Barry Bonds... 616 HR's..... no * needed!

[diznygirl]

But we don't know if anyone paid other teams off to soft-pitch Babe Ruth. We just don't know.

That would be an awful hard thing to keep secret. Too many people involved, and Babe Ruth was a pretty big celebrity - the media was all over him. I think we'd know.

Pretty sad to try to smear Babe to make Barry look better.

Barry did what he did - he's gonna have to live with it. He can have his record - but he will never have the respect.

 

[bicker]

Kind of hard to smear anything on someone so covered with booze.

 

[grimley1968]

That would be an awful hard thing to keep secret. Too many people involved, and Babe Ruth was a pretty big celebrity - the media was all over him. I think we'd know.

I agree. If the Chicago White Sox could be found out in 1919, I can't imagine some kind of league-wide conspiracy to soft-pitch to Babe Ruth would have remained a secret for long.

Bonds deserves every word of the criticism he's getting. He certainly brought it on himself. Every person should be innocent until proven guilty, but there's a heck of a lot more evidence that Bonds has been cheating than there ever will be that anyone soft-pitched to the Babe.

I don't really understand why the Babe's drinking is brought into this. It certainly did not enhance his performance. I would say it probably detracted from it. Yet he still managed 60 HR in one season and 714 for his career, being an overweight alcoholic, and a pitcher early in his career. There's no evidence whatsoever that he cheated in any way to get these numbers. There's much evidence that Bonds has cheated.

While I think maybe an asterisk (once any roids allegations are proven) is appropriate, I do not think home runs should be taken from his count. That would involve changing offical scorers' tabulations, and the actual scores from played games. I don't want to go down that road.

 

[Papa Deuce]

...
While I think maybe an asterisk (once any roids allegations are proven) is appropriate, I do not think home runs should be taken from his count. That would involve changing offical scorers' tabulations, and the actual scores from played games. I don't want to go down that road.

I'm the OP. I don't want to see his HR totals taken either. If they did that, then his leagacy would change. I want him to enjoy the legacy he "earned".

 

[Papa Deuce]

The Babe wasn't a classy guy in any stretch of the imagination.....

Not really true, or shall I say, only partially true? The Babe was my hero growing up. I have read probably 15 books on him. I wanted to be Babe Ruth as a child growing up. I always pretended to be him when playing baseball.

So, my point is I know more about Babe Ruth than most. And while he most obviously had TREMENDOUS FAULTS, Babe was known for tremendous kindness and love with children. Stories are numerous about his love for children. He worked hard at making their lives better. He did it on his own time. And he wasn't forced to do it like so many of today's athletes are.

For "me", all of his adult, non classy, exploits are at least equalled out by his devotion and support of children.


And, I agree, "Beer, broads, and hot dogs", never enhanced ANYBODY! Well, maybe the "broads"!

 

[Jennasis]

Well if they can't expunge his HR record (and I do get why they can't) then he should certainly not receive any accolades/awards for his "achievements". NO Hall of Fame, no parade...nada!

 

[Figment22]

And if people want to blame the MLB and Player's Union, be my guest. BUT INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS chose to make the choices they made. I don't think Bud Selig injected any needles into Bond's arm, or forced any pills down his throat.

No. But they certainly looked the other way for a long time because the long ball is what puts fannies in the seats and after the strike that was all that mattered. Indeed, the current occupant of the Oval Office was probably well aware of what was going on in his Texas Rangers' clubhouse when Canseco was there and yet did nothing.

Supposedly Bonds only started using after the '98 season because he knew he was a much better all-around player than McGwire or Sosa and couldn't take all the attention (read: endorsements) they were getting. Not justification, mind you I can't stand the guy, but his rationale.


The whole situation just stinks.

 

[Figment22]

I thought this Sports Illustrated piece was appropriate to post in this thread:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/tom_verducci/05/23/bonds.ruth/index.html

Legacy of lies
Even by Bonds' standards, latest about-face shameful


There will come a day when Barry Bonds leaves baseball, and everything about the game will be the better for it.

In the meantime, the more the man reveals himself, the more we know him to be the absolute fraud for which his name has become synonymous.

Only the latest example of the deceit that is Bonds occurred after he hit home run No. 714 to tie Babe Ruth for No. 2 on the all-time list. The same man who in an interview with reporters before the 2003 All-Star Game gleefully looked forward to wiping Ruth from the record books suddenly -- because it fit the purpose of trying to gain a shred of public respect -- paid homage to Ruth and his legacy. When a reporter reminded Bonds of his 2003 comments, he claimed not to remember and, as The New York Times reported, called the words "somebody's fabrication."

The only fabrication is Bonds himself. I was there that day in Chicago, along with as many as 40 other reporters around him at a table in a hotel ballroom, and I was no more than six feet away from him. Bonds spent a great deal of time talking about the importance of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City -- the same museum he stiffed in 2002 when, according to The Associated Press, "museum officials said they were unable, despite months of trying, to even get an acknowledgment from home run king Barry Bonds, who was voted the Oscar Charleston Award.''

Subsequent talk of Hank Aaron then turned into a question about Aaron's home run record.

Said Bonds, "The one I care about is Babe Ruth and 715.''

Asked why, Bonds replied, "As a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth is everything, right? I got his slugging percentage, his on-base percentage, his walks and I'll take his home runs. That's it. Don't talk about him no more. ... I'm the next generation of the Negro leagues. Hank Aaron can have those 755 home runs.''

It is yet another window into the shallow soul of Bonds that he thinks he could disrespect Ruth in front of the national media at a showcase baseball event, have it be widely and repeatedly reported, and then only three years later claim it was a "fabrication." Just like he never knew those were steroids he put into his body. He and his records are truly unbelievable.




Barry, you're just a jerk with a capital "J".

 

[MBeds]

I think this sums it all up....