Barry Bonds hits #700 home run

CBS Sportsline ^ | 09-17-04 | AP

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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.

[SpringheelJack]

Babe was certainly NOT one of the best pitchers of all time. He won fewer than a hundred games, and was already in decline as a pitcher by the time he switched to the outfield.

[NYCVirago]

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.

McGwire was always a big guy who hit a lot of home runs. And the main reason he didn't break the record earlier was because of injuries.

[NYCVirago]

did that schmuck who bought $25k worth of seats catch the ball.

Nope. His tix aren't until next weekend. So he's out of luck.

[sully777]

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Ruth_Babe.htm

[PaleoPal]

The difference to you is that McGwire is white and kinda' dumb.

And back in the 60's, all the players were taking "greenies" (amphetamines) which were a Hell of a lot worse than steroids.

The revisionist crap we hear hear about Babe Ruth being a drunk is way overblown. But, Bonds is still a choirboy next to him.

The only things tainting Bonds' records are the shrunken strike zone and horrific socialist new stadiums which have destroyed the integrity of baseball stats since 1993.

Shouldn't you old crabs be celebrating Tiger Woods' slump, rather than trying to rain on Barry Bonds unbelieveable achievements?

[SpringheelJack]

Not even the site you linked to is willing to make the claim that Ruth was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Do you know who are the most statistically similar pitchers to Ruth? Carl Lundgren, Jake Weimer, and Harry Coveleski. All three very good pitchers. Not one of them was one of the greats.

[sittnick]

The difference to you is that McGwire is white and kinda' dumb. When you make assumptions like that, you act like a Democrat. I said no such thing. This former MLB fan hasn't followed baseball closely since the last expansion and the extra wild card teams. I have never seen McGwire bat. I did not know about players taking amphetamines. I doubt that Hank Aaron took them. Frankly, I doubt Koufax or Drysdale took them (As a Dodger fan, those are the players from that era I would consider first). And although I really don't follow golf at all, I root for Tiger Woods, because I think he is a great talent, and I like the idea of great talent being maximized. Before you start throwing terms around like "white", you ought to be sure about the background of the person you are addressing the remark to. You might get a surprise or two. We agree about the strike zones and socialist stadiums. They are part of the reason I no longer follow the sport. I do root against the Yankees if asked, however.

[PaleoPal]

Sorry. Took a Bonds basher at random and you were the wrong one. I LOVE your tag line! Wish everyone on FR understood it. I guess we're old.

Jeez, I don't even want to THINK about what they pumped into Koufax! Bless him, he told 'em to stuff it. I never understood how he could walk away from the glory until I reached my 40s and realized that being an invalid in constant pain might not be worth it.

My hero, Johnny Unitas, took a different path. He won another Super Bowl and wound up crippled and died young. Was it worth it?

I'm way off topic ....

[starfish923]

Big deal is right.

He used steroids.
I can't ever think of tennis player Navratilova as so great. She cheated by using steroids. That made her stronger than all the other women on tour.

[FlJoePa]

"Nothing like rabbit baseballs, aluminum bats, short fences, long seasons, etc. to pile up home runs in a season."

Umm, MLB doesn't allow aluminum bats, and Bonds plays in one of the hardest parks in MLB (2nd to maybe only FL) for a left handed batter to hit HR's.

If he played in Yankee Stadium, he might hit 100 HR's/year.

[Severa]

*dons flame suit*

As a casual baseball watcher, I usually stay out of the arguments. That said, I was happy to hear Bonds got his 700th, but sad that his dad wasn't here to see it. Barry always spoke very highly of his dad in all the interviews I've seen.

I also saw in their last series vs the Diamondbacks that Barry had a lot of nice things to say about Randy Johnson (who seriously scares me. 42 yr old lefty that pitches 95mph fastballs? geez...)

[sully777]

"Do you know who are the most statistically similar pitchers to Ruth? Carl Lundgren, Jake Weimer, and Harry Coveleski. All three very good pitchers. Not one of them was one of the greats."

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I linked to the Hall of Fame site. The link provided the fact that Ruth possesses a World Series record for pitching. You agree that three pitchers that are similar to Ruth's stats are "very good" but not one of the greats.

I agree with all of your points. But as I originally posted, Ruth was also the Home Run king, one of the greatest batters, his eyes were so great that he had a great lifetime "Walks" record. Shoot, he even has 123 lifetime stolen bases (consider his eating/drinking habits), but when you consider that he played outfield (demanding yeomans job) you know he had to possess some speed and range.

He was one of the greatest all around players of all time. By your own accounting, he was a very good pitcher. He holds/held records for half a century in various fields, without the HR record included. The guy was the best all around player for all time IMO.

Bonds pales in comparison. Now if Bonds threw like Andy Pettite (not the best but very good) and hit like Rod Carew and ran the outfield like the old Ricky Henderson and was always a base stealing threat, and was a golden glove type fielder and drank his teammates under the table and never worked out and ate like pig and had coached... see my point?

Very few people are like Babe Ruth. I dare say the only athelete that comes close is Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretsky.

[dfwgator]

Babe Ruth would have hit a lot more home runs if only he cut down on the smoking, the drinking and the sex, especially between innings.

[Not A Snowbird]

I'm happy for baseball that he did it. As for Bonds, I've got no time for someone with his sucky attitude, no matter how many home runs he hits.