Your thoughts on Barry Bonds....

[lillygator]

I - well, we - since I bought the book for Charming - are in the process of reading the book...


but so far - what are your views....??

 

[lillygator]

and he's 7 away from Babe Ruth......no way should he have a shot at beating the Babe....and I hate the Yanks....

 

[Peter Pirate]

Lying, cheating piece of crap.

 

[rocperez]

He's in the same category as Mark McGwire. He took steroids and so did McGwire. If you're not bashing McGwire, you shouldn't bash Bonds.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

A couple days ago I was talking to my 6yo about steroid use in baseball players (my son brought up the topic...smart kid). I told my son why steroids are so unhealthy and how a player is not allowed to play baseball if they use steroids and Jake said, "no, Mom, what about Barry Bonds?" I had to call my 12yo in to explain. For crying out loud, he's 6yo (not even 6 1/2 ) and even he's noticing.

 

[debabe723]

Steroids have been used by the majority of MLB players for the past 15 years. Barry had Hall of Fame numbers before 1998 when he started using to steroids to compete with McGwire and Sosa in the home run race. Selig (and others) are just as guilty for turning a blind eye to the whole mess. If they were really concerned, why didn't they start an investigation last year when Canseco's book and the one by the Washington Post writer came out and named names...why now when the book about Barry surfaces? I don't see how you can penalize one without penalizing them all. I'm not a big fan of Barry's but I don't see how he can be singled out, just because he is close to the record. And FWIW, my ex was an MLB executive for many years and I know what I'm talking about. JMO.

 

[lillygator]

I think there has to be some starting point....but am not sure I agree with records being broken by people who are "aided".....

 

[lillygator]

I agree debabe - all need to be penalized or none...or I guess go from "here"....

 

[Brutie]

I dont care one way or the other. It's only baseball for cryin' out loud. It's not like he ordered troops into a foreign country and thousands of them have been killed and wounded and he doesnt give a rats behind. It's just a game of baseball and if he did or didnt I dont care. I'm sure it goes on in every sport and we I'm sure nobody knows the extent of how deep it goes, but thats fine.

Being in the bay area we hear it on the news it seems almost constantly, and I told hubby the other night I'm just tired of hearing about it already, and I dont even watch baseball...LOL

In the whole scheme of things, to me it isnt all that important.

 

[lillygator]

yeah - it seems no matter the team they can't start out without discussing it!

 

[debabe723]

I think there has to be some starting point....but am not sure I agree with records being broken by people who are "aided".....

Exactly...that's why it's so hard to determine where to start the punishment and which records need to be changed. Do you go back to Maris' record, which had an asterick because he played more games than the Babe to break the homerun record or farther back than that? I was talking to a good friend of mine recently who is currently a coach for an MLB team and he was saying that when he was a player, if he had been aware that steroids were available , he would've taken them in a heartbeat, just to prolong his career a year or two. I think when you are at that level, and as competitive as most of these professional athletes are (in every sport), you lose track of the long term effects taking drugs can do. And now I hear that the use of amphetimines is on the rise dramatically in sports. So I just don't know where you can begin and how you can control it.

And yes, it is just a game and I am tired of hearing about it too (and believe me, I hear about it a lot LOL).

 

[lillygator]

Lying, cheating piece of crap.

actually I wasn't bashing either - just an opinion......and I wasn't around the DIS when the MG scandle was going on....but what's good for the goose...

OOOPSSS>>>PP you weren't who I meant to quote...read back and you'll see.

 

[Brutie]

Sort of off topic but I watched this program not long ago on either discovery or tlc called "the man whos arms exploded" I think it was called. It was about a bodybuilder who took some many steroids that his arms literally exploded and started to bleed, it was not attractive at all. I guess you can only push your skin so far until it has to pop. Now why anyone would do that I have no idea.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I'm no expert on steroids, by any means, but the thing that I really hate is the way the youth ball players look up to these pro players as if what they are doing must be the norm. The kids assume that if the pros are using or have used steroids to build their muscles that it's safe and an ok thing to do. Of course all kinds of idols do things that could be considered "not so smart" (drug use, etc), but the steroids are used to build muscle mass and help them in their game and sends a strong message to the kids.

As the parent of one of these kids who is serious about his youth baseball (his U13 team practices about 8-9 hours a week until games start and will then have 3 games/week and I think 5-6 hours of pratice) the kids would love a way to help make them even stronger. And as kids they don't see the long term risks.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Stop with the justifications regarding McGuire and Sosa, so they were lying, cheating pieces of crap as well, the topic was Bonds and the record at hand is to be broken by him and it isn't right.

Baseball has precious little credibility but has a chance to take a stand here and if they choose to start with bonds and move forward from now on, fine. If they choose to go back to McGuire and Sosa, fine, they just need to do the right thing very soon.

Regarding bonds. He's a jerk who has made his own bed and he deserves to be lying in it (no pun intended). He has always been a self absorbed a-h and it's time baseball says goodbye to him.

 

[rhanditresmom]

I guess I just feel like there are two sets of standards. One set for the "regular" people and one set for those who are in the public eye...whether they be professional athletes or whatever. I am always so disappointed to hear that an athlete has been suspended from a set number of games when testing positive for drug use. I think this sends a real mixed message to our kids. We spend hours and hours in school teaching them that drug use is bad and if you use drugs you will end up on a fast track to nowhere; but then they see these guys and they literally get a slap on the wrist and they are back making their millions. I think there is a level of cancelling out that happens....what are the real consequences of illegal drug use? I don't think it is a clear as it should be.

I'm not so much mad, just really disappointed. And pretty sad

 

[Peter Pirate]

rhanditresmom, I agree. It's a huge mixed message that we are now dealing with and it has spread to all facets of our lives. So saying this is 'just baseball' isn't really accurate, IMO.

Along the same lines is how competetion itself has changed. There is little to no sportsmanship anymore, it's only about who 'wins' and if you have to cheat to win then it's called 'gamesmanship', not cheating (in tennis anyway). This super-competitive attitude has jumped the fence from sports to business (what ever happened to anti-trust?) and politics (it's almost totally partisan complete with dirty tricks and no concern to the outcome, only who wins).

So Barry Bonds, like it or not, has become a symbol for many people as to what is not only wrong in baseball or sports but in our society as well and truthfully this beacon of light couldn't have shone on a more deserving guy.

 

[Missy1961]

I hate all of this. Baseball is my favorite sport, and it pains me that the powers that be sat on all of this for so long. For goodness sakes, they had the words of Ken Caminati, from his mouth. That should have made them act, but they sat back & didn't do anything. But I don't know how they can settle any of this. Do they take away Bonds's homers? For how long? Since they didn't test him in the past, how do you prove when he took them? And what about McGwire, Sosa? Do you take away Caminati & Canseco's MVP awards? And no-one talks about pitchers & steroids. They had to have taken them too. It's a big mess.

 

[lillygator]

it's a huge mess and I don't know the best solution, but maybe they should "go from here".

 

[cardaway]

IMO anybody calling racism over what is happening to Barry is way off base.

In some cases something can end up being a personal issue when somebody is in the spotlight. It becomes a personal issue no matter whether the person is black or white. In the case of Bonds he has spent his career making sure it it all about him and ticking off anybody he could in the process.

Anything that happens to him is all on him. He brought it all on himself.

IMO, if he should break the record (which looks like it might nit happen given how far he's degraded after the testing) it shouldn't be given any hoopla. In fact is would be great if it happened at a visitor ballpark and the fan threw it back.