Say Anything Blog

I am tired and going to bed; but I wanted to close tonight by saying this particular record bothers me, I mean the way many people view this record. Aaron was great ball player and exceeded the total number of home runs hit by Babe Ruith, but in many more games/years and under different rules/conditions. Bonds will pass Aaron, but again a different set of circumstances prevailed that make his total different than either Ruth or Aaron.

So, Aaron did not break Ruth’s record, he just hit more home runs, the same with Bonds over Aaron. They all get credit for great hitting, exceeding the total home runs by the person coming before them, but without taking anything whatsoever away from the great accomplishments of those that came before them.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

He cheated. He got where he is today with help.  Only book of records he should be in is the MLB’s Record of Scandal, Slander, and Shame.

Neiman and Anna,

If Bonds had any class he’d have retired one short of Hank Aaron’s record.  Since he didn’t have that much class, he deserves to have his record footnoted with reference to his illegal use of performance enhancing drugs.

Out Here
Rodney G. Graves

Ceterum censeo Parthia esse delendam
Latin: “Furthermore, Parthia (Persia aka modern day Iran) should be destoyed”

That would have been very noble of him and he would have gotten more positive fame. Greed will getcha every time.

At the time that he took steroids, if he did, that was baseball. Don’t underestimate the greed by the people surrounding him who may well have given him the drugs without his knowledge in order to build their reputations with other athletes.

He has never tested positive for steroids. He has lived his life as a decent human being. His baseball record speaks for its self. He doesn’t kiss ass which makes a lot of people mad and envious.

This may well be one of those trashy gossip things that develop a life of their own.

ews48, you’re right but keep in mind that Neiman is correct. Unless the achievement is via the same means as the prior record then it has no basis for claim.

c’mon people,

Steroids or no (which has NEVER been proven with a positive test, just heresay), you still have to hit the ball, considered the #1 most difficult feat in all of sports.

With today’s “live” balls, every singlke major leaguer can hot one out, if they can just hit it.

Bond hit it.

What’s sad is that when he reached home base, NO ONE on the team greeted him.  That was pathetic.

I think Bond’s real problem isn’t the steroid rumors (sorry folks, that’s ALL they are), the problme is he is an ass.

EWS48:

He has never tested positive for steroids. He has lived his life as a decent human being. His baseball record speaks for its self. He doesn’t kiss ass which makes a lot of people mad and envious.

He has allowed the perception to continue that he did take steroids and if he wanted his record to be untainted, it was his responsibility to fight that perception. I don’t know if he took steroids or not, my only point was that the three records were made at different times under different circumstances and while Aaron hit more and Bonds hit as many total home runs than Rith, neither Aaron in his time or Bonds today broke the record of the men preceding them. They all accomplished great goals and proved to be exceptional atheletes.

Bill Mitchell:

What’s sad is that when he reached home base, NO ONE on the team greeted him.  That was pathetic.

Maybe those closest to Bonds know something we don’t know? Further, if he is an egotistical ass that has turned off his teammates and the public and allowed the perception to exist he uses steroids, why not blame the man at the center of the controversy?

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

What about Sosa, McGuire, Clemens and others who are ‘suspected’ of taking steroids.  What about their records and place in history?  Funny, nobody complained when the yearly home run records were being broken a while back.  MLB had record attendance and TV ratings and everybody from top to bottom made a lot of money.

To take the high road now and pretend to care about the purity of records is ignoring the big picture.  If Bud Seleg and baseball really cared about steroids, well, maybe they should have done something about it years ago.  I dont know, maybe TEST the damn players unannounced once in a while?  Is that so hard to do?

This is not all Bond’s fault, he was playing by the accepted rules at the time and to my best knowledge has not failed a drug test to date.  This is really Bud Seleg’s mess.

i have never been a fan of bonds, period.  i would like to see griffey stay healthy long enough to break this record.

"No Sane man will dance.”—Cicero

Here’s thing with steroids: Either we allow them, or we don’t allow them.

Saying steroids “was baseball” during Bonds’ career is total crap.  It wasn’t baseball because steroids, though they may have been legal and/or acceptable under MLB rules depending on what we’re talking about, has existed in a gray area.  Not all players have taken them they weren’t sure if they could or not because the rules weren’t well-defined.  And then there’s the question of media scrutiny.

You can’t tell me that it’s fair for Bonds to have juiced himself up when that same advantage wasn’t necessarily available to other players.

Also, while Bonds is a terrific hitter, he’d never have gotten close to this record without ‘roids.  Because they do help, otherwise how do you explain Sosa’s meteoric rise in HR’s only to see it crash and burn when MLB started checking in on steroid use?

Bonds is an affront to the purity of the game, and an asshole to boot.  I, for one, am waiting for Rodriguez to go ahead and take this record right back.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I hope they quit interrupting the ASTROS to watch Barry Bonds hit another ball.

