Comments on: Will A-Rod break Barry Bonds' record?

By: Materialman

Materialman — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:26:16 +0000

You don’t have the record when you cheat to break it. Bonds and A-Rods “so called records” mean nothing.

By: Materialman

Materialman — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:20:32 +0000

Nobody cares about Stray-Rod’s or Bonds records. They are total BS. They mean nothing.

By: AYFF

AYFF — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:24:58 +0000

Ruth only had to face white pitchers in his era and never had to face the best pitchers that were not allowed in the league, never played on the west coast and never had to play a night game…Every era has there issue/quams. No different now.

By: Sweepthleg

Sweepthleg — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:37:54 +0000

Guess what I don’t care Hank Arron is still the home run king!
If you don’t think steriods or HGH help athletes build more muscle, run faster, jump higher, get pumped up, increase aggression, and overall performance then you are an idoit! (I’ve cycled before in my life and it freaking works!)
I might be able to stomach Arod as the home run king but Bonds is a walking joke! The guys head is the size of a beach ball! You can whine and moan about “there are no studies”, “we don’t know how long blah blah blah”, or “everyone else was on them” all you want it doesn’t matter. You ask me who the home run king is IT’S HAMMER’N HANK!
So shut your steorid defending mouth also please know your role. Thank you and have a nice day

By: MusicLover

MusicLover — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:31:16 +0000

Congratulations to A-Rod for becoming the youngest steroid user to hit 600 home runs!
Funny how all those New Yorkers who were hyper critical of Bonds are now TOTALLY on the A-Roid bandwagon. No surprise.

By: Cleareye

Cleareye — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:02:57 +0000

He will break Bonds “record” of course but it won’t mean much. Let’s face it Ruth was the best. No one dominated baseball the way he did. No one ever will. He would have dominated if blacks were part of the game then too. There would be more players with 600 plus and some would have been with him yearly occasionally, but not lifetime.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:24:13 +0000

I agree with you, on both counts. Just pointing out that Hank admitted to greenies. I’m not trying to denigrate him for it.

By: Ditto65

Ditto65 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:09:22 +0000

And the punishment for using that substance when he used it? NOTHING!
Baseball had no punishment for using PEDs when A-Rod tested positive.
Don’t use, but we won’t stop you.
Let it go.

By: TominNH

TominNH — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:30:24 +0000

A-Roid’s game is already falling off!!! How would YOU like to be paying a player $26M per year who isnt in th top 10 of any offensive category???? And there’s what……… 5-6 more years to go on the contract?? My only happiness is that it’s the Yankees—– and they are the Evil Empire—– plus….. YANKEES SUCK!!!
Boston fan! ))))))))))))

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:18:37 +0000

It’s not “who knows?” – he admitted it. He used an illegal, performance-enhancing drug. One that might even perhaps enhance performance more than anabolic steroids by keeping him on the field.

By: john pileggi

john pileggi — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:14:15 +0000

He will break the record and do it at an age and pace that will make those wondering about PED figure that they added “xx” homers to his total and backing them out will still make him the record holder. Now, can we not talk about it for about 4 or 5 years?

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:53:39 +0000

Considering baseball in almost all facets (commissioner, ownership, players, media) turned its head from steroids and pretended nothing was going on, how much can you really blame Rodriguez and Bonds for what they did? Technically they cheated the spirit of the game, I guess, but don’t underestimate the power of mass action. When you have everybody taking stuff and the atmosphere almost encourages usage, it’s understandable to some degree.
For me, the bottom line is that in the 100+ year history of the game, seven players have hit 600 or more home runs. Three have hit 700 or more. Of all of the great players to play baseball, almost nobody’s reached those levels. If Rodriguez hits more home runs than Aaron, he’s going to deserve that record. And as much as I loathe Bonds, Bonds deserves that record, too. That Aaron did it without the same kind of chemical help (though who knows on amphetamines) makes what Aaron did that much more impressive. It’s akin to climbing Mount Everest with oxygen vs without. Either way, you’ve still climbed the highest mountain in the world.

By: KTD73

KTD73 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:41:31 +0000

One question that is impossible to answer at this point: what will the long-term effects be of whatever A-Rod took for however long he was taking it/them? Also, is he now finding it harder to train, recover from injuries, etc., because he is no longer using? And/or is he still adjusting to playing without artificial help? A number of players have seen their career fall off a cliff after stopping taking whatever was previously helping them. Just a few years ago, the possibility that A-Rod wouldn’t hit his 17th HR until the first week of August would have seemed unthinkable. At this point, I think it’s impossible to predict what will happen.
And as for age . . . compare two all-time greats who were also teammates: Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews. At age 35, they were virtually tied for career homers: Aaron had 510 and Mathews had 493. But after that, Mathews hit only 19 more. Aaron went on to hit an incredible 245 homers after the age of 35. Somehow, I don’t see that in A-Rod’s future.

By: Jake198

Jake198 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:34:59 +0000

Barry Bonds does not have a record. Alex will not either. The career home run record belongs to Henry Aaron. The single season home run record belongs to Roger Maris. (61 in 1961 using fewer at bats than Babe Ruth) Both of these record holders honored the spirtit and the rules of baseball. Both Bonds and Alex did not. As a life long Yankees fan, I remain a fan of A-Rod, and wish him only the best. As a true baseball fan, I recognize that you cannot reward intentional cheating. Both Barry and Alex did intentionaly cheat.

By: SouthofHeaven

SouthofHeaven — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:57:13 +0000

Whatever. Half the pitchers A-Rod faced juiced too. Everyone did it, get over it.

