We never had these problems when we 'watched' baseball on the radio ...
Posted on 08/06/2007 10:19:31 AM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
John Kruk adds to any baseball discussion, IMO.
>>We watched Stargell hit TWO balls into the red seats of Riverfront - right field naturally,
Willie was always a good “tape-measure” hitter. :) When he’d hit one into the upper deck of Three Rivers they’d put a different color seat at that spot to keep track.
>> and caught two from....oh lord, (gettin old is hell)....that big outfielder...what was his name? Had a bit of trouble with coke during the end of his career....(sorry I can’t remember his name).
You’re probably thinking of Dave Parker. I was very excited when he came along, and had high hopes that he’d take Willie’s place as my favorite after Willie retired, but no such luck. Parker just wasn’t the lovable gentleman that Willie Stargell was. I think Parker was the first major leager to make a million per year. He held out for a while to get it and then after he got it he had a bad slump. Then one day someone took a battery out of their radio and chucked it at him out in right field. He wasn’t there much longer I think, though it’s been such a long time... hard to remember.
I agree with a lot of what you say, including the Big Red Machine! Morgan, Foster, Griffey (Sr.) and sometimes even Geronimo didn’t need roids to hit homers.
I also don’t attend games anymore, but not because of the strike. It’s the cost. (I wouldn’t say no to a free ticket, and I’ll admit I WOULD go if I lived near Cincy.) 90% of the games are on TV in some fashion; and the cheapest seats are $10-15, which almost always are terrible. The half-decent seats I’d otherwise bother going to sit in, are at least $30-50 nowadays.
And steroids really hurt the legitimacy of the game. I don’t directly blame Selig; I blame the darn cheaters. But Selig was too cowed by the “Players” “Union” to do much of anything about it. I’m afraid it’s going to take a Lyle-Alzado-type tragedy before anything serious is done.
Meanwhile, Bonds cheats.
Costas’ comment: “As anyone can plainly see, I’m 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally.”
Truly, a Seinfeld moment...
One of baseball’s few great philosophers, in my opinion.
“Anyway, I remind all Freepers that Barry Bonds hasn’t failed a drug test.”
I find this “observation” to be the lamest thing ever stated. No one can show you gravity, but you know it’s there. No one really knows what electricity is, but they know it exists. No one really knows where Michael Jackson comes from, and yet we know it’s from an alternate universe.
Anyone who has ever spent any time body building or bulking up can see that Bonds is juiced on steroids. I don’t need for him to fail a test to know he uses or at used them.
‘You’re probably thinking of Dave Parker.’
Yep, thats the guy. He had a nice conversation with us (as nice as it can be given we were in the left field stands talking down at him). Asked if we could throw one of the balls down for an autograph (the things you did as a kid....shakes head). He politely declined but then said he would hit one to us when the game started.
He didn’t, but still, it was a thrill for three teenagers at the time.
‘You’re probably thinking of Dave Parker.’
Yep, thats the guy. He had a nice conversation with us (as nice as it can be given we were in the left field stands talking down at him). Asked if we could throw one of the balls down for an autograph (the things you did as a kid....shakes head). He politely declined but then said he would hit one to us when the game started.
He didn’t, but still, it was a thrill for three teenagers at the time.
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“Allegedly” is his legal standing against the allegations. It is not the reality. This is not a court room. Barry Bonds DID knowingly use steroids.
As for his being an A-hole that’s just sauce for the goose. I have never heard of any other player that, for instance, purposefully drops his dirty jock strap on the floor right next to a laundry hamper so he can laugh at the locker room attendant as he comes to pick it up.
‘And steroids really hurt the legitimacy of the game.’
Steroids were at the heart of the faux Rose ‘betting scandal’ in my opinion. Everybody around Rose was selling the stuff as the movie ‘Charlie Hustle’ demonstrated.
And I’ve always wondered about Foster’s 58 (?) homers in 1979.
Never saw anyone hit so many meaningless home runs in a single season in my life. Never.
‘Costas’ comment: “As anyone can plainly see, I’m 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally.”
Yep, thats about what I heard him say on Scarborough. Great comment.
Spoke with a relief pitcher for the Reds back around 1997, he had been traded to the Giants, and then somehow ended up back in Cincy. Said Bonds was a major league a-hole in the clubhouse, threw temper tantrums if anyone else played music, that sort of thing.
Maybe she rubbed the steroid cream on Barry not wearing gloves. LOLLOL
A man among men!
I remember somebody describing his physique as looking like someone who had “Come to a fantasy camp and stayed”.
As much as I detest what Bonds and others are doing to the game, I detest Selig more.
Historically, at least since the Black Sox World Series scandal of a century ago, the commissioner of a professional sport is hired by the owners, but is to be impartial between owners and players. A commissioner's duty is to the sport. When Selig forced Vincent out, it was agreed that he would be the "acting" commissioner of baseball; however, sometime in the future the "acting" part of the title was dropped. I don't care what anyone says, Selig is still the de facto owner of the Brewers and the only reason that the Brewers have never been considered for elimination when downsizing talks start.
And ultimately it is Selig's fault that baseball hitting records have become a joke. Steriods have long been a problem and Selig knows this, but does nothing because it increases ticket sales.
And ultimately it is Selig’s fault that baseball hitting records have become a joke. Steriods have long been a problem and Selig knows this, but does nothing because it increases ticket sales.
This is what happens when the owners don’t like having a Commissioner. You get short sighted decisions based solely on the bottom line.
Selig isn’t really the problem, he’s just the symptom.
“And Barry Bonds is responsible for higher attendance numbers in all the stadiums he plays in during his pursuit of this record. A lot of his detractors do some pretty hearty cheering when he hits a homer in their park. I see Bonds hating much as I do Bush hating.....an irrational obsession with many who just want to believe all the bad press they read. Hey, whatever gets them through the day.....;>)
Amen! And I’m a Padres fan!
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