Asterisks and Accolades

Controversial Opinion: Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame.



Why? Because he hit more home runs than anyone else.

Taking steroids is a problem. I think we can all agree to that. However, their effect on hitting a baseball is questionable. This website does a much better job of explaining why than I can, but the hypothesis Walker poses is that the winding of the ball's core led to the mid 90's power explosion, and there are few (if any) holes in this explanation. Shit, Sparky Lyle even mentions the idea of winding the ball more tightly in "The Year I Owned The Yankees". It's not like it was a secret.

The bigger issue is this: competitive athletes are always going to be looking for a competitive edge. Players did this in Ruth's time and they're still doing it now. The practice of taking "greenies" (amphetamines) openly in the clubhouse has been well documented not only in baseball but in many major professional sports.

The more specific reason why Bonds will have trouble getting into the hall is that he was an asshole. It takes some time for people to warm up to record breakers, as it takes people some time to warm up to changing social mores. Aaron was once the brash youngster unworthy of Ruth's record; ditto for Roger Maris. As Ken Burns' "Tenth Inning" documents, Bonds learned from his father that the game would chew you up and spit you out, and his defenses were always up. Surprisingly enough, the two sides never got along.

I summarize with this: 762 is a lot of home runs. You don't get there without being really, really good at baseball.

Why This Blog Exists

Everyone remember this?



Here's something that happened to me on the internet afterwards*:













Everything I dislike about sports talk came out here. Fandom over logic, veiled racism, fallacious reasoning, and other forms of narrow mindedness. Granted, I wasn't exactly my most eloquent self in this debate, but I still think I got at the essence of how I feel about sport, and that's what this blog is about; the complex world of sports and the personalities within them. Obvious debt to FreeDarko aside, I want to write about these things because, well, the discussion is not closed. I think about replying to this thread and restarting the war once a month. Instead, I'm starting this blog. If reading this exchange made you even a little bit mad, this is for you. Here goes nothing.





*everyone who isn't me got their name blurred out for obvious reasons.