Posted on 05/07/2006 10:00:12 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Frick's asterisk is nowadays viewed as an error made out of his personal friendship with Ruth (Frick was the Babe's ghost writer) and the baseball world's reverence of the Bambino. Bud Selig, whose only significant accomplishment as commissioner is the realignment of the divisions and the Wild Card, would be a fool to duplicate Frick's biggest mistake.
Selig has revealed himself to be a Frickin' idiot in the past; only Bud would have declared a tie in an All-Star game. But he can't be a total moron, and he should be able to figure out that if he comes down on Bonds, the question will be where in the heck he was while all of Bonds'(and other players') juicing was going on. IMHO, any suspension for rules infractions by Bonds is a tacit admission that he fell down on the job, and should resign.
I have yet to hear or read of a credible or fair way to determine which home runs Bonds, Giambi, Caminiti, Palmeiro or Canseco may have hit that were a result of use of steroids. Certainly nobody is suggesting that there have been any tainted homers in Bonds' past three seasons under mandatory random testing. Besides, singling Bonds out among all known juiced players is unfair not only to Bonds, it is congenitally unjust.
For better or for worse, unless something season-ending happens to Bonds very soon, he will be second on the all-time list when this season is over. He may be under indictment or he may be suspended, but he will be second only to Hank Aaron.
We may not agree with each other on everything, but I truly admire folks like you who keep an open mind. I like to think I do as well....so much easier to listen to others when ideas are articulated, rather than listening to tired old rants saying the same thing!!
I know athletes are careful of what they put into their bodies, but I'm not 100% convinced that Bonds wasn't at least partially duped since the cream and the clear were applied topically. As for the workouts, what I've seen and read, they are indeed the real deal and did involve the usual protein powder and pills. His personal trainer put him through a pretty rigorous routine, some of which we could see on the field before the park opened. I'm sure I'm a bit naive, and will cop to such, but still wonder if he didn't put too much stock in the integrity of his trainer.
I thank you for input that can help me make my decisions as well!
Well said.
My guess is that he will pass Ruth but retire before surpassing Aaron to avoid the aggravation.
Just wanted to clarify that Ruth would have faced Latino pitchers, just not black Latino pitchers.
Amazing what some people are willing to overlook in the face of ample evidence.
I hope they have a rally( similar to the cursed ball in chicago)by dropping it in a vat of dog poopoo and then smash it, sell the t.v rights so the guy who caught it can pocket a few dollars and then have it replayed over and over on espn's top 10.
That I doubt, just because they didn't have radar guns doesn't mean they weren't throwing 90 or better.
That I doubt, just because they didn't have radar guns doesn't mean they weren't throwing 90 or better.
Looks like Baseball is not going to do a thing about this. What a pathetic Commissioner! A weak, jelly-spined, risk-averse place-holder.
So it won't matter to you if hundreds of the HR were due to steroid use as long as the last 50 were 'legit'. That's a crappy argument.
Answer: A whole bunch, but not in lrague play. Ruth used to go "barnstorming" in the off season through Central America and faced all kinds of pitchers.
What makes Ruths batting so impressive is that the ball was not as lively then as it is now.
Ok I'll rephrase. 'Modern Day pitching', which I'm sure is better due to mechanics. The 90mph fastball idea just seemed to be the best way to say it at the moment. =)
Questions like this are pretty silly, when you look at all of the vast differences in a sport from one generation to the next.
Here's my question . . . Leaving Latin pitchers out of the mix (since there was no "language barrier" in Major League Baseball that prevented them from playing back in Ruth's day) -- How many black pitchers has Bonds faced in his career, and how much better were they than the white pitchers he faced?
One reason Aaron never got the credit he deserved is that he was something of an anomaly in the game of baseball. He was the all-time home run king, yet was never much of a "slugger" in the classic sense of the term. He never hit more than 47 home runs in any given season, and won only three home run titles in his 23-year career (compared to Ruth's 12 in only about 16 full seasons), and surpassed Ruth in a methodical, consistent manner of the course of his career. Aaron was basically a line-drive hitter with very strong wrists whose 755 career home runs were primarily a function of the small ballparks in which he played (in Atlanta and Milwaukee).
This is not a knock on Aaron, of course. Despite his career home run title, I think he's one of the most underrated ballplayers of all time. His 755 home runs really overshadow the fact that he was a great all-around hitter. His 3,771 hits are #3 on the all-time list (to put this in perspective, just understand that he has 3,000+ career hits other than the 755 home runs he hit), and his .305 lifetime batting average is actually higher than "all-time great" Pete Rose's.
barry bonds WHO?....
Bonds' ERA = 0.00. I'm pretty sure he's never allowed an earned run. And his career WHIP is 0.00 too.
I hear Gaius Tullius Celeritas was OK.
A banner being held by people to the right of your banner read, "Aaron did it on class".
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