MLB: Day One Hundred and Twenty-Nine
Posted on | August 20, 2007 | No Comments
Well, it happened. There is now a new homerun king standing atop the baseball world. Barry Bonds went deep on Tuesday and recorded homer number 756 so that he now leads every other player who ever played the game of baseball in the Major Leagues.
I’ve been pretty harsh on Bonds because I believe the evidence that he cheated is just too strong. We could talk about the evidence but instead let’s take a look at Bonds career a little bit.
Bonds has always been a Hall of Famer and he should get in on the first ballot no questions asked. Why? Not because he set the all-time record for homeruns but because he was a five tool player for years and was one of the best players in all of baseball for many years.
What do I mean by five tools? Bonds could do five things exceptionally well. In his “early” years Bonds could field, throw, hit for power, hit for average, and steal bases. Five tools. He was amazing. And he was definitely heading toward being one of the best players in the history of the game.
Then something strange happened.
Bonds began getting much bigger – especially his head size. His forehead began to expand outward, his shoulders grew up and out, and the rest of his body grew too.
And then Bonds, who before was a decent homerun hitter, suddenly became an awesome homerun hitter. So as the rest of his tools diminished – fielding, throwing, stealing bases, and hitting for average – one of his tools exploded. And that tool was, of course, him hitting homeruns.
Now nothing has been proven about Bonds taking steroids so I guess I shouldn’t make any unfounded accusations. But I will say that somehow Bonds went from being a decent homerun hitter during the prime of his career to being a remarkable homerun hitter during what should have been the twilight of his career. Add to that links to known steroid dealers and the change in his physique and it’s not too hard for anyone to draw their own negative conclusions about Bonds.
It’s unfortunate, the entire situation. Including people who supposedly got goose bumps watching Bonds break the record. And people who said that Bonds was gracious in breaking the record.
Now, we can be done with it and I don’t have to write about Bonds anymore.
Related posts:
- MLB: Day One Hundred and Twenty-Five
- MLB: Day One Hundred and Twenty-Six
- MLB: Day One Hundred and Ten
- Bonds and Steroids
- MLB: Day Twenty-One
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