A day later, the taint remains and the questions begin about Bonds' place in history

A day later, the taint remains and the questions begin about Bonds' place in history

sportsillustrated.cnn .com

The new home run king owns a record, but not many hearts outside San Francisco.

The day after one of the greatest records in sports was broken, a nation was left wondering where all its sports heroes had gone.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Number 756 comes with a bittersweet taste, and I'm not sure what to think about it. IMO Bonds could have very well been using steriods, although it's a shame. But do steroids really make you hit more home runs? They make you stronger, but you still have to have good hand eye coordination to hit the ball let alone hit home runs.

Should Bonds be allowed into the hall of fame when his time comes? Will there be an asterisk next to his name in the record books? How many other stories will we hear in the future about other players coming clean on their steroid use?

sportsillustrated.cnn .com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's just a damn shame. Sports and controversy seem to go hand in hand anymore. Here's arguably the most important record in American sports and it's under the shadow of a controversy.

Bonds has always been a great player. But (here we go) I do believe steroids definitely inflated his HR totals. Steroids can't help make contact with a ball, so they won't help a free swinging strikeout guy. But they'll assist a contact hitter, who's warning track flies or hard hit drives won't normally make it over the fence.

So, not much help for a Dave Kingman, for example.

And the controversy is only exacerbated by Bonds being such a complete unmitigated jerk.

It's really ashame that there has to be an air of controversy over this. What Bonds did is monumental, I couldn't hit 756 Home Runs in 6 lifetimes. But I feel that he did cheat.
I'm no expert on the subject, but in my opinion he did use steroids. I find it highly unlikely that a man can gain so much muscle mass in such a short amount of time. Plus his head grew a couple sizes as well.
It takes away from the players of old who did it legitimately. The record is the record, but I think they should absolutely put an asterisk next to his name.

Bonds is a cheat, Aaron is the real record holder. What Aaron did was amazing.


Bonds - 757*

I say, prove it or leave him alone. Prove it.

What constitutes proof? A confession? Not likely. He isn't on trial, so it's not like there's a criminal "beyond a reasonable doubt" burden of proof. We're talking "court of public opinion" here. And there's certainly sufficient evidence to find him guilty of steroid use in that court based upon a preponderance of the evidence.

Sports Illustrated's "The Truth" article has enough documentation to convince me.

Here's the Bonds Exposed article, also from SI.

And here's the documentation.

There's just too much there to throw it all aside. So if we're waiting for Barry to say, "Yep, I did it. I knew it wasn't flax seed oil all along. I was pumping myself full of whatever chemicals I could get my hands on that I thought would enhance my performance. Hell, McGwire was doing it. And so was Sosa. Not to mention borderline players who wouldn't have even been in the league without the juice. Come on, McGwire looked like a skinny paperboy until he started juicing."

I just don't think that's going to happen.

But I don't intend to personally bother him. If Maris's record 61st homer warranted an asterisk because he played in 12 more games than Ruth's 60 season, then this record definitely does.

But then we're forced to attempt to question everything that's happened in baseball since the 80's. What do we do? Asterisk everything?

I don't know. But it's a shame. And I blame baseball for being willing to look the other way - because the fans were coming out to see the Frankensteins at a time when the popularity was ebbing after the strike year that cancelled the '94 series.

Without sportsmanship, there is no sport.

When the records mean nothing, the sport means nothing.

Baseball, Football, and Basketball are all dead.

They're just exhibitions of athletic prowess by any means and not worth my time.

I"ve watched this happen throughout my life.

At first, it was slow and almost imperceptible.

Then, the pace increased and it all collapsed within just a couple of decades.



[edit on 2007/8/9 by GradyPhilpott]

It's a damned shame is what it is. Whether or not he actually juiced is not a proven fact, but the accusations alone taint it forever. Which is the shame of it... Before he juiced, he was a magically gifted player, one of those rare 5 tool players we hear so much about, yet he actually lived up to the gifts...there for the first decade or so of his career the only competition he had for title of best player in the game was Ken Griffey, no one else was even in the conversation. A player who was HOF bound without the juice, forever tainted by suspicion.

I dont know how I feel about BB breaking Aaron's record. What I do feel strongly about is that there should be a big 'ol asterisk next to the 756 or whatever number it ends up being.

Thankfully I can avoid all confrontation by wearing the t-shirt from the link below. That says it all.

756 with a caveat

Proof would be a failed drug test, there has never been one.

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Proof would be a failed drug test, there has never been one.

True, but that doesn't mean anything because they never used to drug test anyway. He certainly doesn't help his case by being such a jerk all the time to the media.


May the asterisk haunt him forever.

Actually I believe there has been a failed drug test, just not one for steroids, as far as we know.

Remember the whole "I took some stuff out of a guy's locker" deal? Supposedly, he took some pills out of a teammate's locker that turned out to be amphetamines. Because world class athletes make a practice out of ingesting mystery substances. I guess he thought they were Sweetarts or something.