Jackass or Not, You Gotta Respect Him

I can read very well for your information. I was only trying to prove how the media goes out of its way to harass Barry, when other athletes are just as bad or worse.

I know good and well your comparison to Rocker, but could you reasonably not have used somebody else?

Rick Reilly is the CNNSI columnist who wrote that article with Jeff Kent bashing Bonds fyi.

Not know much about Cal Ripken, I will admit I didn't see his heyday, but I have read articles where Cal gets his own big clubhouse space and chair, etc and since that has been a large brunt of the media's issues with Barry I figured it was relevant. Cal was a classy guy no doubt.

My point on the conduct recently is Barry is not being an ass anymore, he has come across as genuine starting last year at least and has matured since his early days. This HR thing has brought out the good side of Barry. Also, I dont see his lack of respect or humility for the game that you do, sorry.

At least it's not much worse than Sosa's homerun trot, etc.

What about me as an Astros fan? Is there some law that says I cannot like any other players besides Astros, because I like Barry Bonds as a ballplayer, even when he plays Houston. I want the Astros to win, but if he does well and we win, that is the best situation for me.

Btw, philly fans are probably the worst in all of professional sports, I'm glad Astros fans have some class and do not act like that.

It's becoming relatively apparent we must agree to disagree on Bonds and I will admit I saw him admire his long foul shot yesterday but I think that was because it was either a homer or a foul ball and he knew it when he hit it. I also don't see his snide comments in his interviews from last year on, and I have watched them.

 

Well clutch, I am referring to Bonds interviews beginning with last season. He has matured from what I have seen or at worst become TV savvy.

 

People still revere Ty Cobb, don't they? From all accounts he was *really* a prime d******d... Bonds sounds like an amateur in comparison.

 

Here's an idea

never ever pitch to the man

maybe he'll forget how to swing

 

Cal isn't a bad guy, but he's certainly not humble. He's obsessed with his own image... a perfect narcissist. He also refused to sleep in the same hotel with his teammates in the latter part of his career. What the hell is that about?

He insisted on calling pitches for the pitcher, even when his manager disagreed at times. He was repressive in the clubhouse, lecturing players who celebrated, even if it was modest and not taunting.

And he probably actually hurt his team with the Streak. Cal actually played more poorly in September than your average major leaguer did, adjusted for normal production. There's a reason why even guys who do play hard sit down now and then - rest is good. Ripken wasn't made of different matter than the rest of the league - he needed rest just as much.

Ripken was, supposedly, a really terrific guy when he first got into the majors... but later became too given to self-idolatry and his own importance.

You know, the funny thing is... I think Barry Bonds didn't really care about homers so much until McGwire and Sosa got all the press. Then he started focusing on knocking the ball out of the park a bit more... and look what happened? He was always the best hitter, but people forgot about it for a while... and his ego wouldn't allow that.

Bonds isn't a great guy... he's cold, aloof, and more than a little self-centered. But he's not really awful either. Never hear about him committing felonies, at least. Pretty low standard, I know... but some professional athletes are just terrible.

 

Talent, steroids, whatever....

 

Only in baseball will you find stats like this... haha.
Hey, are there any stats that show the last time anyone's hit 2 HR's in the 13th and 56th game of the season?

 

I do not like Barry as a ballplayer although his talent speaks volumes.

 

My thoughts exactly. Perhaps I have a somewhat warped view of what baseball should be like, since I reached my peak as a fan the year Fred McGriff led the AL with 35 homers, but the naked effort to turn baseball into one big home run derby has ruined my interest in the sport.

I know that expansion has diluted the pitching pool considerably, but I also don't think that MLB has made anywhere near the effort it should to combat the problem. Hitters have all the advantages and it's seen as a good thing. The last time the scales were tipped this dramatically in favor of pitching-- 1968-- baseball immediately jumped in and lowered the mound.

The single-season home run record is meaningless now. I have a feeling that within 10 years, the career home-run record will matter little either, because it too will first be broken, and then set at an obscenely high figure, and then broken again.

I mean, I thought the fact that two players broke Maris' record by five and nine homers in the same season would have diminished the enthusiasm for it. My perception of breaking the home-run record was the same as it would have been if the Lakers had signed ten All-Star players to complement O'Neal and Bryant, and then broken their consecutive-game winning streak record. The conditions were altered so radically from those in which the record was originally set as to undermine the credibility of the new records.

For another player to come along three years later and break the record again, setting the new record at 120 percent of the original record... I'm sorry. I don't find that magical or breathtaking or awe-inspiring. I find it to be an indictment of the artificial changes wrought on baseball the past ten years.

I like pitchers duels. I like stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, and the hit-and-run. And if I turn on a baseball game, nine times out of ten I don't get to see any of those things, because baseball has been perverted beyond belief.

