big fat fucking deal
I'm by no means a baseball fan, but that doesn't keep me from being sad and angry that last night
Barry Bonds broke stole Hank Aaron's record for career
home runs hit. Bonds's record will most likely go into the record
books with an asterisk ( * ), to remind us that the real, untarnished
record still belongs to Aaron.
allow me a digresion: a long time ago, back on the time of the dinosaurs, I lived in Venezuela which is a totally baseball-crazy country. back then we were all following Aaron's chase for the record. and I remember reading/watching about the hatred and death threats heaped on Aaron from those who did not want to see Babe Ruth's record broken "by a black man". and Aaron lived through all that with dignity and grace while steroid- and (illegal) performance enhanced-drug free.
"steroid- and (illegal) performance enhanced-drug free" is a phrase that will never be applied to Barry Bonds. even if you havent' read Game of Shadows (and if you are a baseball fan you should) it is pretty clear that Bonds both used an array of non-permitted substances and then committed perjury by lying about it to a federal grand jury.
if you have doubts just look at these pictures
my neighbor Cap'n Crook is allowing me to link to the post he wrote when Bonds tied Aaron. it expresses my anger and frustration better than I ever hope to do. check it out.
to end, here's a quote from the Boston Herald article linked atop this post:
Liars, cheaters, frauds, phonies. Together they spit on Maris and Mantle and Mays, and all the other
180-pound stars who did it for real. They chose the shortcut, better hitting through chemistry,
and thought they were going to get away with it. They had the union zealots behind them,
they had a linguini-spined commissioner and they had the starry-eyed sycophants from
ESPN who wanted to believe that flaxseed could make a man’s head grow a size and a half.
Comments
It's a sad, shallow day indeed. I think it's indicative of all sports in general these days. In order to win, you need to take shortcuts. Gone is the lofty ideal that you can succeed through skill, talent and hard work.
hey those bats were made right here in ottawa :-P
but seriously, it really is hard to even have a conversation/argument about this issue any more because it is so accepted - that doesn't make it any less disgusting, nor does it excuse the folks who insist that it just doesn't matter because these people surely would have been record-makers anyway, etc, etc - it's downright disheartening and it's no wonder that sports just ain't what it used to be (goodness knows there have been rumours of drugs in hockey for years and I absolutely dread the day that it breaks open like it has for other sports)
I had seen some much more persuasive pics than the link you posted, mariser - if I come across them again, I'll be sure to pass on the link
He didn't do it against the Dodgers, that is good. When he dies of prostate cancer or liver failure, it will be completely unrelated to steroids as well.
I did a quickie look just now but couldn't find the ones I'm thinking about - I'll try later at home (what, I can't search for BB pics at work?)
in my searching, I came across tidbits of people defending him such as "well, shaq's head and body got bigger, too - are you saying he's on steroids?", "you can't compare pictures of his pre-MLB body to once actually being in the MLB - you have to look at pics year by year", "the authors of the book spent a year in jail" (???), "he's never tested positive", etc etc
yes, chances are he was not fully grown when he entered the big leagues, and it's not uncommon for men to continue growing until about age 25-26, but come on
For me, it's at least as much about him being an arrogant jerk as it is him being juiced. I mean, it's pretty obvious that Mark McGwire was using steroids, too, but I was rooting for him and Sammy Sosa the year they broke the single-season HR record.
Not that it's okay for "nice" people to cheat, but I can't help feeling more hostility toward a cheating jerk.
And, come on, people whinge about how Bonds hit this many home runs without being given good pitches to hit. Whatever. He also hit a lot of those home runs on pitches that for Regular Joe Player would have been strike 6.
And I'm sure there are just as many guilty pitchers. Classic example being Roger Clemens who has demonstrated 'roid rage on numerous occasions.