after last night\’s twins loss, i\’m tempted to skewer terry ryan (again), but a) that\’s exhausting and 2) aaron gleeman is so much better at it than i am.
instead, i\’d like to talk about barry bonds and that little piece of history he made last night against the washington nationals. we\’ve discussed my feelings on bonds, and that hasn\’t changed. i think he\’s an ass, and i think he\’s cheated. however, i\’m reading a lot of sentiments like this today:
I can\’t pretend Bonds is the legitimate successor to Aaron because there are simply too many questions and too much evidence to suggest otherwise.
so, i get that. but, i think we all need to give that attitude up. yes, i think bonds juiced. but do think he was the only one? certainly not. in fact, i\’m betting that many of the pitchers who gave up homeruns to bonds over the past ten years have been doing similar things; i would argue that neither side had a competitive advantage there. and, what of all stats accumulated and records set between 1996 and 2003? do we go back and erase them completely? do we do just the stats of players who we think were cheating? use some sort of multplier? brady anderson\’s \’96 total of 50 HRs * the steroid multiplier of .7 means his actual HR total is actually 35.
absurd? absolutely. to me, just as absurd as being upset with bonds for breaking the record. no one was tested; you can\’t prove anyone was using performance enhancement drugs, so you have to assume everyone was. (well. not jay canizaro, i suppose. but you get my point.) bonds is only a part of an entire tainted era of baseball where *all* number should be viewed with some suspicion. there should be questions about all numbers put up during this timeframe.
so, we have two options. either we do what the author states above and make a stink about bonds\’ 756, brady anderson\’s 50, mcgwire\’s 70, sosa\’s 63, vaughn\’s 50, heck– randy johnson\’s 372 Ks, clemens\’ 20 wins (you see where i\’m going). or, we just acknowledge that a lot of the numbers produced during that era were likely inflated and move on. and, after that, congratulate barry bonds on being baseball\’s all-time homerun leader. even if our teeth are slightly clenched when doing so.
Leave a Reply