Posted on 08/07/2007 9:10:49 PM PDT by Nonstatist
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Barry Bonds became the most prolific home-run hitter in Major League Baseball history Tuesday night, slugging his 756th in front of more than 43,052 hometown fans to pass Henry Aaron. Bonds' record-setting homer came in the fourth inning to give the Giants a 5-4 lead over the Washington Nationals. Bonds hit a 3-2 pitch from Washington's Mike Bacsik deep to center field. The game was delayed by a standing ovation for Bonds, whose late father Bobby was a Giants player, coach and front-office employee.... Bonds also holds the season record for home runs with 73 in 2001.
The 43-year-old Bonds, who has spent 21 years in the majors, had tied Aaron at 755 on Saturday in the Giants' 3-2 loss in San Diego. Aaron's record had stood since 1976, when he retired after 22 years in the majors.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I want to know if it was worth having his testicles shrivel up to the size of peanuts?
There were no radar guns back then to measure how fast it was. I suppose you could use film and see how many frames it took to travel the distance.
I had a highschool friend who could throw 90 mph+. No drugs.
Could somebody poke Barry’s head with a pin to see if air leaks out?
>>>The only relevant argument here is that Mr. Aaron’s accomplishments are his own, and unaided, whereas Mr. Bonds’ ‘’accomplishments’’ aren’t.<<<
Oh, really? Why do you assume that? Perhaps you haven’t read Mr. Aaron’s autobiography where he talks about using amphetamines. It was pretty common back then, actually.
See Tom House:
I actually think that the game is cleaner today than when I was playing,’’ says former major league pitcher Tom House, who pitched in the 1970s and was later Nolan Ryan’s pitching coach. House says that he used steroids because “In my case, I was doing everything I could just to survive....Every generation of players — the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s on up — everybody was looking for a way to get the most out of their bodies, and they took whatever they possibly could. It was almost expected.”
Aaron makes a nice cardboard cutout hero. But he wasn’t perfect.
Bonds is a big-time cheat. They should deny him entrance to the hall of fame, like they did Pete whatshisname.
OR...Maybe he is a better man than you or at the least a better baseball player. I used to be thinner and weaker in my younger days but I matured, put on some beef and am stronger now. (and I don’t take any kind of drugs) And, the way you talk Barry is still taking them, but you can’t possibly know that. With all the flak I doubt that he is.(and yet he is still hitting them over the fence)
The only way to compare players is their dominance vs. their peers.
HR Champs
Ruth 12 out of 14 years
Bonds 2 out of 22 years
Slg Pct.
Ruth 13yrs in a row
Bonds 7X in 22 yrs.
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 all-time HR champ at 25
Ruth hit more hrs. than EVERY TEAM in the American League his first year as a hitter.
Ruth Pitching
94w 46 L
2.28era
World Series 2-0 0.87 era
Set record of 29 consecutive scoreless inning pitched in WS; stood for 45 years.
Bonds pitching - ooopppsss
WORLD SERIES RINGS
Ruth 7
Bonds 0
>>>Are you saying Hank was a junkie? Cool! I love the hell out of revisionist history! History the way WE want it to be. That’s what I always say.<<<
It’s funny you mention that. We do like to idealize men like Aaron. And because he was a quiet sort and not boastful (very much unlike Bonds), it’s easy to do that with him.
But read Aaron’s autobiography. He talks openly about his amphetamine use. It was rampant in that time period. They were called “greenies.” History may want Aaron to be the crystalized mark of purity, but “sports science” exists for a reason—namley that athletes want to better themselves and others will pay for it to happen.
Willie Mays, for instance, used amphetamines, as well.
Move over Babe, here comes Henry
And he’s swinging mean
Move over Babe, Hank’s hit another
He’ll hit that 714
There’s a man from Alabam
Hammerin’ Henry is his name
He’s on the Braves home run express
Doing what he does the best
etc.
(Bill Slayback novelty song heard on Baseball’s
Greatest Hits; written by Ernie Harwell IIRC)
As a lifelong Giants fan, I feel exactly the same way.
There is little doubt in my mind that he took and abused steroids. It wouldn't bother me a whit if he was suspended for it, if he was proven to have cheated (the book, based on grand jury testimony illegally leaked by a BALCO lawyer, ISN'T proof). But the pigpile on Bonds has been going on for years before the allegations because of his personality, which apparently isn't sportswriter-friendly.
If you have ever used the term "scapegoat" but didn't know exactly what it meant, Bonds is the ultimate definition of a scapegoat. Everyone who feels cheated and shamed by the intrusion of steroids into baseball sees Bonds as the representation of it, and want to pile all of it on his shoulders and send him off never to return. Bonds refuses to be sent off, matching every underhanded tactic of MLB and the Feds with his own (ask Greg Anderson).
What disgusts me most of all is the way Bud Selig talks out of both sides of his trap, saying that he's not prejudging Bonds, but speaking his name as little as possible, even to direct questions. He put on a disgraceful display in San Diego. Even Padres fans who were booing Bonds cheered when he hit #755. Selig didn't move out of his seat until virtually forced to by the fans surrounding him, and even then he stuck his hands in his pockets. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was Ebenezer Scrooge. He's the freaking commissioner and he didn't even act like he was a fan.
Of course, Selig the coward didn't show up in AT&T Park tonight, probably aware he would get the treatment Bonds gets everywhere else. Hank Aaron at least created a video message played after the homer was hit, something he didn't have to do. However Hank really feels, that was classy. Selig, on the other hand, issued a throwaway statement saying that he called Bonds to congratulate him, and then made a veiled reference to the Mitchell so-called investigation. What a PRICK.
Selig -- the man who in 1994 cancelled a season and thus the World Series for the first time since it was first played -- seems to sense that if he doesn't squash Bonds like a bug, it will effect history's judgment of him as Commissioner. But Selig wasn't getting out in front of performance-enhancing drugs when it was putting money in his wallet. Now that it might be taking some money out, he's going after Bonds with a vengeance. I can take or leave Bonds, but I would hate to see Selig coming out on top.
Ole Hammering Hank and his amphetamines...
I say congrats to Barry. No proof that he has ever tested positive intentionally taking a needle or pills that I know of...just some sports cream that came up once.
Hitting a home run is hard. Hitting 756 is damn near impossible. Hats off to the man on this incredible night.
“He still cheated, and steroids were banned by MLB”
You are completely wrong.
Before 2002, Major League Baseball had no official policy on steroid use among players. As part of a collective bargaining agreement, players and owners agree to hold survey testing in 2003. If more than 5% of results from the anonymous tests are positive, formal testing and penalties will be put into place the next year.
Barry Bonds played by the rules of the day. Even at 43 he is still a feared hitter, arguably the greatest of all time.
*
This is great news for baseball*!
I love gymnastics. Who is your daughter? I would love to root for her!
“Steroids, Hmmmmmmmmmmm”
Even on the infinitesimal possibility that Bonds isn't a 'roid head, there's plenty of other reasons to dislike that POS.
Sometime after Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record, he was looking at a house in an all white neighborhood in Metro Atlanta. Unfortunately, many in the neighborhood made it known they did not want him there.
He put up with alot before and after he broke the Babe’s record. He is a class act and endured more than Bonds thinks he has to endure.
As an aside, I was in the stadium when they announced the death of his brother, Tommy. It was a very sad moment.I remember him as being another class act.
Bonds might have the number, but he doesn’t have the character.
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