play in a "pitching era"
Bonds:
Juiced up Chicom made balls (I guess the Haitians charged too much)
Home run friendly parks (Atlanta, Denver)
Same 162 Game Season
Gross expansion (Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Devil Rays, etc.) waters down talent
Baseball vies with basketball for being the distant #2 sport. Although baseball players get hurt less and get paid more, many talented athletes go to basketball or football.
The incredible shrinking strike zone
Drugs of choice: I could not begin to pronounce them!
ON THE OTHER HAND:
Some fine ball players are coming in from around the world who would not have been available in the other eras.
Also note: black pitchers weren't in the game during Ruth's era. A lot of excellent athletes never got to face him.
Advantage: Ruth (Some of us wonder what would have happened with Ted Williams if he did not go to war twice)
Not to mention juiced up balls. When Ruth was hitting 40-50 homers a year, there were whole teams that didn't hit that many. Hank Aaron never hit 50 homers in a season.
Now everybody and his brother hits 40-50 dingers. It's ridiculous!
Did you say this about Mark McGwire?
I doubt it, and we all know why.
Bonds was a 5 tool player on the way to the HOF before the late career surge.
The media hate him because he's mean to them. Why do you?
Couldn't have happened to a bigger prick.
I was wondering the same thing. Wrong stadium, I think.
Babe is still considered one of the best MLB pitchers of all time. Babe has one of the highest batting averages of all time. One of the best hitting percentages. Babe did everything. In fact, Babe was drunk and overweight as he hit all 714 of his HRs. PS Babe was also an actor and a singer.
Why are we having this conversation?
The guy, who bought all those tickets, bought them for next weekend's game in LA. The game tonight was played in SF.
I lived on the same street as Barry when we were kids. It's our fault that he became so arrogant. When other kids in the neighborhood would pull an attitude, someone would key up on him and pick a fight. It was just a part of growing up. But no one did that to Barry because we were afraid of his Dad, Bobby Bonds. After all, he swung a bat for a living. You guys have no idea how strange it is to see that kid you grew up with who was so arrogant, to see his face on major magazines, TV, everywhere. It's the weirdest feeling. But it is kind of interesting to see it all happening.
| 868 Sadaharu Oh Japan Leagues |
800 Josh Gibson Negro Leagues |
Good point. My only theory is that Bonds' steroids are so beyond what can be currently tested, that's he's still been able to stay on them.
Second - he hit 49 HRs in his rookie season.
Third - he had a smaller body before because he had been a pitcher, then later after he no longer pitched he started weight training.
Forth - the atmosphere in STL was totally different- and I don't mean the air either. The fans were a large part of it. I went to several games in 98, including the game he hit #1 -grand slam- and #70. The stadium was literally vibrating with excitement.
Fifth - a lot of people have acne as adults and take LEGAL supplements. I know I take a bunch of them myself.
Ruth only played about 15% of his games in the Dead Ball Era, so it's misleading to say he was a dead ball player. Bigger parks may have cost him some home runs, but also would have added several points to his batting average: as with all things, there are positives and negatives.
The idea that because there were fewer teams there was better pitching is dubious; the American population was a lot smaller in Ruth's era, and major league talent was further constricted to only white players. With the evaporation of the color line, and the huge influx of foreigners in today's game, I don't think today's pitching is any inferior to what we had in the 1920s. If anything, it's probably better.
The evidence for Ruth's primacy is not in the claim that he played in a tougher environment --- he probably did not --- but in just the raw numbers. Simply compare Ruth's percentage stats to those of his contemporaries, and do the same for the other members of the 700 club. No change in the quality of competition, pro or con, could possibly make up for that differential in slugging percentage.
Batting Avg: Ruth 20% better than league, Bonds 13%, Aaron 17%.
On-base pct: Ruth 34%, Bonds 31%, Aaron 14%.
Slugging avg: Ruth 73%, Bonds 48%, Aaron 41%.
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