Barry Bonds ties Babe Ruth’s 71-year-old record with 714 home runs. It’s not quite really a tie, though, is it?
As CBS Sportsline notes:
Number 714 just landed amid a sea of fans out in right field, this one the most hollow and devoid piece of baseball history that you ever did witness… When Aaron passed Ruth on April 8, 1974, a couple of kids leaped out of the stands at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and triumphantly — and innocently — joined Aaron for part of his trip around the bases.
When Bonds passed Ruth, only the government investigators were chasing him.
And let’s hope they catch him.
Try breaking down how much he makes per at bat per year. It’s sickening.
It shows the hypocrisy of many baseball fans. From what I understand, the Oakland fans were roundly booing him before the game as I suspect the steroids issue is still alive and well when we’re discussing Bonds. And then the fans give him a standing OV when he hits 714.
Barry Bonds is a terrible ambassador for the sport of baseball. His arrogance is hardly a role model to emulate, the cloud of likely steroids use will taint his career to many sports fans. In this case innocent until proven guilty will not absolve Bonds of a lot of doubt that a lot of people have about his career. What a schmuck to leave a legacy like this, it really illustrates how vain the man is. I’ll be glad when he is out of the headlines for good.
On this:
“Try breaking down how much he makes per at bat per year. It’s sickening.”
That’s interesting to note. Now are you going to mention that the Babe was a full-time baseball player when everyone else in the League went to their regular jobs such as farming after the game?
And on this:
“Barry Bonds is a terrible ambassador for the sport of baseball.”
Really? Why? Do you consider being a gluttonous, womanizing drunkard to be a better ambassador for the sport? You might want to look up the history of some of the sport’s best players. Many of them were poor examples of role models for leaving any kind of legacy.
If people want to hate Barry Bonds because he is arrogant, of that I have no argument . But to hate him because of this whole steroids thing is like hating Bush because of oil. The media is playing you, and you are falling for it.
Consider this:
“It shows the hypocrisy of many baseball fans. From what I understand, the Oakland fans were roundly booing him before the game as I suspect the steroids issue is still alive and well when we’re discussing Bonds. And then the fans give him a standing OV when he hits 714.”
Hypocrisy! The fans boo and then cheer, and you call it hypocrisy. But what about MLB turning a blind eye to it all while they made money with record attendance from the excitement of the mighty home runs? And isn’t it equally hypocritical of our fine politicians to now all of a sudden care so much about our youth in all of this? Oh, there is hypocrisy all right, and it is bleeding all the way through the entire subject!
If you are going to put an asterick on Barry Bonds’ homerun record for possible steroid use, then also put one next to Babe Ruth’s record for playing the game during Segregation, when only priveleged white boys could play in the Majors.That means that some of the best athletes may have never competed against him. We’ll never know for sure. But isn’t it a shame and disgrace that people were not allowed to play because of the color of their skin?
So exactly what is Barry an ambassador for anyway? How would you have liked being an eight year old child as a batboy to father Bobby Bonds and God-father Willie Mays in the sixties and have to listen to fans in the stands call them the “N” word and worse? Hmmm, let’s talk about legacy. Let’s talk about being an ambassador. Let’s make sure that we are a good role model for our youth today.
Let’s hate Barry Bonds because it’s easy to do. That ought to teach our children a good lesson.
WK, they gave Springer a standing OV for plunking Bonds. Wish I’d been there.
Barry Bonds is a scumbag, and deserves nothing but perpetual contempt. Even if scandal doesn’t keep him from Magic Number 756, he’ll never be worthy of even polishing Hank Aaron’s shoes.
Baseball may very well be plagued by all sorts of hypocrisy and played by various assorted scoundrels. That has no bearing on the issue at hand, however. Bonds differs because his record is the direct result of illegal behavior. The record should not stand.
Predoc:
“Bonds differs because his record is the direct result of illegal behavior.”
If that is found to be true then I have to agree with you that the record should not stand.
But from the comments of others I have to conclude that hating Barry Bonds goes way beyond steroid use. Arrogance is not illegal. Neither is calling another person a scumbag, but people seem to have no restraint of their own to give license to name calling. And all the while in the name of everything that is right and for the good of the game!
Segregation was not illegal at the time Babe Ruth played the game, so therefore his record is hailed and his name is crowned king. Major League Baseball, politicians, and fans alike cheered as players “juiced up” and gave us the show of our lives, and yet now it is somehow glamorous to simply give a thumbs down to it like with Gladiators and ask for their lives.
It’s “I Started A Joke” by the Bee Gees. And the whole world laughs at the expense of another person crying.
To throw more light into this room:
Today I just watched a film that resonates within me everything I feel about this very subject! If you get a chance, go get the film “Malena.”
It’s an Italian film with English subtitles. What an incredible film! Get it. Then let’s pick up on this very interesting subject topic again.
The roaring crowd is gonna run you out of town! Their appetite won’t be satisfied until the last bite!
“Arrogance is not illegal.”
I never said it was. You don’t have to be a criminal to be worthy of scorn: someone, like Bonds, who is proud of success achieved by cheating deserves contempt.
“…people seem to have no restraint of their own to give license to name calling.”
Oh please. I grew up chanting “Yankees Suck” from the stands at Fenway Park: surely you can’t be shocked, shocked! that there’s sometimes harsh language involved in sports.
If we go by Shestheone’s reasoning, then Barry Bonds should have 2 asterisks by his names. One for cheating with steroids and the second because he approached Babe’s record without enduring the intense pressure of racism and death threats that Hank Aaron endured. Hammerin’ Hank is a true hero and will always be the Homerun King, no matter what Bonds does. Any victory Bonds has attained or will attain is hollow.
