...for Breaking The Home Run Record


If you watch the ESPN Classic series, then you know how it goes. For others, check out the format below.


The Case Against Bonds
His attitude
His abrasiveness has rubbed many people the wrong way.
He doesn’t care about his fans.
Based on multiple reports, Bonds has at the very best, questionable moral character.

He was a Hall of Famer after the 1998 season
He was a shoo-in with his home run total
He bulked up for five years because of the home run chase

The Rest
The feds
If they wanted to, federal prosecutors on the behalf of the U.S. Justice Department could have had Bonds put in jail or at least have an ongoing trial
As early as 2002, they had the goods on Bonds, but they have failed in their attempts of getting others to rat out the slugger. Greg Anderson is only Exhibit A

Cheaters are always one step ahead
The ugly fact is that steroids saved baseball
The Steroid Era is our generation’s Black Sox Scandal
After crackdowns on steroids and meth, some ballplayers moved on to HGH. It would not be surprising if ballplayers engaged in blood doping if a serious crackdown in HGH were to occur

The intangibles
Prior to allegations made by Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco, all the public heard was how “juiced” the baseballs were
If the Summer of ‘98 had been about three pitchers trying to reach or surpass Bob Gibson’s 30-win regular season mark or the single-season pitcher win record (41) set by Jack Chesbro in 1904, most fans would have been bored
Bonds doesn’t even own the real home run record anyway--steroids or no steroids. A case can be made for either Josh Gibson (whose total number of nearly 800 home runs is disputed due to him playing other games in addition to Negro League contests) or Sadaharu Oh (who owns an undisputed 868 homers)

The Top 5 Reasons
5) Ken Griffey, Jr.
He was once tapped to pass Roger Maris for the single season HR record (denied by the 1994 strike) and Hank Aaron for the overall record before Mark McGwire replaced the former and Bonds, both
The Kid has been hampered by numerous injuries and hasn’t played a full season in years

4) Bud Selig and Donald Fehr
Without these two knuckleheads, there would have been no strike in 1994, and without the strike, there would have been no home run chase in 1998
Selig knew as early as 1995 about steroids in baseball but chose to look the other way
Fehr has been in the way of cleaning up the game more than the gutless commish and has done so with impunity except the one time when Congress threatened to implement its own steroid policy

3) There were numerous opportunities to stop Bonds
In his latest book, Love Me, Hate Me, Jeff Pearlman highlights many of these near misses
First up was in high school when Bonds cheated in high school by looking on classmates’ shoulders and copied others’ noted. The result? These things were laughed off or the administration looked the other way
At Arizona State, Barry was given special treatment that was at times at the team’s expense
After the Pirates lost to the Reds in the 1990 NLCS, Bonds took three of 25 pizzas on a charter plane. R.J. Reynolds wanted a pizza but Barry replied “fuck you.” Reynolds grabbed a box, Bonds flipped the whole pizza on Reynolds, who was about to fight bonds, but R.J.’s wife Yolanda held him back and referred to Barry as “just a baby”
During Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS, Andy Van Slyke urged Bonds to move inward since the bases were loaded. Bonds flipped him off. After the Pirates lost, instead of ripping into a bawling Bonds, Van Slyke walked up to Bonds and took the blame

2) The fans
After all, the old saying goes, “chicks dig the long ball”
Everyone got outraged after the fact when they said nothing about Big Mac and androsteindione even though andro is a steroid and steroids have been illegal since 1991
We should all look at ourselves in the mirror for looking up to bulked up players. What, you really thought they were doing it naturally?
Assuming that the cards play out correctly, A-Rod and Albert Pujols will be in the hunt to surpass Bonds in 10-15 years

1) The media
They have the opportunity to make or break a person
As soon as Big Mac used andro, the media should have had the balls to dig deeper and discover what we know much earlier
For the media to scrutinize players when they should have been the first ones to do it is not only pretentious but downright sanctimonious

Source: Jeff Pearlman. Love Me, Hate Me pages 39, 109-11, 133-35

8/8/2007 4:50:23 PM

top five reasons you can blame barry bonds

roids
roids
roids
roids
he's a dick

8/8/2007 4:53:40 PM

the guy he homered on to tie the record actually served a suspension for roids

8/8/2007 5:06:38 PM

I love Barry Bonds

g fucking g, playa

8/8/2007 5:11:12 PM

and the #1 reason you can't blame Barry Bonds:

Personal responsibility in America is dead

The same reason you can't blame somebody for spilling coffee on their lap, you instead blame McDonald's

8/8/2007 5:16:38 PM

I agree with this

Quote :

"Personal responsibility in America is dead"

but I also agree with

Quote :

"top five reasons you can blame barry bonds roids roids roids roids he's a dick"

8/8/2007 5:19:29 PM

also, aside from Josh Gibson, this guy also owns Barry Bonds

8/8/2007 5:21:25 PM

and the #1 reason you can't blame Barry Bonds:


MLB and their sorry excuse for drug testing.

8/8/2007 5:21:56 PM

^ as if the NFL's is any better

Quote :

"He was once tapped to pass Roger Maris for the single season HR record (denied by the 1994 strike) "

Matt Williams had a better chance to break Maris's record in 94 than did Griffey.




[Edited on August 8, 2007 at 6:09 PM. Reason : jk]

8/8/2007 6:09:19 PM

^

no one gives 2 shits about NFL records. The MLB HR was THE!! most important record in American professional sports.

8/8/2007 6:43:34 PM

Quote :

"roids roids roids roids he's a dick"

haha, gg

8/8/2007 6:54:30 PM

Yeah I always wondered why NFL records aren't really that well know

Probably has something to do with the fact that the league is so much younger than the MLB that the records haven't been around long enough to be considered 'sacred ground'

The NBA is obvious, because most stats are referenced thru per-game averages and cumulative totals aren't as big a deal

8/8/2007 6:54:52 PM

I'm glad he finally broke the record, especially before the college football season started. Now SportsCenter will have more room for highlights and less time talking about this dickhead. Hell, 45 minutes just cleared up on an hour show of SportsCenter

8/8/2007 6:55:35 PM

The only reason anyone hates Bonds is because he's a dick to the media.

I know I'd be if I had to deal with Pedro Gomez all the fucking time.

8/8/2007 7:07:40 PM

I don't actually hate Bonds... If there were 100% NO steroids/body armor talk I would still be pissed at him breaking Hank's record. I'm a Braves fan and I wanted that record to stay with the Braves organization.

8/8/2007 7:11:16 PM

Top 5 players better than Bonds ever was, is or will be:

Dylan
Dylan
Dylan
Dylan
Dylan

8/8/2007 7:19:36 PM

^haha, on that note let's keep this to one thread.

message_topic.aspx?topic=488947&page=2

8/8/2007 7:36:46 PM