August 6, 2007, - 11:49 am
And the Moral of the Barry Bonds Story is . . .
By
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
. . . No-one cares that he hit 755 Homers while on steroids. Well, almost no-one. Yes, there were a few fans holding up asterisk signs in the the stadium in San Diego and Bud Selig, while gracing Bonds with his presence, then tried to send a mixed message by not clapping.
But, really most people, frankly, don’t care. They care more about home run races and records, not the substances someone was on when he achieved them.
Sorry, but the steroids hysteria isn’t. It’s a media-created story. And even President Bush mentioning it in his State of the Union Address–where it really didn’t belong–won’t change that.
There are a lot of things that were different in the days of “Hank” Henry Aaron. They didn’t have the nutrition coaches, the fitness consultants, the vitamins. Some fields were set farther back. They drank, smoke, and caroused all night (much more than they do now). All of these things–not just the lack of use of steroids (which some say some baseball players used even back then and before)–made it much harder to “hit one out of the ballpark.” Although, some might even say that the added muscle mass from steroids negatively affects a players’ swing, making hits harder.
Things are different now. But one thing isn’t:
Baseball fans don’t care that Barry Bonds is on steroids. They only care about #755 and, soon, #756.
Yup, steroids is cheating. And illegal. But it’s only one more thing that makes Bonds’ accomplishment different from the days of Aaron.
And no-one noticed. They don’t care if the “juice” you’re on isn’t Florida Orange Juice.
My friend, USA Today sports columnist (and boxing connoisseur extraordinaire) has a different take:
“Thanks to Bonds, 755 Doesn’t Mean What it Used To.”
Oh, and BTW, Ty Cobb was a drunk when imbibing alcohol was illegal. Not that it helped his game or anything. But no asterisks there.
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**** UPDATE: Reader Ari writes:
Bonds may have been on steroids, but many many players back in Aaron’s time were on “greenies” according to Jim Bouton. Greenies, of course were amphetimines. I don’t know if Aaron took them, but they were VERY common, and they were performance enhancing.
Tags: Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds There, baseball, boxing, Bud Selig, Bush, Debbie Schlussel, even President, Florida Orange Juice, Hank Aaron, Henry Aaron, Jim Bouton, King, media-created story, Racial Divide, San Diego, sports columnist, USA Today
I’m a huge baseball fan, and I will actually applaud Barry Bonds. I’ve been saying for years that baseball players have numerous advantages over players in the past when it comes to the physical aspects of the games, besides steroids. Debbie mentioned these. This is a media hype story which annoys me. They want to think that all baseball players use roids (and they may have). However, the only people that actually tested positive, were Raphael Palmero and a few guys in Triple A that weren’t going to the majors anyway.
ESPN just wants to create controversy and make sports a social cause. Barry Bonds is no role model when it comes to his personal life, but looking back, neither was Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb. Unfortunately, ESPN promotes these guys off the field, by showing their houses, money, and women. Young baseball players should immitate Bonds on the field, because he could hit the ball. No one should ever try to immitate these athletes off the field, with the exception of a few like David Robinson or Pat Tillman.
Sports writers are just as liberal as the rest of the media. ESPN and other sports media don’t actually report stats or other important things when it comes to sports. The network shows poker 6 hours a day for crying out loud. I mean you have to watch 3/4 of Sportscenter just to know who won the Cubs game. Much of the show is sports writers giving opinions about what they think. Either that or they show dunks and fights at games. It’s killing sports.
Look at what they did to Pete Rose. For 15 years, the media kept telling him to apologize and admit he gambled. They told him if he did this, all would be forgiven, he would enter the Hall of Fame and get a job in baseball as a coach or manager. Well, he did it, but they said it wasn’t good enough. I never thought Rose should be allowed into the HOF, but its the principal that ESPN kept this charade up for 15 years. They will do the same thing to Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire.
Then they ran a special on Title IX, which was so biased it made it seem that women’s sports were on the same playing field. Colleges hemorrhage money on these sports because they can’t generate revenue on their own, while football and basketball make the money, and other men’s sports get cut, just to meet Title IX requirements.
Sorry to vent, but sports media is a joke. Sports like movies or music is entertainment, its not meant to create roll models or improve society. This whole baseball season just shows how sports media has created hype and tried to make sports a social engineering project.
ebarnes9 on August 6, 2007 at 12:48 pm