Comments on: Bud Selig is not going to take Barry Bonds out of the record book

By: twinkyz1979

twinkyz1979 — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 21:15:47 +0000

Just don’t remove them from the books and leave Bonds up there by himself. They should use an asterisk by their names and denote the differences like enhancements drugs, and difference in the baseballs themselves (speaking of their make up/internals). I think this should be done even though I don’t like the fact of the whole Bonds thing. I think he did use steroids or something to that effect. I think pictures of him before the Giants and pictures of him afterwards prove my point. I would’also like to mention take a look at his stats with the Pirates compared to the ones with the Giants. I would have to say without taking a drug test or admitting to using steroids or some other substance the facts speak for themselves.

By: helloplayername

helloplayername — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:14:55 +0000

Are you really going to be that ignorant?

Ruth and Maris’ jumps were early in their careers, when they were 25-26 years old. By contrast, Bonds was at least a decade older (36) when he hit 73 home runs. Production does not increase so dramatically at that age.

By: gmsingh

gmsingh — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:14:14 +0000

There is another point that goes along with Selig’s comments: baseball needs a new commissioner in the worst way.

By: garlicfriesandbaseball

garlicfriesandbaseball — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:17:49 +0000

Good Comment. History is not meant to be “selective”. It is what it is! Records are a part of history.

By: tomemos

tomemos — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:25:49 +0000

I’d still love to get your take on Gaylord Perry…

By: genericcommenter

genericcommenter — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:04:15 +0000

I guess this would also show that Jose Canseco introduced steroids to MLB prior to the 1987 season. I just wonder why all those players only used them for 1 season and then took a decade off. It’s obvious Wade Boggs and Rickey Henderson, among others, were using that year.

By: nightman13

nightman13 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:09:40 +0000

Not everybody was doing it and even if they were it still doesn’t make it right. Yes it still takes natural talent to succeed in baseball, but to say the roids weren’t that big a help is assinine.

Bonds’ stats got better after he turned 30 so when natural age should have begun to take its toll, instead he artificially kept himself in better shape than he ever had been. Thus giving him the longevity and added performance to break the records. It’s like a marathon runner being allowed to hop on a bike to finish the race one he hits the 20 mile mark. Would anybody think that’s fair and the win should count?

Steroids are illegal not just in baseball but to everybody unless they are prescribed to treat a medical condition. So not only was he cheating but he was breaking the law.

The Gatorade analogy doesn’t stand up because anything you eat or drink during a game is replacing something that the body expends. Gatorade is also legal and the only effects it provides is preventing dehydration, it doesn’t make you hit harder or improve hand eye coordination.

Hank Aaron set the most prestigious record in baseball without any artificial substance and in the midst of racist death threats and his heroic triumph was one of the best stories in all of sports. He has been replaced by a science project who is not only a cheater but a HORRIFIC human being on top of it. The fact that more people aren’t outraged is a telling sign of how sad America has become that we are so desensitized to cheating.

By: nicosamuelson2

nicosamuelson2 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:47:54 +0000

Joe, you’re the man.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:37:57 +0000

By this logic, you might conclude that when Babe Ruth went from 29 to 54 (+25) homers, or when Roger Maris went from 16 to 39 (+23) to 61 (+22), they must have been taking steroids.

Bonds did, but jumping from 49 to 73 (+24) isn’t “proof.”

By: Detroit Michael

Detroit Michael — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:00:06 +0000

1) Records tell us what happened, not why they happened.

2) Is there even an official MLB recordbook still? Who cares? I go to baseball-reference.com if I want to look up any records. Bud Selig doesn’t have the power to expunge our knowledge of what happened anyway.

By: iftheshoefits2

iftheshoefits2 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:38:14 +0000

Mikedi33- quick, cite me Joe Jackson’s stats……

Yeah, he’s paying a price. Not in the record books, but theres a price.

QED

By: oldpaddy

oldpaddy — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:08:39 +0000

Howard sterns penis!

By: garlicfriesandbaseball

garlicfriesandbaseball — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:38:48 +0000

Bonds didn’t need steroids. In the year 2000, he hit .306 with a slugging percentage of .688 and hit 49 home runs in just 143 games; he was walked 117 times. Barry Bonds was walked 611 times while he was still in Pittsburgh. Bud Selig is not taking Bonds out of the record books, because he belongs in the record books. You’ll have to ask Barry Bonds if/why he took steroids. But his records speak for themselves. Get over it.

