On Bonds breaking the Babe's record
I confess I have mixed feelings about Barry Bonds tying Babe Ruth's home run record I may have written op-eds with Sonya defending the right of baseball to make its own decisions on steroid use independent of any government intervention, but it is still quite sad about him breaking the Babe's record. On the one hand, it is nice to seem human beings accomplish more and more difficult tasks. On the other hand, there is something different in my mind to the Babe drinking too many beers and eating too many hot dogs and still completely dominating the sport in the way no one has done so since (e.g., home runs as a percentage of home runs hit by everyone else in the league at that time). As opposed to someone (such as Bonds) breaking the Babe's numerical record, but not doing so in any where near the way that he dominated things and getting the benefit of later scientific advances.
Labels: Steroids
posted by John Lott at 3:50 PM
2 Comments:
Ruth is still the greatest player with Cobb behind him. Both played in both the dead ball era and in the present using a more lively and visible ball (cork center ball); the dead ball era was more competitive. The ball bounced less and was rarely a clean white visible object for a hitter to hit. In the dead ball era batters had to be more skilled at hitting. In the dead ball era pitching was never any greater, it was a pitchers game because of the dead and dark (and deadly) ball. Most of the greatest hall of fame pitchers pitched during the dead ball era (Grover Cleveland, Cy Young, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.) Add to that the fact that the two greatest players ever (Cobb and Ruth) played in the era of the greatest pitchers. Bonds (even Hank Aaron) will never be tested with a dead ball. We all know that Ruth and Cobb generated the most offense in the least amount of time.
They can put whatever they want in the record books, but Bonds cheated! The record books will reflect his accomplishments as being one of the greatest ever. But to me the guy these records are supposed to mean something to... I could care less. He can have the numbers but he will never have the respect, which is what the record is all about. I suppose he will tell the world that the reason he doesn't get the respect is because he's a black man, no Barry it's because your a cheater, a bigot and an ass. His record will no doubt out live me, but I don't care. I hope someday some one breaks his record and he is alive to see it. With no juice involved. Oh I mean "cream".
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