jazzcyclist wrote:
"...The rest of the stuff that you mention, like trainers, taxes and single season vs career is irrelevant..."
Well, guru thinks the career homer mark, and even personality matter.
BCB
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Bonds Indicted [guilty on 1/4] [wrist whacked!]Re: BB Shots
Tell me I'm wrong.
I've never met Barry Bonds, so whenever I hear people talk about what a jerk he is, I wonder if they've met him. Unlike Bobby knight, who has repeatedly demonstrated on TV what a jerk he can be, I've never seen any of these displays from Barry Bonds. Some people may have had firsthand experience with Bonds, but I suspect most people deride Bonds' personality on the basis of media hearsay.
Lying at every turn is a good start. Wonder if we'll see Barry do the Marion plea for forgiveness thing? Last edited by guru on Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
I have to agree with jazzy here, every time I see Bonds in an interview he seems first of all articulate, secondly mild mannered, a perfect gentleman.
Charles Barkley is really fired up about the Bonds indictment. He just threw out the race card on ESPN and called it a witch hunt. and selective prosecution. He also wonders why aren't any known White PED users being prosecuted. As I predicted earlier:
I've never actually met Bonds, but did have occasion to spend 5-10 minutes with him standing behind my seat at a hockey game while he berated the poor usher about proper accomodations for him, his wife, his babe in arms and his 350lb bodyguard. Beyond that,I've talked to a few local sportswriters, and read/heard many more on the radio and the unanimous opinion is that he's one of the biggest assholes ever to walk the planet. The "media hearsay" is an honest reputation--in my considered judgment--that Bonds earned well. I don't have time to look this up to confirm, but it's my recollection that even when he was of collegiate MVP status at Arizona State, his teammates nonethless voted him off the team (but the coach would have none of it). Can anybody verify that? (I've had this distaste for Bonds the human for years; didn't stop me from eagerly going to watch him play; the night he hit 71 and 72 was incredible. Even knowing what we know now)
What does honesty have to do with personality? Even the most charismatic people can be pathological liars and the biggest assholes can be honest.
It is my understanding (not personal knowledge) that Bonds has the reputation that he does because he has earned it from many repeated instances since forever -- this is not a BALCO-era occurrence.
Bonds was also a great player before he became a committed user of what in many sports are PEDs. McGuire was always a really good player - not on the same level and did not have several MVPs that led to him getting contracts with the highest salary in baseball beginning rather far back. I am even unsure of my feelings on Hall of Fame, as I think he would have been in it without the chemical assistance (however, MJ might well have been almost as good, but not as "multi-evented" at OG/WCs).
Using your son as a prop is another and I suspect we won't see Barry on Oprah. Last edited by MJD on Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah, until BALCO broke, I never had any thought that Bonds was anything but a most difficult human being to deal with, not any kind of snake.
I want to refer everyone back to paulthefan axiom number 1 regarding PEDs... players with the largest contract $$ are most likely in the deepest. This one is based on basic economics.
As in track, it's the second-tier athletes trying to make up for talent shortcomings, and fading stars trying to recapture their luster.
Unfortunately several scenarios come to mind. 1 The top players are warned in advance. 2 The top players have more sophisticated routines that are harder to detect. 3 With $100m on the line for a single player, they can fund research into drugs that pass the tests baseball administers. 4 The tests are suppressed The fourth one is the only one that I have no faith in myself; number three is quite ominous in its implications.
Didn't The New York Times reveal that MLB's drug testers routinely notify the team ahead of time when they are coming to town for testing?
One day.
Yes, the tester have to get stadium passes from the team, so the team has to be told in advance. I wonder how many other holes that you can drive a truck through they have in their testing regime. And some people complained about Masback and USATF....
That then, puts the lie to the suggestion that those w/ the biggest contracts are the deepest into drugs.
Not necessarily, if they're using the drugs to maintain the numbers that result in the contract.
that is a no-brainer, because they (the shlubs) can't afford to get the latest and best information on the testing... basic economics. They are always decades behind what the champs know. On a fair playing field the best are the best. However everything gets transmogrified with big dollars as then the best appear superhuman as they reap a tremendous dividend (call it a millionaires tax break) in PEDs. Last edited by paulthefan on Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
Not sure about this. I lived in the Bay Area and i got the impression that his team mates thought he was a jerk too.
