Bonds hits bomb in philly

[Houndman]

I saw a sign at the game last night that says it best: "Ruth did it with beer and hotdogs; Aaron did it with class: what did you do it with?"

[Seventy4]

It doesn't matter how many homeruns he hits, there will always be the air of mystery around him and steroids. The clear and the cream? Yeh, definitely steroids. He didn't know? Bull crap. He's 40+ most athletes are getting smaller as they age, he's getting bigger, more muscle mass. How is that possible without steroids?

Look at him in his early Pirates day when he was supposedly at his highest level of fitness and physique, up until he was traded to the Giants he was an average build at best.

Now he's freaking huge, with a hat size that would rival even mine. Your head doesn't continue to grow after puberty (well literally anyhow), yet his cranium is huge.

About the testing policy, you're tested once a year, the commish can arrange another test for anyone he wants. I doubt very seriously that Mr. Bonds being the draw that he is for the Giants is not well-prepared and forewarned by the franchise about a pending test. It's more than likely not known by the franchise when he's going to be tested, but then again, there are always people who know, and people can be bought.

[imported_MoonlightGraham]

i agree he has a terrible attitude but will go down in history as bein one of the best hitters ever.


he absolutly hates boston.

[imported_mega]

He has a terrible attitude to some people and to others he comes across as very charismatic. One day he is snubbing a reporter, the next day he is out in left field passing the ball around with a cancer victim. Lets just say Barry Bonds is a complex person that most people will never understand.

On another note, I hope everyone would admit that hes a first ballot hall of famer, not only because of hitting, but because of 8 gold gloves and the only member of the 400/400 and 500/500 club, as well as 1 of 3 people in the 40/40 club. Only Kenny Lofton has more stolen bases than Bonds among active players. Take away steroids(if they ever prove it) and you still have the greatest combination of power, speed, and defense since Willie Mays. I laugh at people thinking he doesnt deserve to be in the hall of fame.

[UK5]

Definitely a Hall of Famer.....people that say he isn't don't look at his stats or what he has done for the game of baseball, they look at all the rumors hanging over his head......I love watching Barry Bonds hit........

[burton2019]

I laugh at everyone who hates Bonds. They say his records will be diminished by steroids. Like no one else in the MLB has done steroids. Like the Babe and all of them weren't on speed all the time. But hey since he is Barry Bonds and about to break one of the most storied records everyone wants to bash on him. Bonds is better than most athletes everyone on here talks about all the time. For example:...

I find this amusing because everyone on here loves Favre, but hates Bonds. Interesting considering Favre is an admitted ex-drunk, ex-drug addict (prescription pain killers) and ex-all night
party boy, and he has called out teammates about there personal business dealings, he has
called out management for their competence in running a front office and blamed others for
his poor play. Is Bonds a drug user? No, he has passed all tests.

But hey its Brett Favre everyone "loves" him.

Funny if you ask me. But hey who cares?

[burton2019]

As Barry Bonds stands poised to surpass Babe Ruth and take dead aim at Hank Aaron, thousands of (self-appointed) guardians of the game are seething. "What could be worse than baseball's most beloved record being compromised by an alleged steroid abuser?" we mutter in righteous anger.




Tris Speaker, one of baseball's greatest center fielders, was involved in more than one scandal from the early 1900s.The answer, fellow seamheads, is "plenty." Baseball history is littered with scandals that make Barry's ugly assault on 714 and 755 look tame. Make no mistake: It will be dismaying to see Bonds lord his arrogance -- not to mention his puffed-out pectorals -- over us as he points skyward after No. 715.

But it's not even close to the low point of the pastime's history. As Babe Ruth's biographer, the inimitable Robert Creamer, is fond of pointing out, "Baseball must be a marvelous game to survive the awful things that people have done to it."

Topping the awful things, of course, is the infamous Black Sox fix of the 1919 World Series. Hugh Fullerton, the reporter who is credited with uncovering the Black Sox scandal, believed that 1919 was just one of many early postseasons tainted by corruption. Cheating -- or as the players preferred to call it, "arranging games" -- was more widespread in the first three decades of the 20th century than even serious students of baseball lore suspect. And it didn't end with the "eight men out": Skullduggery continued to haunt the game well after the eight Black Sox players were banished in the early '20s.

Baseball in that era was almost as slippery as boxing or horse racing. Far too often, the fix was in. League presidents, owners, managers, coaches and players all routinely consorted with bookies and hustlers. Wild wagering was as much a part of baseball's saloon culture as a shot and a beer.

