Posted on 05/28/2006 6:01:06 PM PDT by Pokey78
Barry Bonds was in Milwaukee recently and the commissioner of baseball wouldn’t make the 10-minute drive from his house to watch him. So it follows that Bud Selig wasn’t in when Bonds moved past Babe Ruth on the home run list.
Nor were any of Ruth’s children. Nor any high-level officials. Nor anybody whose presence screamed, “I’m important, so I’m here.”
Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run Sunday. But every overblown ESPN news break-in couldn’t drown out the sad reality of the moment. It was as awkward as it was historical. Some wanted to watch. Most wanted to cover their eyes.
This wasn’t a player punctuating greatness. This was the most vilified sports star we’ve ever seen affirming his place among the five darkest moments in baseball history.
Count them. Like plagues:
1. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox are banned for conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series.
2. Pete Rose, the game’s greatest hitter, agrees to a lifetime ban for betting — on baseball.
3. Baseball cancels the 1994 World Series, not because of natural disaster but rather mutant labor negotiators.
4. Congress holds steroid hearings. Among the Murderers Row giving testimony: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco — who ironically turns out to be baseball’s shining light.
5. Bonds passes the great Ruth and closes in on the great Hank Aaron. But he’s the poster child of the steroid era, and his baggage and personality have led him to become the sport’s greatest pox instead of ambassador.
This is a sport that embraces its heroes and statistical achievements. Numbers are dipped in gold. 56. 61. .400. 714. 755.
Now here comes a man who puts up incredible numbers and few outside of San Francisco want to celebrate. Selig said weeks ago he wouldn’t show up for 715. Hold the pomp, shelve the circumstance. Selig would close his eyes and pretend it didn’t happen. There’s an old country-western tune that applies here: “If the phone don’t ring, you know it’s me.”
The NFL had a vested interest in helping reshape Ray Lewis’ image after his Atlanta murder trial. The NBA needed Kobe Bryant to be a smiling pitchman again after rape charges were dropped.
Baseball isn’t moving to resuscitate Bonds. His image couldn’t be saved by “House.” He is impossible to like. A fan catches a home run ball. Bonds refuses a request to sign the ball but asks the fan to sign a release so he could use his likeness on his TV show. This is the sport’s ambassador?
Frogs, locusts, diseased cattle.
Gambling, strikes, steroids.
It’s all relative.
Embarrassment: The “Black” Sox scandal is still debated 87 years later. It has kept “Shoeless” Joe Jackson out of the Hall of Fame. Rose was never accused of throwing a game. He just gutted its integrity by betting and lying about it. The all-time hits leader was thrown out and isn’t in the Hall.
Embarrassment: Fans have learned to hate two words: collective bargaining. But nothing in the long, inglorious history of labor woes equals the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. Owners and players couldn’t figure out how to divide millions.
Embarrassment: Steroids have tainted this entire era of players. Bonds just happens to be the leader in the pharmacy. For baseball to strip him or any player of their statistics is nonsensical. What of the steroid-using pitchers Bonds homered off of? Do two druggies cancel each other out? How to determine which homers were drug-aided and which weren’t? It’s a futile exercise. But we know what steroids have done to the record book. Not players. Steroids.
Bonds says he doesn’t care what people say or think. If that were true, he wouldn’t be trying to reshape his image on TV. ESPN was only too happy to sell itself out, giving Bonds a time slot and a blank script for a weekly 30-minute soliloquy called, “Bonds on Bonds.”
My wife and I watched the other night. There was tape of Philadelphia fans booing Bonds as he stepped to the plate.
“Why are they booing him?” my wife asked. “There’s steroids in hot dogs and Babe Ruth ate those.”
My wife. Funny girl.
Bonds juiced because he was jealous. Relying on interviews, documents and grand jury testimony in the book, “Game of Shadows,” authors alleged that Bonds decided to turn to muscle drugs after witnessing the attention paid to the McGwire-Sosa home run chase in 1998.
Follow the growth. Bonds averaged 31.8 home runs from 1986 to 1999. He averaged 51.6 from 2000 to 2004, including 73 in 2001. He hit one home run every 16 at-bats in his first 14 seasons. He hit one every eight at-bats in his next five.
I know. Good hot dogs.
History views Ruth as a home run hitter. Bonds will be viewed as something far less. A lab creation.
Take it easy. I was being generous. I left out professional wrestling and golf...
Poll them. Would most Americans rather own a fast car - or a baseball mitt?
Bonds may pass Aaron's record, thanks to better hitting through chemistry, but he will never come anywhere close to having the respect and admiration that real fans have for Hammerin Hank. The difference is, Aaron was and is a true gentleman and a credit to the game, while Bonds is a 1st class jerk and no credit to anything. Besides that, Aaron had more talent in one pinky finger than Bonds has in his entire dope-soaked body. Without steroids Bonds would never have gotten into the same room with the record book.
I'm pretty much just reading this thread, but I do have to dispute your claim that Bonds has charged the mound after being HBP. Didn't happen.
When Bonds was finally hit after five WAY inside pitches, Bonds told the pitcher not to do anything to retaliate or get tossed from the game.