By: Pete leary

Pete leary — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:26:42 +0000

ROIDS 600 is meaningless.He is nothing but a pumped up MORON who cheated his way to the big stage.Couldn’t hold Mays or Aarons jockstrap!

By: RichardInBigD

RichardInBigD — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:14:21 +0000

I don’t usually do this, but I think I’m going to root for injury. It’s just the Karma train coming in to the station if it happens…

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:11:00 +0000

No, because they actually lost those games. Just like A-Rod and company actually hit those home runs.

By: JackOfAllTirades

JackOfAllTirades — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:09:09 +0000

How can anyone be “over it” ?! His home run stats are tainted. His steroid use doesn’t go away with time. It’s there in his stats…. forever.

By: RichardInBigD

RichardInBigD — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:08:14 +0000

No, because the steroids may be gone, but the records the abusers set will remain forever. Do you think there’s any chance the White Sox will ever win the 1919 WS?

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:55:13 +0000

Because Aaron’s illegal drug of choice is totally acceptable, right?

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:52:51 +0000

Bingo. What’s done is done. The last twenty years aren’t going to be erased from the record books. We’ll never know what Rodriguez’s numbers, or Bonds’ numbers for that matter, would look like without steroids. We’ll never know. Just like we’ll never know if the 2004 Red Sox would have won the World Series with a clean Manny/Ortiz. I’m a Yankee fan, and I’d love more than anything to say that the 2004 ALCS doesn’t count because multiple players on the team were on roids, but that’d be silly of me. Of course it counts. It sucks, but it counts.
Side note: Nobody complains about it because it’s not against the rules, but cortisone is a steroid, and it is used regularly throughout baseball. You don’t see anybody saying that Schilling’s bloody sock start should be discounted because he took cortisone shots. There’s such a fine line between what’s acceptable and what’s not. It’s acceptable to build muscle mass through a rigid set of legal drugs that were not taken in Hank Aaron’s day, but nobody holds that against players. Should we? Such a fine line.

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:45:17 +0000

I’m sure if push comes to shove, they will eat the money, but it’s going to take a lot for push to come to shove.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:42:32 +0000

And that ton they’ll EAT if he doesn’t maintain a good avg. or OBP . The Yankees can afford to, so they will.

By: Largebill

Largebill — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:34:52 +0000

To the delusional folks claiming Henry Aaron is still the home run champ: get some help. The games were played and the stats were accumulated. Whether you approve of the “vitamins” used by Bonds, A-Rod etc doesn’t matter. They played in regular season major league baseball games and what happened happened. You do NOT have to cheer for player you perceive to have cheated, but you can’t declare the event didn’t happen. Gaylord Perry could admit tomorrow that he threw the spit ball in every game he pitched and he would still have the same number of strike outs and wins and losses. Or maybe this will make it easier for you to understand. Say I go to a bar tonight and tell a hottie that I just won the mega lottery. I take her home and have a good time then the next day she realizes I didn’t really win the lottery. Well, she could tell herself she didn’t go home with me, but what’s done is done.

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:31:43 +0000

He might fall off his game, but it’ll take a lot for the Yankees to keep him out of the lineup. He’s making a ton of money, they’ll play him until he’s completely dead and shows no signs of life.

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:30:22 +0000

Multiple points to make here:
1. In a sport like baseball, I don’t think being selfish is really a bad thing. It’s not basketball, where being selfish can torpedo a team. It’s not football, the ultimate team first game. It’s baseball, the most individual driven team sport out there. Yeah, being selfish might not be an admirable trait, but it doesn’t hurt the team in most cases.
2. We don’t know definitively when Rodriguez started/stopped using steroids. For all we know he could have started when he was a rookie. For all we know he might only have used during his Texas years. For all we know he is still using. So where do you draw the line and start saying X home runs don’t count?
3. Until there is some way to figure out just how many of the home runs were the result of steroids, you can’t really discount them. There hasn’t been a definitive study (that I know of) that tells you how much steroids even help ballplayers.
4. Likewise, we don’t know how much of an effect steroids have on pitchers. For every home run that Rodriguez or Bonds or whomever hit when on the juice, how many bombs were NOT hit because a pitcher who was also juicing was throwing 95 instead of 92 and was able to get it past the bat when normally they wouldn’t have? There are just too many variables in here.
And all of that’s not even getting into the fact that every era has had its advantages and disadvantages. I’m not defending Rodriguez, really, I’m just saying that there is so much that you have to consider before you can make a statement like “Rodriguez and Bonds will never really be home run champions, they cheated.” It’s far more nuanced than that.

By: Md23Rewls

Md23Rewls — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:13:22 +0000

OK, but Rodriguez is the youngest to hit 600 by a year plus, and (so far as we know) everybody ahead of Rodriguez other than Sosa and Bonds was “clean,” so even without juice, I think he’s got a fair shot. It would help his chances greatly if he has one more big power season of around 40, though.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:09:29 +0000

I think he’ll fall off his game before then, and the Yankees won’t keep him in their lineup once that happens. Then it’l be all downhill from that point for him. I say, he’ll never top Bonds, even though it looks as if he can at this point. Injury or not.

By: Sweepthleg

Sweepthleg — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:05:01 +0000

Craig as a Braves fan you know the record is still 755 any other number is just ridiculous! And that other guy who thinks he broke the record is the embodyment of the win at all cost, selfish, steroid era. He will slowly fade from Baseball and the nations collective conscience.
Hammer’n Hank the real Home Run King!