08-10-2007, 05:39 PM
Tony Gwynn also said the record isn’t tainted. Does that make him a piece of shit too? Do you hope he drops dead too?
I saw the game at a bar and the bartender was some Filipino or Puerto Rican or something and he kept interjecting his thoughts into Bonds’ post-HR speech. “I’d like to thank steroids for helping me out along the way…” that kind of shit. He went on to quote what he’s heard ad nauseam in the media - all the stuff about him getting so much bigger, his head is bigger, his feet are bigger, blah blah. I then asked him, “Well what about Julio Franco? He’s much bigger now than he was in the mid-80s at the beginning of his career. He’s 48 and still playing. Why is nobody suspicious of him?” He had no response to this, I suspect because a) he has no idea who Julio Franco is; and 2) he knows nothing about baseball.
I mention this story because this bartender is the embodiment of most of the Bonds haters. They suspect he took steroids, so assume that is only reason he has had such incredible success later in his career. They’ve never even seen one of his at bats, or if they did, didn’t pay any attention to what they were actually watching. The reason he has enjoyed so much success as he has gotten older is because he has mastered the strike zone. 2001-2004 Bonds walked at such an astronomical rate not just because pitchers were afraid to pitch to him. Obviously that’s a part of it. But there were so many times when pitchers have challenged him, with the intent of getting him out. But he will not chase anything that he knows he can’t handle. That’s what makes him a great player. During those four seasons, he couldn’t have had more than a dozen or so check swings. He mastered the strike zone and mastered the art of knowing how to hit. Steroids has absolutely nothing to do with knowing that a slider is coming in a fastball count. It has nothing to do with being able to adjust to an off-speed pitch when you’re looking fastball. It just goes to show how simple and illogical people have become. If his body is bigger, and he hit a lot of home runs, then he must have used steroids. What other explanation could there be?
I’m not saying Bonds hasn’t used steroids. I’m pretty sure he has. It just doesn’t matter as much as people make it out to be. The only reason people are in such a tizzy over it is because it’s a (gasp!) drug. And there is such a taboo in this country surrounding drugs which the government has deemed illegal. If these people were so outraged because he “cheated”, why aren’t they protesting for Gaylord Perry to be ousted from the Hall of Fame or for an asterisk to be placed next to his name? He readily admits to throwing a spitball, an illegal pitch. He cheated. But everybody laughs when the topic of the spitball, or nail files, or petroleum jelly is brought up. How many Hall of Famers used a corked bat? George Brett had an illegal amount of pine tar on his bat. He cheated. The issue isn’t about cheating, it’s about drugs. It’s not about “performance enhancers” either; it’s about drugs. It’s not about the ability to recover quicker from injuries, which steroids presumably do. If that were the case, why is nobody protesting the use of cortisone shots? Players receive them all the time to help battle through injuries over the course of a season. Isn’t that just as responsible for enhancing their performance and decreasing recovery time from injuries as steroids are? Baseball players are bigger and stronger today than they’ve ever been, and steroids is just one of several factors that contribute to that fact.
This whole hatred of Bonds is a prime example of the retarded hypocrisy in this country. Baseball fans have no problem with the likes of Brett Myers or Julio Lugo or Elijah Dukes or Dmitri Young or Josh Hamilton. You’ll never hear an entire stadium boo a wife beater or crack head. That’s perfectly acceptable in our society. But use steroids and be an asshole to the media? Well that’s just sending a very poor message and setting a bad example to children. We can’t have that! Speaking of which, isn’t it odd that you’ve never heard of Bonds beating his wife or mistress or children? Domestic abuse has been a bit of an epidemic amongst baseball players for quite a while, though you don’t really hear a lot about it. With all the steroids he’s been alleged to pump into himself, you’d think he’d have more than a few violent, Benoit-like outbursts. After all, every single person that takes steroids is bound to have bouts of roid rage. Right? RIGHT?
I saw the game at a bar and the bartender was some Filipino or Puerto Rican or something and he kept interjecting his thoughts into Bonds’ post-HR speech. “I’d like to thank steroids for helping me out along the way…” that kind of shit. He went on to quote what he’s heard ad nauseam in the media - all the stuff about him getting so much bigger, his head is bigger, his feet are bigger, blah blah. I then asked him, “Well what about Julio Franco? He’s much bigger now than he was in the mid-80s at the beginning of his career. He’s 48 and still playing. Why is nobody suspicious of him?” He had no response to this, I suspect because a) he has no idea who Julio Franco is; and 2) he knows nothing about baseball.
I mention this story because this bartender is the embodiment of most of the Bonds haters. They suspect he took steroids, so assume that is only reason he has had such incredible success later in his career. They’ve never even seen one of his at bats, or if they did, didn’t pay any attention to what they were actually watching. The reason he has enjoyed so much success as he has gotten older is because he has mastered the strike zone. 2001-2004 Bonds walked at such an astronomical rate not just because pitchers were afraid to pitch to him. Obviously that’s a part of it. But there were so many times when pitchers have challenged him, with the intent of getting him out. But he will not chase anything that he knows he can’t handle. That’s what makes him a great player. During those four seasons, he couldn’t have had more than a dozen or so check swings. He mastered the strike zone and mastered the art of knowing how to hit. Steroids has absolutely nothing to do with knowing that a slider is coming in a fastball count. It has nothing to do with being able to adjust to an off-speed pitch when you’re looking fastball. It just goes to show how simple and illogical people have become. If his body is bigger, and he hit a lot of home runs, then he must have used steroids. What other explanation could there be?
I’m not saying Bonds hasn’t used steroids. I’m pretty sure he has. It just doesn’t matter as much as people make it out to be. The only reason people are in such a tizzy over it is because it’s a (gasp!) drug. And there is such a taboo in this country surrounding drugs which the government has deemed illegal. If these people were so outraged because he “cheated”, why aren’t they protesting for Gaylord Perry to be ousted from the Hall of Fame or for an asterisk to be placed next to his name? He readily admits to throwing a spitball, an illegal pitch. He cheated. But everybody laughs when the topic of the spitball, or nail files, or petroleum jelly is brought up. How many Hall of Famers used a corked bat? George Brett had an illegal amount of pine tar on his bat. He cheated. The issue isn’t about cheating, it’s about drugs. It’s not about “performance enhancers” either; it’s about drugs. It’s not about the ability to recover quicker from injuries, which steroids presumably do. If that were the case, why is nobody protesting the use of cortisone shots? Players receive them all the time to help battle through injuries over the course of a season. Isn’t that just as responsible for enhancing their performance and decreasing recovery time from injuries as steroids are? Baseball players are bigger and stronger today than they’ve ever been, and steroids is just one of several factors that contribute to that fact.
This whole hatred of Bonds is a prime example of the retarded hypocrisy in this country. Baseball fans have no problem with the likes of Brett Myers or Julio Lugo or Elijah Dukes or Dmitri Young or Josh Hamilton. You’ll never hear an entire stadium boo a wife beater or crack head. That’s perfectly acceptable in our society. But use steroids and be an asshole to the media? Well that’s just sending a very poor message and setting a bad example to children. We can’t have that! Speaking of which, isn’t it odd that you’ve never heard of Bonds beating his wife or mistress or children? Domestic abuse has been a bit of an epidemic amongst baseball players for quite a while, though you don’t really hear a lot about it. With all the steroids he’s been alleged to pump into himself, you’d think he’d have more than a few violent, Benoit-like outbursts. After all, every single person that takes steroids is bound to have bouts of roid rage. Right? RIGHT?