Barry Ties Babe

[Lilith]

Story (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/05/20/bonds.714.ap/index.html?cnn=yes)

How do you feel about Barry Bonds catching up to Babe Ruth's record? Does his possible steroid use change your opinion of his worthiness? Does it make a difference that pitching speeds have increased?

[jseal]

Barry Bonds has superb hand-eye coordination. Every home run he hit, he hit. Mr. Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, was convicted of steroid distribution, and a firm he was associated with was raided in 2003. The company’s founder, Victor Conte, was imprisoned for supplying athletes with illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

I have enormous respect for Hank Aaron.

The Babe did it on beer and hot dogs.

[Scarecrow]

No comment. The steriods were manufactured just 30 miles north of where I live.

[jennaflower]

Just goes to show that I am not a baseball fan... not only did I have to open to the thread to understand the topic... but then I couldn't help thinking that "Barry ties Babe" could have been a porno title.

The steriod issue is just another example as to why PRO Sports have all gotten ridiculously out of hand.. it is sad that the typical hard working person can't afford the ticket price to get into the majority of sporting events. Sorry... but the athletes, the owners, the managers, the sponsors should all be ashamed of what they have turn Professional Sports into.

IMHO

[jay-t]

This is the one time I belive that a record should have an asterisk
*Steroid enhanced record
I think that the increased pitching speeds do make the ball jump off the bat quicker and somewhat farther flight,but Mantle,Killabrew,Boog Powell and others were capable of 500 ft home runs with slower pitching.THe radar gun hasnt really been used all that long in baseball. Whose tosay that Spann, Dizzy Dean and other greats before radar guns didn't throw as hard

[Bardog]

Babe Ruth - 714
Barry Bonds - 714***

'nuff said

[Fangtasia]

"... It's just great to be in the same class." Bonds states

Nope not even close buddy!.....he cheated to get that score...therefore its most certainly not a record

[Aqua]

...*

[scotzoidman]

Who's to say that he needed the steroids to get there...as stated earlier, the key to hitting home runs is more to do with quickness of hands & sharpness of vision...also, the Babe never had to face a slider down & away, or any of a number of other tricky pitches that even mediocre pitchers have in their arsenal today...the atheletes today are stronger, bigger, better trained, & yes, many of them have been made better thru modern chemistry...including some of the same pitchers Bonds has faced thru the years...all this is not to excuse anything Barry may have done, but just to say that the records are all distorted somewhat by the times they are set in...
On a related note, I have no problem with the fact that MLB is not going to make a big deal out of Bonds' 714 or 715...being #2 isn't all that anyway...wake me up if he gets 756...

[jbh3]

*********....definite asterisk!!
...and if he wasn't such an arrogant asshole, we may not be having this discussion.

[scotzoidman]

...and if he wasn't such an arrogant asshole, we may not be having this discussion.
Finally, someone hits the nail on the head...if he would just play to the gallery a little...somehow his personality doesn't allow it to be...

Mark McGwire has been caught outright with his hand in the goodie bag, but no one has put an * next to his records...altho I think it will keep him out of the Hall of Fame...

There have also been unverified accusations that Henry Aaron used a little "go-fast" juice on occasions, yet his rep remains intact...