I've got my own beefs with Bonds, but let's be factual.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/american/yankee.htm
Ruth's park:
deepest left-center: 500 ft!!(1921-23), 490 ft (1924-36)
center field: 487 ft(1923-36), 461 ft(1937 - post Ruth)
right-center: 429 ft(1923-36)
Bonds has a 400 ft. fence as the furthest point.
Ruth would routinely hit long flyouts that would have home runs by 60 feet today. He easily had 500 flyouts go further than 400 ft. in his career, which would be home runs in Bond's park. Add those 500 to 714= 1214
Perhaps the most astonishing stat is how far Ruth crushed the ball. He hit 235 home runs that went 450 ft. or further. Bonds pre-roids in 15 seasons had just 3. Knowing how far his homeruns went we can assume that of Ruth's 500 doubles and 136 triples, at least 200 of them went 400 ft. Add another 200 = 1414 home runs
Ruth missed his first 5 years, when he was the most dominant left handed pitcher. If he had been hitting, add another 150 HRs = 1564.
Till 1931, if you sliced a homerun down the foul line in fair territory and it later hooked and landed in the bleachers foul, it was called a foul ball. Umpires estimated this cost him at least 100 more. 1664 Home Runs.
Home runs aside, the only way to compare players from different eras is to compare their dominance over their peers.
(see Leaderboards and Awards)
http://baseball-reference.com/r/ruthba01.shtml
http://baseball-reference.com/b/bondsba01.shtml
HR Champs
Ruth 12 out of 14 years
Bonds 2 out of 21 years
Slg Pct.
Ruth 13yrs in a row
bonds 7X
OPS
Ruth 13 yrs. in a row
Bonds 9X in 21 years
RBI
Ruth 6X
Bonds 1X
Runs
Ruth 8 yrs. in a row
Bonds 1X
Total Bases
Ruth 6x
Bonds 1X
Lifetime Avg.
Ruth .342
Bonds .299
Ruth was all-time HR champ at 25, and he hit more hrs. than EVERY TEAM in the American League his first year as a hitter.
By comparison: That's like Bob Gibson quitting pitching after his monster 1968 world series and hitting 300 home runs in 1970.
Ruth Pitching
94w 46 L
2.28era
World Series
2-0 0.87 era
Ruth Set record of 29 consecutive scoreless inning pitched in WS for about 43 years.
Bonds pitching
ooopppsss
WORLD SERIES RINGS (9 trips in 14 yrs)
Ruth 7 rings
Bonds 0
Not really. A player's intentional walks are usually an indication of two things: 1) his offensive talent, and 2) the strength of the hitters behind him.
Item #2 is far more important than some people may realize. Roger Maris, for example, wasn't intentionally walked a single time during the 1961 season in which he broke Babe Ruth's single-season record with 61 home runs -- because Mickey Mantle hit behind him in the lineup.
It's no coincidence that Bonds set a single-season record for walks in 2004 -- a season in which the San Francisco Giants had no other notable offensive talent in their lineup (Bonds' 45 home runs was more than twice as many as anyone else on the team, and he was the only player on the roster with 100+ runs batted in).
Ruth also had the benefit of only day games with better light to see the ball.
In the lights, could Ruth have done the same numbers? Is a good question IMO.
That's a very deceptive statement in that it overlooks a lot of players simply because they started their careers in the middle of a decade. Tony Gwynn (1980s) and Alex Rodriguez (1990s) are two good examples of this.
Right Center is about 420 or so.....
Ironically, all the controversy over Pete Rose's banishment from baseball has overshadowed the fact that he's one of the most overrated players in baseball history. While he'd probably be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in the minds of most voters simply because of his reputation, I think you'd have a hard time making the case that he's even one of the 200 best players of all time.
For the life of me I can't figure out why Bond's home run total is so low this year. Must be an off year (as in off the 'roids).
Undetectable, the cream, the clear
Some injectable, right in my rear
Like a shot of stuff for human growth
Do one cheek, then go and do 'em both
Never before
Have steroids been more
Undetectable in every way
Unconnectible, that's how I'll stay
Look at me, see the incredible
Bulk I've gained but not by edible
Means I gained it from some spreadable goo
Unregrettable, well worth the risk
Record-settable, no asterisk
Chasing Aaron, catching up to Ruth
Couldn't care less if I tell the truth
What matters more
Is home runs galore
Undetectable each time I pee
Random-testable, you won't catch me
As for me, it's incontestable
What this does is so incredible:
Swells my head and shrinks my testicles too
A-Rod's career post-season numbers aren't much different than his regular season numbers. Through 2005, his career batting average was only two points lower in the post-season than in the regular season (.305 vs. .307). Sure, his power numbers are somewhat lower . . . but remember that most players don't put up huge offensive numbers in the post-season, since they are facing very good pitchers for the most part.
The Giants played in Manhattan [accross the river from the Stadium] at the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers left Brooklyn [Ebbetts Field]
I wonder how the league would have fared against Josh Gibson! :-)
Jones has "lost a step" because he's noticeably bulked up over the last couple of years. It's not easy to be a Gold Glove centerfielder and hit 50+ home runs simultaneously.
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