Posted on 08/06/2007 10:19:31 AM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
NEW YORK Beyond his alleged steroid use, Barry Bonds is unquestionably guilty of the use of something that confers extraordinarily unfair mechanical advantage: the “armor” that he wears on his right elbow. Amid the press frenzy over Bonds’ unnatural bulk, the true role of the object on his right arm has simply gone unnoticed.
This is unfortunate, because by my estimate, Bonds’ front arm “armor” has contributed no fewer than 75 to 100 home runs to his already steroid-questionable total.
Bonds tied Henry Aaron’s home run record of 755 on Saturday night and will go for the new standard this week back at home in San Francisco. As a student of baseball – and currently a mechanics consultant to a major league baseball team -- I believe I have insight into the Bonds "achievement." I have studied his swing countless times on video and examined the mechanical gear closely through photographs.
For years, sportswriters remarked that his massive "protective" gear – unequaled in all of baseball -- permits Bonds to lean over the plate without fear of being hit by a pitch. Thus situated, Bonds can handle the outside pitch (where most pitchers live) unusually well. This is unfair advantage enough but no longer controversial. However, it is only one of at least seven unfair advantages conferred by the apparatus.
The other six:
1) The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke.
(Excerpt) Read more at editorandpublisher.com ...
can I wear a swing fixer in my golf game?
“And I can still name the starting eight for each year of the Big Red Machine of the 70’s.”
Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Lee May, Tommy Helms, Woody Woodward, Bernie Carbo ....
I was a Big Red Machine fan also, haven’t watched a baseball game since the early 80’s either. A pity that America’s sport has become what it has become!
Basebore...who cares? I quit caring as a kid when they went on strike in the 70s. I have no idea who even wins the series and really don’t care.
Yep, whats telling is people like you and I did in fact ‘care’ once upon a time.
I still say the Pete Rose ‘scandal’ wasn’t gambling, it was Balco and steroids.
Just like Babe Ruth, he did it with beer and hot dogs!
I think it was Drysdale who said, when calling to walk a batter intentionally - he'd rather hit him on the first pitch and save three useless pitches. :-)
Didnt he go on to sell charcoal?
Lets make this keen observation...around 1967/1968...you suddenly saw the American really cool down and you could see that pitching talent was ultra rich...so the adding of more teams to both leagues was forthcoming. As you look around today...the pitching talent in either league really isn’t that great and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to see four teams dismissed...but the owners won’t do that.
I would personally like to see both leagues drift back to 10 teams each. You’ve got various markets that won’t pay to have a real team in town...and various wanna-be 4-star players who can’t play at a 4-star level after age 30. You are paying some guys over $5 million a year...who will never hit over .250 or hit 20 home runs or win more than 12 games...which doesn’t make any sense.
Oh, get real.
If Barry Bonds had not used his mechanical aids and steroids and gotten, maybe, 600 homers over his career, he would still be a great player and headed for the Hall of Fame. The problem is that the artificial aids, both pharmacological and mechanical, have added to his success, which renders his tying or Aaron's record moot.
There is no way to know how many home runs Bonds would have hit unaided, but it doesn't make much sense to keep track of how many he has hit with all the assistance he has had. I can go out into my garage and put together a potato gun that can lob a baseball out of the park. Watching the ball fly is not the point. The point is what a man can do.
Bonds is doing more than he could as a man. Watching him bat is about as interesting as watching somebody fire a potato gun.
Anyway, I remind all Freepers that Barry Bonds hasn't failed a drug test. Also, Babe Ruth played in an age with a lot of sucky pitchers who had no modern technique. Babe Ruth at the peak of his career would today be a hopeless fatass who couldn't even make the cut for concession stand operator for the Bowie Baysox AA minor league team.
Old records like Ruth's are only the benchmarks of their time and needn't be thought of as the modern standard -- Much like how I don't see anyone breaking NASCAR legend Richard Petty's record of 200-some career wins. Today's NASCAR is lots more competitive than it was in Petty's time.
In my best Elvis impersonation, I “find her to be a might handsome woman”
‘Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Lee May, Tommy Helms, Woody Woodward, Bernie Carbo ....’
Followed by Bench, Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, Rose, Foster, Geronimo, and Griffey Senior.
Those were fun teams to watch.
And Hal King as the pinch hitter.
Ha!
I bet most of those 4,000 had free tickets to get in as well.
One of the troubles with baseball is that the season is way too long. That leads to almost half of a season of meaningless games. By the time two teams have played each other for 3 series, everyone knows who the better team is.
If Babe Ruth would have played in as many games as they play now, no one would've ever caught him.
“permits Bonds to lean over the plate without fear of being hit by a pitch”
What about a 100mph fastball to any other part of the body?
This story is utter crap. No mention is made of Bond’s elbow surgery to remove bone spurs.
Look how small that elbow pad is.
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The other six:
1) The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke.
2) The apparatus locks at the elbow when the lead arm is fully elongated because of a small flap at the top of the bottom section that fits into a groove in the bottom of the top section. The locked arm forms a rigid front arm fulcrum that allows extraordinary, maximally efficient explosion of the levers of Bonds' wrists. Bonds hands are quicker than those of average hitters because of his mechanical "assistant."
3) When Bonds swings, the weight of the apparatus helps to seal his inner upper arm to his torso at impact. Thus "connected," he automatically hits the ball with the weight of his entire body - not just his arms - as average hitters ("extending") tend to do.
4) Bonds has performed less well in Home Run Derbies than one might expect because he has no excuse to wear a "protector" facing a batting practice pitcher. As he tires, his front arm elbow tends to lift and he swings under the ball, producing towering pop flies or topspin liners that stay in the park. When the apparatus is worn, its weight keeps his elbow down and he drives the ball with backspin.
5) Bonds enjoys quicker access to the inside pitch than average hitters because his "assistant" - counter-intuitively - allows him to turn more rapidly. Everyone understands that skaters accelerate their spins by pulling their arms into their torsos, closer to their axes of rotation. When Bonds is confronted with an inside pitch, he spins like a skater because his upper front arm is "assistant"-sealed tightly against the side of his chest.
6) At impact, Bonds has additional mass (the weight of his "assistant") not available to the average hitter. The combined weight of "assistant" and bat is probably equal to the weight of the lumber wielded by Babe Ruth but with more manageable weight distribution.
I was 13 in 1972 living in Erlanger, Kentucky and Bernie Carbo lived in an apartment about 2 blocks away. Used to go ring his doorbell in the off season with a bunch of other guys and he’d come out and play football with us. Great guy and the kind of person that boys idolize as heroes back then. Those were the days!
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