If there's a particular sport that you can say is the most rascist than I'd say it's baseball.
Basically.
It's not really that the pitchers weren't as good, they were actually really good, and there were far fewer of them because there were only 16 teams in baseball. The fields were weird. Some were shorter, some were a lot longer. For instance, the park Hank Greenberg hit in (and I can't remember it off the top of my dome) was ridiculously deep for even todays standards. So even though he got to 58 home runs in a single season before pitchers stopped throwing to him, my pops always said 70 was the magic number, because that's about what Greenberg would have had if his ballpark was regulation. And that was the number McGwire broke it with.
I never once questioned Ripkens' record. I'm saying if you're gonna question Bonds' record because he may have used steroids, then you have to take into account every record set during that era because the majority of baseball was on roids. There have been questions as to whether or not Roger Clemens used roids, but most people shut that down right away saying "Roger is such a good guy, he would never do that." This ties into Barry, with him being an asshole, if he had been a lovable character every fan of baseball would ride for him until it was proven that he did in fact cheat. And that's sad.
To me, the thing with Barry is I feel pretty confident in saying he most likely cheated knowingly. This is ok with me because he represents everything I hate about baseball. The pompous attitude, the cheating to get ahead, the "bigger than the game mentality," it's all there for everyone to see. At the same time, he's also the embodiment of everything that was allowed during the steroid era. It's not as if Barry Bonds was a lone villain who somehow found a way to surpass league regulations and cheat his way to super-stardom. No. Bonds did what the majority of ball players were doing at the time, which was juicing up.
When Sammy Sosa was caught with a corked bat, MLB officials gave the Cubs one hour to get rid of every corked bat in the clubhouse before they came in for their inspection. Over a hundred bats were disposed of, the majority of which came from players other than Sosa. This is yet just another example of what really goes down today.
Why is it that at the height of the steroid era there were no regulations on juicing up? Why did the players association do everything they could to keep regular testing from being mandatory in baseball? Why did ownership turn a blind eye to what was going on in their own clubhouse? Why does Bud Selig act so shocked to the current situation and try to distant himself as much as possible from the whole ordeal?
Barry Bonds breaking the record is a good thing for baseball. It shows the world how fucked up baseball has become. This is something that was allowed to happen for years and years and years. I welcome it fully. Break the record of a guy that set that record the right way. Good. Shine some light on what was going on. Unfortunately, baseball is so fucked that only Barry will be hung out to dry for this. None of the people who allowed this to happen will be taken into account. Nobody but Bonds will bare the brunt of the steroid era.
Again, this goes back to the fans, and the main reason why this happened in the first place, and will continue to happen forever.
Why did everyone in Dodger Stadium last night have a camera on hand every time Barry stepped to the plate? Why did fans boo the pitcher for intentionally walking Bonds in his second at bat? Why did so many Dodger fans show up early to the game and stay late (if you know about baseball or dodgers fans you know what im talking about if not fuck you go read some gay shit in skate talk)? It's because people want to see this shit. As much as everyone wants to hate Bonds, and thinks he's cheated his way to a record, they still consistently turn out in record numbers in every city he plays in. Again, this is the main reason the cheating was allowed to go on for as long as it did. The majority of Bonds' haters either A) Don't know shit about baseball and only talk about it because it's in the news( see the majority of this thread besides Henry) or B) Hate him because he's about to break their most holy of records and did so the wrong way. Whether or not the latter choice can accept the fact that this was allowed to happen under their noses is another thing. But I still find it hilarious that so many people that hate Bonds still go out of their way to watch him play baseball.
"Barry Bonds Is Better Than America
I know a lot of you are going to love this. Here in San Francisco at City Hall we decided to take down the American flag and replace it with a flag commemorating Barry's march to become the new Home Run King. That's right America, next to Barry Bonds you are nothing.
-WCK"
Topic: BONDS (Read 2345 times)