Many of early baseball's most celebrated figures are linked to disquieting episodes, among them Hall of Famers Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Cy Young, John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rabbit Maranville, Frankie Frisch, Eddie Collins and Chief Bender. Gambling-induced chicanery might have marred some epochal World Series, including the first modern one in 1903 between the Boston Pilgrims and the Pittsburgh Pirates, the New York Giants' trouncing of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905, the "Miracle" Boston Braves' dramatic sweep of the A's in 1914 and the Chicago Cubs' ham-handed loss to the Red Sox in 1918.

But for sheer gall it's hard to top the Red Sox's cheeky performance in the 1912 World Series. Up three games to two against the New York Giants of manager John "Mugsy" McGraw and ace Christy Mathewson, the Red Sox were heavily favored to clinch the Series with their ace -- "Smokey" Joe Wood, of the gaudy 34-5 record that season -- taking the slab.

Anyone who bet on the Giants that day -- and many members of the Red Sox probably did -- made a killing. Smoky Joe threw fewer than a dozen pitches in the first inning and was strafed for six runs. As Boston Globe baseball seer T.H. Murnane observed at the time, Wood wasn't smoking; he was lobbing. No stranger to an arranged game, McGraw bellowed at his charges to swing at Wood's first offering. With no outs and runners at first and second, Wood curiously chose to pitch out of a full windup rather than the stretch, permitting the Giants to pull off an easy double steal.

Boston's defense -- led by Tris Speaker, the best center fielder of his (or perhaps any) era -- made several suspicious gaffes in the first two innings. A pickoff attempt at second somehow managed to elude Heinie Wagner at short, Steve Yerkes at second, and Speaker sauntering in from center. Right fielder Harry Hooper had to retrieve the ball as the Giants sashayed around the bases.

Despite their Keystone Kops antics, the Sox came back the next day to beat Mathewson and the Giants, pocketing the winner's share of $4,000 each. That's good work if you can get it.

Fourteen years later, Speaker and fellow immortal Ty Cobb were accused of fixing a game played in 1919. They were forced to quit, then slithered back into the game when lawyers counseled them to compile a sworn affidavit that listed every nasty, cheating affair they'd ever heard of -- an exercise that, no doubt, took more than a page or two.

Cobb and Speaker played a game of "chicken" with commissioner Landis: Reinstate us -- or we trigger our bombshell. Rather than risk blowing up the game, Landis backed down.

So take heart, gentle fans. If our resilient pastime could survive these sordid messes, it can certainly survive some surly superstar with an alleged steroid jones.

[gcdevil22]

being an alcoholic and partying all night didn't enhance his abilities as an athlete

steroids does...

[imported_mega]

Only difference now is Selig is a frickin idiot and Landis was a hardass to begin with. Bonds is the Joe Jackson of our era. The great one that has to take the fall for everyone elses sins. The only difference was, most people liked Joe Jackson.

Thats a great article there Esco. You educated me pretty well. Im sure moonlight knew all of this, but Im a pretty avid baseball historian and I didnt know alot of the "behind the scenes" things going on back then.

Even Ruth was a cheater. "Ruth did it with beer and hot dogs". Those educated philly fans last night had no clue that it was illegal to drink during that era. Ban Ruth now, kick him out of the hall. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] Thats a joke for anyone taking me seriously. While Babe's out of shape, drunken arse was playing in a minature ball park getting his 714, Josh Gibson was hitting 960+ homeruns in the other league. Talk about major league baseball and cheating, it was organized cheating to not let black people play, then when they did, they chose an uncle tom like Jackie Robinson because they knew he would cater to the white man instead of a no nonsense guy like Gibson or even Page.

Honestly this is nothing new for baseball, they tried to stick it to Mickey Mantle, they tried to stick it to Willie Mays. This whole thing is media driven. Selig looked the other way for so long and would have continued to do had the media and congress made the story bigger than life. People dont want to face facts, but steroids were good for baseball, yes I just said that. It might not have been good for the record books, but it was good for the fans plessure.

Baseball records cant be compared anyway. The fields are different, the bats are different, the balls are different, the mound is different, the players are bigger, all races are allowed to play, there is just wayyyy too much to think about. How many times has your uncle or your grandfather, etc told you, Willie Mays would have hit 800 homeruns had he not moved to candlestick, or Ted Williams would have hit 800 homeruns had he not been in the service, etc. All of that is nice for debate, but it doesnt make one player better than the other. Records are quantative, lets just admit Bonds is great and leave it at that.

[imported_mega]

and the bombshell of them all, before 1930, any ball that bounced on the field(a ground rule double) that bounced over the fence was considered a home run. How many times has espn ever mentioned this? Baseball has always been a nonuniform game, all records are nonsymmetrical in baseball.