Bonds, Barry Bonds

So Barry Bonds is now the Home Run King in American Major League Baseball.

I’m glad that he broke the record in San Francisco rather than on the road. The hometown crowd deserved to see him break the record at home, especially since the team doesn’t have anything else to look forward to this disappointing season.

Sabean will now have the chance to clear salary in the off season and begin the rebuilding effort and hopefully have a contender in the next few years. Given the strength of the starting pitching, the team ought to be at least in the mix of things with a few off season acquisitions. (Hopefully, a good closer among other things)

Given the controversy around Bonds, I suspect that this season will be the end of his career. The Federal witch hunt goes on. I find it kind of scary that they can convene a grand jury for as long as they have and not bring an indictment.

“Innocent until proven guilty”, is the way it’s supposed to be in the U.S. However, it seems that the press with whom BB has had a poor relationship with seems to think otherwise. He may have lied to the grand jury, but he’s never tested positive for steroids. (Yes, I’ve heard that the “clear” was made not to turn up in testing) If I remember correctly, while he supposedly was juicing up, there was no ban on steroids in Major League Baseball. So just because he’s less than a nice guy, the press seems to have convicted him of using a performance enhancing substance. I’d say he’d more likely to be indicted on tax evasion charges more than anything.

Baseball’s Bud Selig seems to be the modern equivalent of Ford Frick. As Frick was a friend of Babe Ruth who hated the idea of Roger Maris breaking Ruth’s single season record, Selig seems intent on marginalizing Bonds achievement in part since Selig is a close friend of Henry Aaron. His statement after Bonds tied Aaron was pitiful.

Baseball has had a long history of cheating, racism, vicious playing, or changing standards which affected the game and its records. The Black Sox scandal of game fixing was due in part to cheap management. Ruth’s homerun record was set in a segregated game. Ty Cobb was an SOB who hurt opposing players. Retaliating for homes is still a shameful thing in baseball. Pine tar, corked bats, spit balls, and greaseballs were all cheats that were meant to give a player an edge. The longer seasons, the lowered pitcher’s mound all affected the game and its records. The lowered mound gave away a pitcher’s edge. With the advent of the reliever, hitters had to readjust where as in the past they may have faced a tired starting pitcher going all nine. Supposedly, there were juiced-up pitchers in the Bond’s prime, so he had to contend with hitting against them as well.

Baseball isn’t the clean All-American game that it’s made out to be. Let’s accept the records as they are and just move on. After all, A-Rod, will likely be along in the next half-a-dozen years to break Bond’s record.