I agree Rob, what are the rules and are we into just enforcing whatever suits the need or what? From what I can see everything is making Pete Rose look like he got a raw deal .. yes, and lil’ Miss Harding too.
Bill Mitchell and RealManOfGenius, No one has beaten Babe Ruth’s record in the amount of games he did it in. (not to mention any drugs money or other differences). When the true down home way of breaking a record is accomplished ... thats when I will stand behind someones athletic achievement.

In a perfect world, all the players would have been randomly tested to avoid exactly the situation we are in.  If testing was not done at the MLB level due to incompetence, a good coach could (or player) have proactively tested his players (or self) to deflect any controversy. 

That is the ‘black and white’ ideal world. 

The real world is a bit messier.  What about all those sport creams?  What about all those ‘Food suppliments’ at the nutritional stores?  What about herbal suppliments?  Eastern medicine?  It is hard to define ‘performance enhancing’ vs ‘all natural concentrated plant extract’.  NONE of that stuff is really tested.  Where do you draw the line in the sand?

Even more interesting to me was one of the Tour de France riders was DQ’d for a transfusion last month.  In short, the rider pulled a unit of his own blood a few weeks before the race, preserved the red blood cells (which carry oxygen), and re-injected his own blood during the race.  Those were his own cells, his own blood.  Not someone else’s blood.  Not a foreign chemical. Is that really cheating?  That’s a tough one in my mind.

Just wait until genetic engineering starts playing a role in athletic performance-things will really get interesting!

Bonds was a great ball player. Then, during the period between his 34th and 36th birthdays, he became Superman. If it was not steroids then how did it happen? He refuses to tell the world his secret. Therefore it is obviously steroids. The burden of proof lies upon him, not MLB or the official keepers of records or fans.

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Mechanical Device?

Barry Bonds is unquestionably guilty of the use of something that confers extraordinarily unfair mechanical advantage: the “armor” that he wears on his right elbow. Amid the press frenzy over Bonds’ unnatural bulk, the true role of the object on his right arm has simply gone unnoticed.

Justify it anyway you want, paint it any color you’d like...performance enhancing drugs is cheating, period. Unless, of course, everyone you’re playing aginst is taking them.

Or if the records you are breaking were set under the same conditions.

C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G. Period.

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim, there isn’t much that is the same between now and Hank Aaron’s days.

The pitchers are much betters, sports medicine has gone a long way, etc.  Quite possibly, Aaron used steroids, back in the sixties they were readily available and there were no proscriptions against their use.

Finally link in the fact that the number of games in a season has increased over time, giving a hitter more total games during an average career, and you realize you can’t easily compare their individual achievements.

Finally, I personally don’t care whether somebody uses steroids, HGH and any of the other performance enhancing chemicals.  I frankly think this rabid attention given to them is way overrated.  As I see it, their use should be regulated according to the FDA and given only under the supervision of a physician, but after that, the rest is a bunch of nanny state bullshit.

Carrick,

These things aren’t harmless. They cause behavioral changes and very, very often lead to violent behavior, abrupt mood swings and suicide.

I’m on record right here with how much I detest nanny-stateism, but this is something that needs to watched and watched closely.

Further, it’s a question of plain old right and wrong when it comes to sports - how in the name of the wide wide world of sports is it alright for a person who uses performance enhancing drugs to compete in the same game with the same rules as someone who doesn’t?

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim, I would have to say it depends on which steroids you are talking about (e.g., anabolic steroids).  There are broad classes of steroids that have no known effect on behavior, but even for those that there are known side effects, these depend on dosage level and on the individual.  Which is why I stipulated that monitoring of the chemical is essential in that case.  Making them illegal drives their use underground, and may end up doing more harm than good.

It’s frankly a scareology of the left that steroids are to be feared as a great evil.  And it does a disservice to medical science, because it denies the rest of us routine access to chemicals that could make our lives better.

Further it’s clear that people who are banning steroids are motivated by other things than just the welfare of the individual, because otherwise why would they outlaw HGH?  Not only is it completely safe (again when monitored properly), it has significant health benefits for the individual, such as accelerated rates of healing or recovery from intense activity.  It would be a very beneficial chemical for starting pitchers because it would keep their arms in “top form”, potentially would extend their career and so forth.  [And unlike steroids, it isn’t a performance enhancing drug per se.]

As to “right and wrong” in sports, I’m afraid the playing field is never even.  If you are playing in high school football against students who going to summer football clinics, those individuals will have an advantage over you, if you don’t go yourself.  People like myself that had summer jobs that involved hard physical labor came back to school with an advantage that even regular gym workouts couldn’t ameliorate.  People with more money, or who are willing to devote more of their resources, will get on better than those who don’t.

But in any case, all I’m arguing is the rules should allow the safe use of performance enhancing chemicals, the same way as it allows the safe use of performance enhancing vitamins, and natural treatments.  It’s up to the individual if they want to use them or not, at that point.

