Bonds is moving on up

[lookout123]

I still think all bonds records should have an HUGE * next to them in the record book, but Barry Bonds passed 700 home runs last night. only 3 men have done that - Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and now Barry Bonds. Maybe Bonds should get a special place in the record books for being the first to hit 700 home runs on juice.

[Griff]

It should also include a * for surliest and laziest ballplayer to reach 700. Juiced ball juiced player... I'm just going to pretend he never reached this plateau.

[lookout123]

i can ignore him and the record but it is disturbing because in 20 - 30 years kids are going to think Barry Bonds must have been a great player, because once he holds the record and retires, most people will simply choose to forget that he is a pile of crap wo refuses to be a team player, won't sign balls for kids, and only has his records because he juiced big time.

[Clodfobble]

Also, he pulled out of the Major League Baseball Players Association (i.e., the players' union) which meant that none of the baseball videogames last year could use his name or likeness. We all had to put a fake player (with his exact stats) in the game instead. :P

[russotto]

Hank Aaron is a nasty and bitter old man, so maybe it comes with the territory.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by russotto

Hank Aaron is a nasty and bitter old man, so maybe it comes with the territory.

He is? How so?

[vsp]

The one concession that I'll make towards Bonds is that he's not the ONLY one on juice. If steroids were the determining factor, shouldn't there be six or seven contemporaries also charging at 700?

Sosa has 572 at age 35, four years younger than Bonds. If he can stay healthy and average around 40 dingers over the next four years, he'll pass the Babe, be within striking range of Aaron and be ahead of where Bonds is now. (That's a big if, though.) Griffey had a great shot at it until injuries chopped away some prime years. McGwire lost some key middle years to injuries. Likewise for Juan Gonzalez. After that, you're looking at hitters from that generation with respectable, consistent numbers but who never had ludicrous-HR-count breakout years (McGriff, Palmeiro, Bagwell, Thomas).

A-Rod's about the only younger player with a shot (almost at 400 already, and he's under 30).

Of course, if Sosa hits 700+, they'll probably put an asterisk, a hypodermic AND a cork next to his total in the record books... but what the hell. It's not as if players were drug-free fair-play pinnacles of morality who never THOUGHT of cheating before 1998.