Major League Baseball lost me as a fan a while ago. Stories like this are just vindication that I'm not wrong for not caring.
it is better than the NBA. At least trades are not rigged to instantly make Celtics-Lakers rivalry come back. I mean the NBA is crooked as hell.
Im not saying that steroids didnt help him. You said that Bonds' numbers changed significantly once he got huge. The implication behind that was that he couldnt hit for power until he got big. The reason that assumption is made is because you followed it with saying that Griffey was a skinny kid hitting 45 HR. Well, Bonds was a skinny kid who was capable of doing the same thing. There was no reason why Bonds couldnt consistently hit 40+ HR given his performances in 93 and 94. Steroids helped his career greatly, but at the same time, he was a ridiculous baseball player and future hall of famer regardless, like him or not.
Baseball is pretty much dead to me though I'll follow the Astros and root against all things Yankees and Red Sox. What killed the joy was the strike season, steroids and the Yankee's domination of all baseball news. The one thing that drove the final nail in the coffin was when Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's record. The most hallowed (and almost mythical) record in sports went from a great man to a royal jerk of a human being and a CHEATER. Even though baseball has never been my #1 sport, I treasured the all-time home run record, the single-season home run record and batting .400 more than anything else. Only one of those is left and it will probably take another steroid freak to bat .400 again. I've concluded a long time ago that A-Rod and Pujols have been on steroids for several years. This "revelation" is almost anti-climatic. Now the disgusting and grotesque Yankees sideshow will get even bigger than what it is. Just what baseball needs. America's pastime has past it's time. rezdawg, nobody sane doubts that Bonds would have made the Hall of Fame without steroids. But that doesn't change the fact that steroids elevated him into a stratospheric dimension he didn't belong in. He was the best cheater the game has ever known.
In terms of perception, why is baseball tarnished while the NFL, a league where even the kickers are doping, flourishes? How do steroids as performance enhancers differ, morally, from the amphetamines of a few decades earlier? Why is Barry Bonds a monster, but Willie Mays remains a saint?
because the NFL is untouchable. why can everybody and their mom get arrested in the offseason in the NFL, but the NBA is always the league with all the thugs? why can the NFL almost certainly have a steroids problem but MLB is the only league that matters when it comes to that? having said that... even through all this steroids stuff, there was an article posted on here a few months ago showing that baseball was almost catching up to the NFL in revenue (something like $6.2B to $5.5B) and still growing (which really just shows that the NBA is the league that gets hammered for everything while MLB and the NFL can do whatever they want and be increasingly popular). that's why the leadership of MLB acting so disgusted with all this steroids use is hilarious. they turned a blind eye for years as all the baseballs flying out of parks sent revenues soaring and now that there is public scrutiny they want to act all wronged. somehow i doubt they're so outraged that they'll be giving any of that incremental revenue they gained back though.
hoenstly who cares anymore they all did it back then and now they do it less. There's nothing we can do about the past just sit back and laugh now at guys like miguel tejada who used to drop 35 bombers a year and now can barely hit 12 at minute maid with the short porch. It's a joke but make the most of it, anyone see Alex Rod's numbers last year? They were not exactly .330 58 HR's and 150 RBI's like the Texas days even though he played on a much better offensive team....everyone is declining statistically except natural beasts like berkman and pujols.
Yeah, I wouldn't have really suspected either. Especially with Griffey being the poster boy for all that's actually right with baseball. What I wonder is why is this coming out now? Why not ... you ... WHEN it happened?
Thing with A-rod and bonds is they were both studs without roids. A-rod was the number 1 overall pick at 18 and scrawny and not juicing. His rookie year he hit like .360 I think. Bonds rocked while skinny, I don't know what made those two turn to the roids.
You sound very bitter about major league baseball and I hope people like you just stick to watching basketball instead. In each era there was some type of illegal drug that people took to get over injuries, exercise harder, player with more intensity, etc. Babe sniffed coke, Mays took amphetamines. The only reason now its become so blown up is because of the hate for Barry Bonds and players like him (Jose Canseco, Sosa, Clemens, McGwire, Palmeiro, and now A-Rod). When these players were at one point in time considered the best, haters try to find a blemish and try to ruin them. No one knows whether or not Pujols or KGriff took steroids. Until they fully admit guilt, there is no point in assuming they did, but I guarantee if espn publishes an article about them taking steroids everyone will banish them forever. You can't read an article an expect the writers to know everything and be 100% true. The jury is still out on Bonds (even though a million articles about him taking steroids is out), we'll see if he gets indicted, but until then he still owns the top two statistical records in baseball and you have to respect him for what he accomplished.
I know you're referring to the Pau Gasol trade, but in retrospect, I'm coming around to Memphis' reasoning. They needed to slash payroll, as they were going nowhere. In return for Pau, they got the rights to his brother Marc, who has a lot of potential. And in regards to the Celtics-Lakers Finals last year, I'm perfectly happy with that. Why? Because it helped the league on the whole. Another NBA Finals featuring the San Antonio Spurs would have been a ratings nightmare. Yes, officiating can be bad. But the league has not been shutting itself off while players cheated and fans clamored for some kind of accountability. Major League Baseball had its head in the sand and fed us home run chases that were fed themselves by illegal substances. The integrity of how the game itself is played has been tarnished for a very long time. If you're referring to the KG and Ray Allen trades, those were also beneficial for the league on the whole. They are marketable players who were rotting on bad teams. Trading Allen was another way that Clay Bennett "endeared" himself to the people of Seattle before ultimately stabbing them in the back. Kevin Garnett, love him or hate him, is a marketable player. Being the only star on a team of scrubs in Minnesota was doing neither party any good. Look at the Timberwolves now; they have a really nice young core of players that they can build around, rather than an aging star with a huge contract. Neither Bud Selig nor David Stern have done good things. Stern allowed both Vancouver and Seattle to get fleeced by ownership, whereas as Selig let Montreal get screwed and presided over the Steroid Era. You can complain all you want about "rigging" in the NBA, but it hasn't been done to an extent that none of the records set in the past 15 years deserve an asterisk next to them.
ratings nightmare??? If SA was the best team in the league that's awful for ratings??? O well who cares about parker/ginobili/duncan and a bunch of great solid role players actually being good at what they do, we need to worry more about ratings and how much an ad spot sells for. That is a ridiculous statement, it's true, but ridiculous bc SA and pop are the best in the business, weren't they like 0-5 to start this year and people thought their run was over. Jokes on them year after year SA finds guys like roger Mason and Matt Bonner and George Hill who come in and fill their role beautifully. I love watching them......when they're not playing us.
I'm not bitter about anything and will continue watching baseball when it's convenient. I don't care enough about baseball to be bitter about it. When it comes to the criminal justice system, the jury is indeed out on Bonds. Factually, he either did them or not and we all know he did. I couldn't care less if he faces punishment because the damage to the sport is already done. In fact, it seems like there is a governmental vendetta against the guy. If you want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, go ahead and live on fantasy island. Perhaps that makes baseball more enjoyable for you. A-Roid sounds good JBIIRockets.
