Bonds [756]
filed in sports on May.22, 2007
First of all I will admit that I am a huge baseball fan and in particular I am a fan of the history of baseball. One of the great things about following baseball are the statistics. I can still remember when I was a kid going through my massive collection of baseball cards memorizing league leaders in HRs, RBI’s, BA, etc…
There are a few numbers that were burned into my mind:
For all you true baseball fans, those numbers are as easy to remember as your cell number, home address, and birth date.
My favorite player when I was growing up was Ken Griffey Jr. He was drafted #1 overall by the Seattle Mariners in 1987. He made his major league debut in 1989 right about the time I was starting to follow baseball. I was 10 years old and was filling my head with stats, stats, and more stats. I also remember reading an article talking about how special the 500 home run club was. I wondered… would I see someone get to that milestone.
As of May 22, Bonds is at 745 HRs. 11 HRs from breaking the all-time home run record. Now that I have a chance to see someone not only reach the 500 HR plateau, but actually break the record I don’t know how to feel. Obviously the record is tainted… I really do feel cheated. I feel like that little starry-eyed 10 year old Shane is seeing all the stats he loved just blown up into little pieces.
I am not blaming Bonds for taking this special occasion away from me. I truly blame the owners of the baseball teams. That’s right I said the owners. You see when the MLB players decided to strike in the fall of 1994 it had a huge impact on baseball. Fans were fed up with the greedy owners and players. When baseball resumed in the spring of 1995, attendance dropped to all-time lows. The owners were losing money with all those empty seats. So did they really question things when all of the sudden people like Sammy Sosa were hitting 60+ HRs in 3 out of 4 years when it had only been done twice previous to that?
Look right at me… I want you to understand this:
Baseball didn’t even have a policy on Steroid use until 2002
Before 2002, Major League Baseball had no official policy on steroid use among players. As part of a collective bargaining agreement, players and owners agree to hold survey testing in 2003. If more than 5% of results from the anonymous tests are positive, formal testing and penalties will be put into place the next year.
What do you all think about the record? Are you ok with it? Leave your comments folks!
May 23rd, 2007 on 12:06 pm
It is a tough one. In my mind, I will not officially honor Barry “Big Head” Bonds’ milestone. I think that cheating is cheating, regardless of whether or not there are rules in place defining cheating.
A lot of pro sports have banned the use of steroids as well as other performance enhancing drugs. I believe that the athlete in question should have a fair trail and that there should be ample scientific proof with reasonable precautions taken to ensure that results are accurate and reproducible in a lab.
Just read up on the latest regarding Floyd Landis and his questionable victory in the Tour de France last year. I want to believe Floyd is innocent, but since there is some question about the testing procedures, the doping allegations will never be answered fully.
In short, the horse is out of the barn on Barry. He will most likely break the record and due to lack of testing and policy, never face any consequences. I do hope they give him the same treatment as Rose-no hall of fame for him.
In the future, should a milestone in the MLB be broken, and there be any question about the legitimacy of it, there should be a governing body in place to validate or discredit it.
Oh yah, FIRST!
/randy
June 1st, 2007 on 10:08 pm
who says sadaharu oh wasn’t on roids? kidding… puny looking japanese fellow hit over 800 career homers… but in the j-league. either way, a serious feat. we know barry used, but i can pretty much guarantee that he isn’t this year because he is in the public eye on a microscopic level. the dude is 40, and still amongst the league-leaders in the ding-dongs. that tells me something, aside from the drugs, the guys has a gifted swing of the bat bar-none.
June 4th, 2007 on 9:00 pm
agreed. hard to get really excited by it. i remember the year that sammy and mcgwire went head to head. remember how the entire country got into it? but then again, that was pre steroids fest. it’s all changed now. now, the story is: “do we celebrate bonds or not?”
bummer.