Dave J:
I never said that you said that arrogance is illegal. Read the sentence I wrote BEFORE that statement (“but from the comments of others…”)
And I am very familiar with “Yankees suck” language in sports. That’s a lot different than “Bonds is a scumbag” to me. But if you want to argue about calling people names and justifying it, then you win. I guess I just see it differently.
And Tink:
I agree with you about Hank Aaron. I believe he is one of the top five ballplayers of all time.It’s amazing what he had to endure.
I’ll concede this discussion to you and so many others who feel so strongly against Barry Bonds. I’ll even put the two asterisks next to his name in my book for the reasons you say.
Heck, maybe too I’ll refer to him in some harsh language. It’s common in sports, people seem to find it acceptable, and who knows, perhaps it even makes you feel better and bigger than the person you’re speaking of!
Very good argument folks!
The only thing Babe Ruth was ever accused of was being under the influence of hot dog nitrates. He hit 714 home runs during an era when the bats weighed more than a telephone pole and the ball had the consistence of a ball of wet socks wrapped in oily burlap.
Was Ruth a saint? Of course not. But he also never claimed to be – it was the media that made him into a deity, in search of a hero following the Black Sox scandal, Ruth fit the bill. Bonds, by comparison, has always been a surly, miserable human being – even BEFORE his head became the size of Babe Ruth’s stomach.
That in itself is not enough to want to make light of his HR record. Rather, one should look soley at his motovation. Jealousy over the spotlight being given to McGwire and Sosa in 1998 drove Bonds to The Cream and The Clear, not the desire to be a better player.
He also had an obsession with passing Ruth, specifically (yes, he didn’t “break” any record – Hank Aaron already did that)…he has said on more than one occasion he has no interest in breaking 755 (we’ll see about that), but it was important to pass Ruth so “no one would talk about him (any)more” (which may or may not have something to do with Ruth being white, depending on what you read).
So, we are essentially supposed to feel good about a guy who is an obsessive, jealous, cheating miserable lout, or consider ourselves hypocrites because Ruth wasn’t a perfect human being (far from it). Well, at least Ruth TRIED to keep his foibles private, being friendly to adult and child alike in public. Bonds makes no attempt to hide his imperfections, bearing them akin to a cross, pointing his fingers at the fans and the media when he’s shown for the person that he is.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to throw a toy syringe at Bonds, but I certainly won’t cheer for him, as he has not shown himself to be worthy of my (or anyone’s) adulation (besides, as Rob Neyer pointed out, throwing a syringe at Bonds is like throwing a cookie at The Cookie Monster. What does it prove?).
I won’t even waste harsh language on Bonds, as he’s not worth the energy.
To PETERFNY:
Absolutely amazing post! I thank you and respect you greatly for challenging my side of the argument with something that actually challenges my way of thinking. I find it hard to disagree with anything you have stated.
Only on this would I like to make a comment. You said:
“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to throw a toy syringe at Bonds, but I certainly won’t cheer for him, as he has not shown himself to be worthy of my (or anyone’s) adulation (besides, as Rob Neyer pointed out, throwing a syringe at Bonds is like throwing a cookie at The Cookie Monster. What does it prove?).
I won’t even waste harsh language on Bonds, as he’s not worth the energy.”
Her’s the thing that stays with me about this whole “harsh language” thing. Back in the sixties, wasn’t it a famous speech by MLK to his own black crowd that addressed this very issue? Blacks were beginning to retaliate to slurs made to them like the “N” word with names of their own for whites such as “rednecks.” MLK gave a speech (and I can’t tell you which one it was or quote anything from it.) But, basically he was telling the blacks that calling the white man a “redneck” made them no better than the whites who called the black man a “N….” Point being that calling Bonds scum isn’t doing anything but making the person calling him that a little bit of the same. Come on, if you have to justify name calling, where does it end?
Bonds is all of the things mentioned in the post above by PETERFNY. If thought about with any regard, it’s more sad than anything. I mean, what a waste!
Everybody who has posted against anything I have said in this topic is absolutely right about this issue with Bonds. Maybe that’s whatI take issue with the most. So we are right. Is that in the end the goal?
“Bonds is all of the things mentioned in the post above by PETERFNY. If thought about with any regard, it’s more sad than anything. I mean, what a waste!”
Si si. That is exactly my point. Here’s a guy who had enough natural talent to be an above-average ballplayer (which he was). That, however, was not good ENOUGH because he wasn’t getting enough attention.
It’s like the kid that breaks a lamp because mom is paying too much attention to his siblings. “Hey, look at me!”, then the kid resents getting into trouble because they broke the lamp in the first place. It’s a puzzlement, as the King of Siam one intoned.
Harsh language is harsh language. You’re never gonna stop people from being ignorant louts, unfortunately. As for labels – I don’t believe in ’em, never have. Every race, creed, color and car type has their fair share of miserable miscreants. I just prefer knowing when a is doofus a doofus and leaving it at that.
Fair enough. Your point is well received here. As far as your comment:
“Harsh language is harsh language. You’re never gonna stop people from being ignorant louts, unfortunately.”
I’m not trying to stop people. I’m simply stating that people who do such things are in fact lowering themselves to the people they are referring to, and are no better for it. Saying “harsh language is harsh language” is like saying that “boys will be boys” and thus accepting every mischieveous behavior they engage in. The end result of that kind of acceptance could be quite the uncivilized world, don’t you think?
But that’s just me being me. I think I understand where you are coming from, and I agree.