The Chicago Tribune's Philip Hersh makes an excellent point in defense of Bonds' records:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/spo ... and-m.html
I didn't know about Soto and Mary Decker. You learn something new everyday. Ty Cobbs and Ted Williams weren't exactly known for being cuddly either.
I'm aware of that. I'm only responding to those who feel that Bonds' records should be expunged.
And having been in the Bay Area for the time that Bonds was a Giant, either the press is pulling the most massive snow job of all time (including doctoring numerous videos) or Bonds is deserving of his reputation as an asshole. I’d say maybe he’s a sweetheart around his family, but most of the available evidence argues against it.
Apologies. Didn't catch that.
Bonds performance
a poster wrote: "...Bonds was also a great player before he became a committed user of what in many sports are PEDs. McGuire was always a really good player - not on the same level and did not have several MVPs that led to him getting contracts with the highest salary in baseball beginning rather far back. I am even unsure of my feelings on Hall of Fame, as I think he would have been in it without the chemical assistance (however, MJ might well have been almost as good, but not as "multi-evented" at OG/WCs)..."
Bonds was great prior to the weight gain, but not a 50 or 55 homer player as were Griffey, Jr., A-Rod, and McGwire even before they were 30. He had generally hit about 35 a year before he bulked up (and 49 once), then hit 73. He would not have done that (actually, no one had, not even Mays, Mantle, Foxx, Killebrew, McCovey, Kingman, Jackson, Greenberg or Ruth). Would have made the Hall, wouldn't have threatened or broken Aaron's career mark. see: http://www.sports-central.org/sports/20 ... r_best.php http://mvn.com/outsiderradio/2007/07/23 ... -of-bonds/ http://www.e-sports.com/articles/731/1/ ... Page1.html http://www.sports-central.org/sports/20 ... er_see.php Bijan C. Bayne
I remember reading about that last year or the year before. I think it was an excerpt from a biography on Bonds. Probably posted on ESPN's website. As I recall the story, on a trip to Hawaii, Barry and two other players missed curfew bed check. The captain handed out punishment to the players (running laps or some such thing). The other two players accepted the punishment, but Barry refused to do anything because the captain was not his boss. The players met with the coach to complain that Barry was ripping the team apart. The coach said that if the players voted to get rid of Barry, he would do so. The players voted, and only two voted to keep him on the team. The coach said that since it was not unanimous, Barry got to stay on the team.
Re: Bonds performance
I completely agree that he would never have made the 700 Club (probably even the religious one  ) much less broken the 754 mark, without PEDs. It just a comment about the two players discussed by someone above. It also expressed my uncertainty on the HoF given that things are tainted; removing anything extra above what he might have done (including stopping at 40 instead of continuing), his record was a HoF one.
I soured on the HR stuff after the McGuire/Sosa contests when the pieces fit together enough to raise big questions about the comparability of the 'playing field'. By the time Bonds was doing the big damage I was not hoping he hit a lot. Bonds was at the top but saw himself eclipsed by somewhat lessor players and felt the need to exceed, so to speak.
I've got nuthin but time and found this article...thanks Google... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... man/060504 cman
Candy-Armed Barry
Bonds' MVP, or "Bonds is the G.O.A.T." apologists have contested my columns on a few counts, one interesting one being that he has won eight Gold Gloves. But the ESPN article on his ASU days contains this assertion:
..."There'd be 15 scouts in the stands, and he didn't want them to see that he had no arm."..' Bonds' Gold Gloves were awarded for playing LF. Manny Ramirez plays left. Frank Howard played in left. Ted Williams played in left. The Reds stuck Pete Rose in left. To argue that Bonds is baseball's greatest ever with "stellar left field play" as a plank in the platform is by definition diminishing- the two thirds of National League outfielders who are charged w/ covering the most ground, and making the most challenging throws, are the RF'ers and the CF'ers. When Bonds teamed w/ Gold Glover Andy Van Slyke in Pittsburgh, it was Van Slyke who was considered a fielding standout. Griffey (cf) was rated a superior fielder, Griffey was younger, and tabbed by Aaron as most likely to break his record, and Sosa and McGwire captured media attention w/ the assault on Maris' mark. Some sportswriters considered A-Rod the best all-around player. All that had to get to Bonds in the late 1990's. (red flag- home run production does not spike at age 36) BCB Last edited by bijanc on Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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