Posted on 08/31/2003 8:20:05 PM PDT by mrobison
PHOENIX - Barry Bonds was hospitalized Sunday night because of exhaustion following his father's death.
Bonds was scratched from San Francisco's lineup just minutes before Sunday night's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, one day after he left a game because of an accelerated heart rate.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
I also have a real hard time with that one. Woods' goal is to break all the records. To do that, he needs at least another 20-some years in the game. The guy ain't stupid. If he was on the juice, he would know that his body will break down long before he reaches his goals.
By Allen Barra
May 31, 2002 | Tom Verducci's cover story on steroids in this week's Sports Illustrated is award-winning stuff -- not because of what it reveals, but because of what it forces us to acknowledge that we already knew. You can't even call steroid use a dirty "secret"; the secret has been out in the open so long that no one regards it as a secret anymore. What we didn't know was how prevalent steroid use is. Now that we know the problem is worse than we thought, it's going to dominate our view of sports until it's eradicated.
Make no mistake -- the use of steroids in baseball is, in the long run, a more important issue than the phony revenue-sharing war currently being waged between the owners and the players' union. Not that the problem is confined by any means to baseball. Far from it. Basketball and football players have bulked up far more over the last two decades than baseball players. And might there not be a boxer here and there whose physique and temperament suggests unrestricted steroid use?
But the average fan regards steroid use in baseball as different. He doesn't so much care if hundreds of anonymous offensive linemen whom he wouldn't recognize if they took off their helmets in front of him are inflating their bodies and shrinking their testicles with drugs. He cares very much if it's a baseball player whose performance he follows every day.
It may seem trivial to pursue the argument from this perspective, but let me ask the question anyway: What happens when the average fan's faith in the integrity of baseball records is shattered? I mean, what happens to the game in the long run? The lifeblood of baseball is statistics, numbers and records, which fans must take on faith since they will only see an infinitesimal fraction of the actual games. What happens when fans no longer accept the numbers as a true reflection of the players' on-field performances? What if the breaking of a new record is simply written off to the belief that "Oh, he's just on steroids"? Do you think that baseball is on the verge of that kind of reaction right now? I do.
Scrutiny has naturally fallen on the three record-shattering sluggers: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Some Texas baseball writers have raised questions about Sosa, remembering him as a 165-pound Texas Ranger with modest power. After making my own inquiries, I do not believe that Sammy Sosa's amazing home run totals from the last few years can be written off to steroids, although it's impossible to say for sure. I am fairly certain that at least most of what Mark McGwire was taking during his record-breaking years would not fall under the heading of steroids in the harmful sense discussed in Verducci's article, but again, I really can't be sure.
I don't know what in hell has gone on with Barry Bonds, and I'm absolutely amazed that there hasn't been more serious investigation into the Bonds phenomenon. There is absolutely no precedent in baseball history for anything like a 35-year-old ballplayer who had just hit 34 home runs (and who had hit a career high of 46 six years earlier) to suddenly jump to a total of 122 home runs over two seasons at ages 36 and 37. It simply makes no sense, and I can't find any rational explanation for it.
You seem to have a habit of creating malicious lies to justify posting malodorous junk.1
(1) Would you please elaborate on "his past drug use".
Please avoid the liberal thing of calling all that corner you with truth conspirators -so bold with your accusations, yet unable to address the question originally asked.
Apparently, the IOC, NCAA and FDA disagree with you! Along with many states that have passed legislation including making it a prescription drug. But then you have already been nailed for posting falsely on this thread.
He was close to his father. I still have my father, but as close as he and I are, I can imagine what Barry has gone through over the past few days.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, along with my prayers.
I hope that those detractors would have the common decency to do the same.
Perhaps this growing experience will bring some maturity to him as a man. Certainly there are others here that need it.
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The items you posted above as being attributed to me were NOT stated by me.
Please post your proof of the above claim by you!
Another slur by you. Provide proof that I did such a thing or apologize. Never mind. It seems you have a thing for slurring but NOT backing up your slurs. See your slur on #73.
So bold with your accusations but unable to back them up.
I invite you to look up his post-season numbers for 2002. Bonds is one of the few truly feared hitters in baseball today.
Oh, and Mr. No-Clutch singled in the games only two runs today. Friday night, before the homerun (high enough to be a souvenir for his father), he beat out in infield single in which Randy Johnson temporarily became a spectator.
This reflexive Bonds-bashing sometimes veers into the ludicrous.
Given the Phoenix heat, the fact that he was still very emotional, and that his heart rate raced, can you imagine the Giants' training staff taking a chance that he would collapse and perhaps die as some other athletes in the past have? I don't think so.
I have a lot of respect for Stan Conte. The Giants' training staff is a good one.
See post 7 below by cinFLA.
Would you wish that the doctor's NOT consider his past drug use when treating him?
7 posted on 08/31/2003 8:47 PM PDT by cinFLA
1) I never accused the Giants staff of acting improperly.
2) Most of the athletes that have died have had their deaths associated with drug use.
Having watched a few games the last couple of years, can you still agree that he is at a 'golden glove' level in the field? I think not. His fielding has cost them several games; some where he just did not put out the effort to get to the ball.
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