Barry Bonds.
Perhaps the most polarizing figure in sports today. More so than Kobe Bryant, or even Michael Vick. Right now, people either love Barry, or they hate him. Most, it seems, hate the guy and everything that he stands for. I, on the other hand, am not most people. While I can’t say that I’m a big fan of his, I do respect him for being the best hitter of this generation, possibly of all time. The home run record that he set last night should not be tainted by all of the steriod allegations that are being thrown about. There is no need to put an asterick by the record, as some people would have you believe.
It’s natural for people to root against Barry. I mean, let’s face it, he’s a jackass, and he has been almost throughout his whole career. The press hates him, former teammates bad-mouth him, even Gary Sheffield has a problem with Barry to this day because he stole his personal chef and got him on drugs like a rich people’s version of “Training Day”! The man makes The Grinch Who Stole Christmas look like Mr. Rodgers!
As much of a prick as he is, the record books do not care what your personality is like. I mean, Mr. Nice Guy Himself, Cal Ripken Jr. has broken records. So has Pete Rose, who, by all accounts, is a much bigger piece of work than Barry Bonds could ever hope to be. So what if Barry Bonds gained a lot of sizee in a relatively quick amont of time? Who cares that even his breath has muscles now? He never failed a drug test…so get off of his back. If Barry were working for UPS and never failed a drug test, people would just leave him alone and let him deliver packages in his doo-doo brown shirt and knee-shorts. Let the man approach Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in the record books, and all of a sudden, it’s a problem.
Even if he did use(which it appears is the case), there are plenty of reasons why steriod allegations are barely relevant, if so at all. Allow me to explain:
- Andruw Jones said it best the other day: “There’s a lot of people who take steriods, and they don’t his 755 home runs”. The pitcher Bonds hit number 755 off of was suspended earlier in his career for steroid use. How many other juiced-up pitchers do you think have thrown to him over the course of his almost 20-year career? It is impossible to tell, especially since baseball just started checking for certain drugs a few years ago. Once again, no one else has made it remotely close to 755. Not even Jose Canseco, with his steriod-using, snitching-to-get-a-book-deal dirtbag self.
- When Mark McGwire was hitting home runs all over St Louis, looking like the Jolly Green Giant with a bad haircut, America loved him to death. It’s only right that the country kisses Barry’s @ss, too.
- When Babe Ruth set the original record, Major League Baseball was all-white. Imagine an all-white MLB now? Damn near all of the league leaders would be gone. No disrespect to Babe Ruth, but things would have almost certainly been different. That said, Babe gets a little extra respect because he hit 714 home runs while either hung over from drinking the night before, or while eating hot dogs in the dugout. I struggle to type on the computer while hung over or after eating a decent sized meal.
- Cheating and baseball have gone hand-in-hand since the 1919 World Series. From Kenny Rogers putting more grease on the ball than Pat Riley’s hair in the World Series, to Sammy Sosa and his “accidental” use of a corked bat, baseball players have always looked for an edge. It’s impossible to tell how many people have gone to extremes such as performance-enhancing drugs, or throwing booger snot fastballs over the years. It’s almost an art form! That is one sport where you truly cannot call it cheating unless you get caught.
- Hey, at least it wasn’t crack. My two favorite players in the 80s were Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. Both of them smoked away Hall of Fame careers. I still have rookie cards for both, which are now worth about as much as set of coasters on a clearance markdown at The Bombay Company. Thanks for giving me something to rest my beer on while I watch the game, Doc and Darryl. Sons of b*tches.
So please, get off of Barry’s back, and kiss his asterick. I wish that the next time people got on Sportscenter and started talking that asterick mess, my hero Ron Simmons would roll up on them and ever so eloquently let them know what he thinks. For those who never watch wrestling, click on the video below to see what I’m talking about.
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Man, what do you think about Bud Selig not applauding when BB25 tied the record on Saturday? Personally, I think it’s unacceptable. I mean, professional baseball is a business. Bud Selig is the boss. Bosses aren’t allowed to show preferential treatment (or the lack therof). But that’s just my opinion.
Man, I forgot that you were writig about Barry too @ JBiggs. Note to all readers: Check out the open letter JBiggs wrote to Barry Bonds over on his blog.
Well Maguire and Sosa used Creatine, but it’s not a banned substance. If Bonds was roiding, then they should asterisk his record (they take away your olympic medals if they catch you, right?).
And yeah, I think Bonds is a dick. A lot of athletes are, but he’s a realllly big asshole. He’s way beyond Pete Rose. He’s up there with the biggest assholes of all time…like Ty Cobbs.
lol…your so silly but yeah it is true, he would have been at a disadvantage if he wasn’t on drugs cause everybody else is on drugs…it wouldn’t be fair to him…I glad he pass the record, I can’t see why people get so upset over a record they didn’t set….I could understand if he was going for my record of being self centered and taking pictures everyday..then I’d take out his thumbs so he can’t click the camera but…I don’t play baseball so it’s not my record he has beaten…lol
@ Home Improvement Ninja, damn you and your logic! I typed this, but I do agree that I’d be more pissed off if it were the Olympics and someone were using steriods. I think that I hold the Olympics to a higher standard of purity, which is somewhat hypocritical. Damn Barry Bonds…making me think too much on a Thursday! Oh yeah, I agree that he is a monumental @sshole.
@ Jan, there are a lot of players not using drugs…I’d actually say that the majority are probably clean. But over the years, it’s been a whole lot of bad apples in the bunch.
Hey, I just thought of a bigger asshole than Barry Bonds: Mike Tyson. Barry’s a dick, but I don’t think he ever bit someone’s ear off. Jus’ sayin’.
“There’s a lot of people who take steriods, and they don’t his 755 home runs”.
That quote is the source of one of many excellent points youve made in this post, and Ive read a lot of them this week!
L
Cosigns with HomeImprovementnNinja…Mike Tyson cuts the cake on this.
The craziest one though is Dennis Rodman. WHAT THE FUCK?? (notice I spelled it out in all caps too)
Leon, might want to check out my latest post. Got some jams you might like with your ol ninja ass…..oh and below that is a Nas post you might enjoy as well
*daps*
+20 link clicks for awesome video reference.
True enough, although Big Barry is roided up, the fact still remains is that he’s a great baseball player. I don’t know what his record was before the allegations of steroid use came up (I guess that’s something worth investigating), but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just as good a player then as he is now.
This is gonna sound super girly. But steroids is like makeup, in that it’s an enhancement. It’s adding to what you already have, it’s bringing out the best of you. It’s not supposed to create an entire different person that what you really are. Like, if I have on makeup, when I take it off, you shouldn’t be like “who are u? I don’t know you”, same with steroids! That is, unless, you’re using loads and loads of makeup/steroids (i.e. Barry Bonds/Oprah). And then you got folks out here thinking you’re prettier/stronger than you really are.
And how tragic is THAT?!
On Jay Leno last night Tiki Barber did a good assessment of the controversy. Very good post.
Bullshit! Like southpark said, he cheated! It’s not fair to the other atlete’s!? Tiki Barber also said Michael Vick was ok. The guy beat and tortured dogs!! He lit some on fire! If he was white Tiki would never have defended him! He’s have said “throw that asshole to the wolves!
Bullshit, he cheated, it’s not fair to the other athletes. tiki also defended mike vick when the guy lit dogs on fire.if mike was white tiki would have said throw that guy behind bars.
Two comments:
1) Barry is being treated the way he is not because he juiced (which I believe), but because he’s a huge asshole.
2) Josh Gibson. If you don’t know, look him up.