Even these days, I’m sick of “plays of the day” on highlight shows that ignore West Coast games.
finding a better channel usually suited me.
Personally, I say just let all the armchair has beens and never weres both in the media and on this thread take their potshots. Those of us fortunate enough to have watched Bonds over the last 20 + years (including high school) know that whether you like him or not, whether he used illegal substances in the last several years or not, know we've been watching something special. If he was crazy enough to use things that would enhance his performance and possibly hurt him later, he's really only hurt himself. The enhancers don't explain the quick wrists, the pitch selection and the awesome swing. They may have helped him swing a bit harder, and hit the ball a bit farther, but they didn't make him a star. He was already a star before any charges were made, and there was any indication of steroid use.
All the know it alls who think they should control whether he goes into the hall of fame, or has an asterick in the record books are free to make their comments and spew their statistics, but in the end, Barry is still one of the greatest ballplayers fo all time. Get over it!
One reason Aaron never got the credit he deserved is that he was something of an anomaly in the game of baseball. He was the all-time home run king, yet was never much of a "slugger" in the classic sense of the term. He never hit more than 47 home runs in any given season, and won only three home run titles in his 23-year career (compared to Ruth's 12 in only about 16 full seasons), and surpassed Ruth in a methodical, consistent manner of the course of his career. Aaron was basically a line-drive hitter with very strong wrists whose 755 career home runs were primarily a function of the small ballparks in which he played (in Atlanta and Milwaukee).
This is not a knock on Aaron, of course. Despite his career home run title, I think he's one of the most underrated ballplayers of all time. His 755 home runs really overshadow the fact that he was a great all-around hitter. His 3,771 hits are #3 on the all-time list (to put this in perspective, just understand that he has 3,000+ career hits other than the 755 home runs he hit), and his .305 lifetime batting average is actually higher than "all-time great" Pete Rose's.