By: yahmule

yahmule — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:27:49 +0000

The overweening need Bonds’ supporters exhibit while constantly burnishing his accomplishments (and excusing the methods that obtained them) is reminiscent of the shine job Ronald Reagan’s supporters did on his image over the last two decades.

By: metalhead65

metalhead65 — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:18:07 +0000

in most cases it might be hard to tell when players started cheating but in the case of bonds that should not be a problem. just start when he started hitting over 60 homers a season since he had never hit more than 48 a season before he started juicing. nobody is saying roids made him a better hitter or player,his stats before he started juicing were impressive but the roids he took made him stronger enabling him to hit balls that would have been outs before he juiced to go out of the park. only a idiot would deny the roids made him stronger enabling him to hit more homers.do the same with sosa to,before he juiced what were the most homers he had in a season? see it is pretty simple to know when they started,you just do not go from hitting 40 to 70 in 1 season.

By: fanoredsox

fanoredsox — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:09:38 +0000

I, like you, could not stand that an egotistical neanderthal like Bonds was the “King”. I have finally started to realize two pertinent ideas: 1.) You can take the juice, but you still have to have the ability to actually hit, and Bonds did! 2.) Bobby Knight said that every athlete cheats every game. His definition was that, “every player that drinks Gatorade is cheating because it introduces things that your body naturally expends”. I guess by that rational my 3 year old daughter is a cheater!
Where do we draw the line? Most draw that line when someone does something that the media deems unconscionable. Everyone has cheated in some way, We just need to realize that everyone was doing it, which makes his numbers even better. I still despise Bonds!

By: mikedi33

mikedi33 — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:32:16 +0000

agree with you 100% nightman13… bonds wasn’t even ever suspended;so what price has he paid?

By: tomemos

tomemos — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:26:57 +0000

Lighten up, Francis. Shouldn’t you be you out in front of the Hall of Fame, gathering signatures to expel Gaylord Perry?

By: nightman13

nightman13 — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:58:10 +0000

All the pitchers? Riiiiight.

By: michaelcee

michaelcee — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:52:54 +0000

Remember, all the pitchers were on steroids too. Playing field level, record stands.

By: nightman13

nightman13 — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:48:00 +0000

No cheater should be recognized in any capacity other than a cheater. They get to keep the money, the fame, the memories and the glory they got by cheating at least take the unearned record away.

What’s the downside to roiding up? Even if you get caught you just miss games, there is no black mark, no banishment, all your records count, your contract is still guaranteed and apparently if you’re Manny Ramirez you are cheered as a hero in LA when you get back from your suspension.

If we’re just going to turn a blind eye to cheating, might as well get rid of the umps and use the honor system. Let’s get rid of official stats and just let the players report their own. Why don’t we just get rid of all the rules completly while we’re at it?! Just anarchy in a stadium and once that’s done we can all take turns defacating on pictures of the players that had integrity and only used their talents to play the game instead of a chemistry set.

Sounds wonderful.

By: Mark Armour

Mark Armour — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:29:40 +0000

I agree with this. The disconnect happens when “we” glorify the specific number — 500 home runs, 3000 strikeouts, whatever — and then turn around and say, “well, of course, the number means nothing without understanding this huge context in which it happened.

Sadly, I do not know how many home runs Barry Bonds hit. I bet many other baseball nuts don’t either. I know how many Mel Ott hit, how many Willie McCovey hit, but not the record holder. (I just looked it up, so I know now!) Really though, his total is basically a trivia question at this point, and ceased to mean anything to most people a long time ago. I watched Aaron break the record when I was a kid, and can remember the chair I was sitting in. It is not Bud Selig’s that the record has no meaning to me anymore.

The all-time record for most home runs in a season is Barry Bonds with 73. This is the God’s honest truth. He did this the same year Sammy Sosa hit his 64th (his third time over 60), and the same year Luis Gonazlez hit 57 (third in the league, Luis, good job). These are facts. We are each free to deal with the facts as we choose.