Next Up, Hank Aaron

[filkertom]

Steroids, shemroids. Congratulations to Barry Bonds, who tied Babe Ruth's record with his 714th career homer.

Comments

[kshandra]

Thank you. Innocent until proven guilty, goddamnit, and the man has passed every whiz quiz they've given him.

[gpeefalt.livejournal.com]

Are you being sincere, or are you just needling him?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

The way I look at it, lots of folks took steriods, and they still didn't manage to hit 714 home runs. Perhaps it's not as great an accomplishment as it would have been otherwise (and until they actually prove it definitively, I'll continue to give him the benifit of the doubt), but good lord, its still an accomplishment.

Meh

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

I would say yes, he accomplished a great feat, but I'm not going to stand up and cheer for him. And not because of the 'roids issue, but because he's an A-1, All-Star Asshat (with a capital A) and I refuse to praise ANY asshat, no matter the accomplishment

Re: Meh

[tonemangoldfarb.livejournal.com]

One must "separate the art fro mthe artist", as the saying goes. Many of the greats are asshats in some way.

Re: Meh

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

Yes, but most of them are *private* asshats - you only hear about their (presumed) asshattery from third party sources like gossip rags or E!. Bonds just about flaunts his.

Re: Meh

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Sort of like the way Ruth flaunted his? Or Ty Cobb?

Re: Meh

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Cobb was certainly an asshat in much the same way as Bonds.

Ruth was *NOT* -- aside from his misguided desire to be a manager and the resultant snits. Almost everything Ruth did, on and off the field, seems to have been infused with joy. Sure he partied just as hard as he played... but he wasn't an asshat about it.

As an aside, ISTR that this is to be Bonds's last season -- and I honestly don't think he's gonna catch Bad Henry. Look at how long it's taken him just to catch the Babe.

[rook543.livejournal.com]

The way I look at it, is I could care less about steroids. The guy still did the feat himself. If I take asthema medication, does that deminish my accomplishments because I didnt just use the feeble lungs UI have and resorted to chemistry to beef them up?

Atheletes are professionals and they know the risks of roids. Every wants to see these millionaires gor farther, longer and faster but then take the view that just because the used a substance to get there that somehow it's now not a real accomplishment. These guys practially ingest the entire R&D labs of Pfizer in LEGAL supplements so it's not as if there is not substantial chemical influience in any pro sport.

As for the drawbacks the lead up to and including death? Maybe thats just the price one must pay for being a millionaire asshat!

Home runs

[bschilli.livejournal.com]

It least there wasn't a large amount of league provided hoopla. I expect that there will be plenty if he gets to 733 (NL record) and 755 (ML record).

Ben