 

I disagree with the general sentiment about Bonds in here. I don't care even if the articles written are true. And they probably are true. But it doesn't matter. You can't judje a man until you've walked in his shoes. We've all made mistakes, that if published, would destroy us. We've all made decisions that we thought were right, but that everyone disagreed with. We've all said guilty, then watched the court case and thought innocent. We've all said things that were crappy. Most of us are decent human beings. We just handle things very differently. There's nothing that tells me Barry Bonds is a bad human being. Sure, I've probably ripped him. Sure, I've proabably cracked some jokes. But deep down I know Barry is no different than I. I can respect him as a player and as a human being. My mistakes are just different. And my mistakes aren't out there for everyone to judge (yet). You don't have to like everyone. I'm not saying that. But I think you should respect the people you dislike too. Their opinions matter. Their contibutions matter. I just don't see why he can't be respected for who he is.

 

Come watch my son's little league games. You get all that and more.

Also, a real record worth watching is the chase to hit .400 in a season, and even that wouldn't be a true "record". Hit over .421 for a season, then you have something. Or hit in more than 56 straight games. Those are still good hitting records to go after.

 

Yeah, me too!

HAHA! Did ya see the other nite when that one guy wore "Crawfish underwear"!?!?
OUCH, that sh*t was funny!

 

Good post BK. I'd be curious to hear you, or anyone else's thoughts on what the causes are for the increase in home run numbers. I haven't really followed baseball in years, so I don't know what the league may be doing that has resulted in inflated home run stats. I can imagine that the building of new parks with shorter dimensions is a major contributor.

 

Maybe its time to lay your glance in the direction of the greatest pitcher of all time, the notable nuckler from Melbourne, Tim Wakefield.

 

Actually, the old parks were smaller than the new ones. There were some old parks with dimensions well under 300 ft. The idea of talent dilution if foolish, too, if one believes Bill James (or hell, modern population statistics) on the matter: more people play than ever before, and from more countries... more than enough to accomodate for the increase in teams recently. There aren't that many more teams than there were in the mid-80's... but many more people do play baseball.


This is a summary of what Bill James argues for (I've taken the summary from Arky Vaughn's column at astros connection). Incidentally, he also agrees with the idea of ball parks... but I disagree with him there, simply because the truly old parks were band boxes as well. There was an era when the new parks were larger - but that would only explain why there are more homers in the 90's and now than in the 80's, not why there are more than there were in the 40s and 50s.

This can be found at:

http://www.astrosconnection.com/html/crunchtime.cfm?id=237

In addition to this, I'd add the fact that no new great pitches have been introduced in recent memory. Scouting is also significantly better... while one might think that this helps out both sides equally, I think that pitchers are probably more unique than batters, all in all.

I think the most important factor, personally, is strength training... (and perhaps steroids)...

 

That's absurd. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I have the right to decide not to feed it if I don't like ducks.

God, this takes me back to the discussion about the "When We Were Soldiers" commercials. You're well within your rights to form a judgment of something based on all the information you can gather on it. Baseball players are not going to invite us, one by one, into their homes to observe their private lives-- so we form judgments on them based on what we see of them.

Barry Bonds might sit around playing with Strawberry Shortcake dolls and drinking mocha lattes in his free time, but in his exposure to the public, he comes across as an *******. That's why people don't like him. They have every right to do so.

Personally, I do like him, mainly because of how he responded after he dropped a routine pop fly in the 9th inning against Milwaukee last year, costing the Giants the game. He met with the media afterwards and wasn't defensive or rude. He basically said, "I flat out blew it, no excuses. I cost my team the game because I made a stupid mistake".

He's an *******, but I like him just for that kind of accountability.

 

haven -- wasn't there one year though where home run numbers jumped across the board, and stayed the same since? I'm thinking of sometime in the early to mid-90s...the year Brady Anderson hit 50, perhaps? It seemed that the increase in homers was sudden (or maybe it wasn't and just seemed that way). I thought I remember talk of a ball issue, like being wound tighter, maybe? Any thoughts?

 

TheFreak:

Wish I could give you a better answer . Do you know of a site that provides league total statistics? I couldn't find one with a quick search.

My answer, until I have better info would be:

Remember Cecil Fielder? It seemed like 30 something bombs was a ton... then Fielder hit 40something homers. Then Albert Belle hit 50. And Griffey hit 50. And Brady Anderson hit 50. But I don't think that all happened in one given year. It did seem like they were anomalies, though. A few hitters were starting to break the upper 40 plateau.

Then the rest of the league began to catch up. These high totals stopped being strange, and became normal. Short-stops emerged who could hit extremely high totals.

Of course, the first SS who really hit for power in the modern era was none other than Cal Ripken. Who, incidentally, was far more athletically built than your average willow-like Ozzie Smith. And he kept himself in good shape through working out.

Here's the heart of the matter to me: McGwire hit a ton of bombs in the beginning of his career. Then he didn't hit many for a while. Why? I'd guess it's because he was too much of a body builder, and physical fitness science hadn't quite realized how to make someone strong and keep them supple. It used to be a trade-off. Sure, McGwire could hit a ton of homers... but then he'd get hurt... and he couldn't run... etc. That's no longer true. Now players can be strong and flexible and healthy.

That's my best guess. But it's really no more than a guess.