The asterisk just doesn't apply (THE 2ND MOST CONTROVERSIAL HOME RUN IN BASEBALL HISTORY)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 8, 2007 | CHRIS DE LUCA

[tlj18]

Is that an autonomous machine?

[JZelle]

Too Funny!

[dfwgator]

I don’t think A-Rod stays with the Yankees.

[Badeye]

There is one big similarity between Aaron and Bonds, neither of them really helped their teams.

Same can be said of Griffey Jr.

[Badeye]

My 18 year old son, who used to love baseball, won’t even watch a game anymore (except for the little league world series). He equates baseball with professional wrestling....

Congratulations. You’ve raised a very astute son. And as we know, that ain’t easy.

Way to go.

[wagglebee]

He equates baseball with professional wrestling....

Yep, if they keep going the way they are, that's what it will be in another decade or so. Baseball will be on pay-per-view with a bunch of steriod junkies and all that will matter is how far you can hit the ball -- and the Selig and Steinbrenner families will own the whole damn thing.

[wagglebee]

I think Steinbrenner will offer him enough money that he never wants to leave.

[wagglebee]

Same can be said of Griffey Jr.

He's certainly NOT the player his father was.

[dfwgator]

I think A-Rod will end up with the Angels.

[Badeye]

Same can be said of Griffey Jr.
He’s certainly NOT the player his father was.

Indeed. Petulent comes to mind when I think of him, and Barry Larkin.

Larkin once looked at me, then his wife and my biz partner and asked ‘Who’s the white guy’....nuff said.

[HawaiianGecko]

All the pissing and moaning about this record is for naught. 756 home runs is still 756 home runs.  To consider these home runs phony necessitates that one must consider all RBIs from Bonds to be phony, which in turn suggests that ML Baseball adjust the outcome of every game that Bonds nailed a home run.  In fact, why only the HRs?  Shouldn't his base hits be taken away also?

To say that Bonds is not the home run king while still accepting the results of this man's slugging is a bit hypocritical.

I like this argument:  The man was still able to hit the ball over the fence even though he was on drugs.

[raybbr]

Ah, the old "Hey, it's unethical but legal" argument. No controlling legal authority. Bill Clinton and friends would be proud.

Who says it's unethical. There were no rules against it. Does that make individualized diets, working out, personal trainers, vitamins, etc. unethical, too?

[melancholy]

just check out how many more at bats bonds had compared to ruth and aaron (and aaron to ruth, for that matter)

I absolutely agree. The total number of home runs devided by the total number of at-bats should decide the all time home run hitter.

[LordBridey]

That's exactly it. The Keith Olbermann-wannabe sportswriters are leading the attacks, while real athletes like Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn, and Dusty Baker are all firmly backing Bonds.

yeah, and Willie Mays for gosh sake.

This is a phenomenal record. Like hitting 38 homeruns a year for twenty years. Just amazing!

And ray is spot on. The media has always disliked Bonds and that is his most appealing feature, that he is not a media whore, and not the programmed, "gosh-shucks" pseudo-humble jock. He is a hitting and stealing machine, the 7 time MVP. Hooray for Bonds.

[pjsbro]

1. Innocent until proven guilty.

2. Even looking at the numbers in the years when there was a very low or even no probability that Bonds was juicing, Bonds produced more HR's per at-bat than Aaron.

If you compare the first 10 years of each of their careers, (when Bonds was skinny and many fans feel he wasn't on the juice) Bonds' HR's per at-bats exceeded Aaron's six out of those ten years.

[wagglebee]

You might be right. I think free agency has done as much to destroy the game of baseball as anything else.

[wagglebee]

Innocent until proven guilty.

That's all well and good, but NOBODY is out there suggesting that he has not used steroids (and that includes Bonds himself).

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Who says it's unethical. There were no rules against it. Does that make individualized diets, working out, personal trainers, vitamins, etc. unethical, too?

I guess for some sort of ethical standard you could look at other sports and sports history. If Bond's accomplishments are weighed against his historical peers then it makes little sense to say he is better than Hank Aaron when Aaron had only the traditional training routs you list.

Further, I think you can make a distinction between natural body-building and the phoniness of steroids. I really think Bond's record should come with an asterisk, and McGwire's, and Sosa's... Baseball has entered the same realm of fakery that you see in professional wrestling.

[Teacher317]

I love how the article just blows past the issue:
"Yes, maybe he cheated, but he got 756 home runs!"

New to baseball, are you? Ever heard of Gaylord Perry? Corked bats? (I laughed out loud when Sosa's shattered and sprayed the contents of my old desk at work onto the field. Norm Cash, from 1961, was also proud of his loaded bat, so it isn't a new idea.) Stealing signs from the catcher? Denny McClain asking Mickey Mantle where to throw the ball to give him a HR to climb above Jimmy Foxx on the all-time HR list? (to 5th at the time, now 13th) Scuffing balls for the pitcher? Pine tar? Vaseline? MLB itself juicing the balls in 1998, including the one hit for McGwire's 70th? Performance-enhancing cheats are nothing new to that game.

How many games, wins, strikeouts, big names, etc do you want to toss out?

[Chuck54]

LOL

:)