Carrick. I don’t think kids need any more encouragement to play safe sports. The whole concept of sports is the natural ability to perform. Why not just have robotic teams that rely on the skill of techs and not of athletes then?
I for one, truly do enjoy, watching someone with amazing natural talent. Watching a drug enhanced athlete is like watching Mendel preform on a player piano or Elvis lip sync.
If drugs are promoted, not only will the kids go ape crap crazy about it, their parents will start doing dumber things so that they have the best athlete in school and possibly for scholarships. That also brings up .. do only the rich, that can afford these drugs, get a chance at sports and scholarships then?
It’s a mess I don’t think should be allowed to even begin.

lol.. opps! *I don’t think kids need any more encouragement NOT to play safe sports.

Anna, to start with not all banned substances are performance enhancers.

HGH in particular mainly improves health, promotes healing, and is of little benefit to younger players.  [Again my comment about physician supervision applies.] For older players, it will generally increase the length of their career, so depending on the player that could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

As to performance enhancers, I’m simply pointing out 1) there is a rather large gray area here between what is an “enhancing drug” and what is a “safe nutritional supplement” and 2) there is a lot of exaggeration by well-meaning people about the risks of many de facto performance enhancers.  And none of these performance enhancers are turning people into superhumans (though it would be cool if they did!).

Normally I would agree to “following by the rules”, especially for non-professional athletes (I’m realistic enough to admit that pros play by a different set of ethics than amateurs) and I certainly don’t agree with self-medication of potentially harmful drugs, but I won’t complain when responsible professionals are shoving back a bit towards the nanny state crowd.

It just defeats the entire purpose of a “sporting” event. Unnatural advantage compared to the opponent in any way, whether ingested, poked, prodded, stuffed rubbed or accessorizing is not sporting.
As for thee, ol’ age issues, I suggest,"grow up and admit you’re no longer a kid and walk away with some dignity”. 
It isn’t as if they can’t afford to retire.

Anna, this is the rub:  Define unnatural.

... and personally, if they are a good player, I like to see them hang around as long as possible!

They should all observe the example of Deacon Jones. Not the maniacal devotion to ripping heads off quarterbacks. The manly ability to step down from the game before embarrassing themselves.

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if they are a good player,

then yes, by all means stay until you croak ... as long as you can do a job worth millions of dollars.

athlete pulled a unit of his own blood a few weeks before the race, preserved the red blood cells (which carry oxygen), and re-injected his own blood during the race.  Those were his own cells, his own blood.

Sorry, but unless you’re Dracula or a distance relative and need a family gift, removing one’s blood is not a natural thing to be doing.
Unnatural is anything that distort the nature of the sport.
Performance enhancing drugs distort natural abilities and allows athletes to skip the hard work, the focus and dedication that the pubic/fans admire of natural athletes. Performance enhancing drugs devalue sports, making winners out of unnatural or synthetic athletes, and deprive exemplary and superior athletes of victories that are rightfully and honorably theirs.
If athletes seriously do want to perform with unnaturally enhanced abilities then perhaps they can contact the producers of WWE and can come up with a new act..err.. I mean league.

Anna, I guess my point is how do you make the distinction between taking massive doses of vitamins as natural but say that taking other performance enhancing chemicals is unnatural. Neither of these is found naturally at the dosage levels normally used.

I don’t classify taking vitamins as natural or normal. The body will only absorb it’s needed amount of vitamins and then anything beyond that will begin to work against the body. The body can not stock pile vitamins and personally I believe most vitamins work as a placebo.
I would just like to see sports return to being the fun family entertainment that it was in the past.
Maybe even real grass fields, wooden bats and for God’s sake raise the flippin basketball hoops!

Baseball players are supposed to subsist off of prime American beef, cheap American beer and Rye Whiskey, and cheap American, pork&chicken hot dogs.

Anything else is unnatural.

Oh! Yea. Menthol Pall Malls.

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2Hotel9, you forgot RedMan Chew.
...and Rob, Flake has a hot daughter if I remember right.

i agree with graves

If Bonds had any class he’d have retired one short of Hank Aaron’s record.  Since he didn’t have that much class, he deserves to have his record footnoted with reference to his illegal use of performance enhancing drugs.

I haven’t heard anyone mention Pall Mall ciggs in years. My grandad would smoke those sometimes. I liked it better when he smoked the filtered ciggs. Pall Malls ars ick!

Zsa Zsa: How about?

I like the last one, click on it to enlarge, it is so romantic!

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

lol, Neiman that almost makes me gag. To think that actually assisted the selling of cigarettes!

Neiman, you should post that last one as a caption contest.  (You’d have to cut it off above the letters of course).

Very very funny.

Personally I think “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere” is pretty likely, because when she catches you, she’s going to cut your ****s off.