Selig is apparently considering the reinstatement of Aaron as Major League Baseball's all-time home run record-holder. This move is obviously for public relations, as I'm sure Selig is scared of how baseball romantics will view the era which occurred on his watch.
The move, though, would be utterly absurd. Good ol' Bud just doesn't get it, does he?
First of all, going after only the home run record doesn't make sense. Is that more important than the all-time walks record Bonds set? I can just hear the "no one cares about walks!" argument coming, which exactly proves my point that Selig is only fighting for public approval. No mention of the walks record, the seven MVPs or the eight Gold Gloves. Nope, just the sacred home run record. I guess the alleged use of performance-enhancers only helped Bonds hit home runs. Those round-trippers didn't cause pitchers to put him on base for free more than anyone in the history of the game, and they most certainly didn't contribute to him winning the MVP more than twice as much as anyone else. Right, Commissioner Selig?
Secondly, you can't compare eras anyway, so if you just take one record away, it's a hyperbolic exercise in revisionist history. Otherwise, shouldn't you go back and examine every caveat in every era? What about when Babe Ruth played? He played in a league that wasn't integrated and expected starting pitchers to complete every start. No situational left-handers for Ruth in the late innings. Just a tired -- from pumping out 150 pitches during the day -- white guy in the ninth stood in his way. Also, the strike zone was reduced and the pitcher's mound was lowered in 1969, and Aaron followed with five seasons of at least 34 home runs. Plus, they played more games per season when Aaron played. Where are the asterisks for all that? You don't see them, because it would be stupid. Baseball fans need to be smart enough to put numbers in their proper context on their own. Every generation is different. If Bonds was juiced, so were a lot of pitchers he faced and hitters he out-homered. Please understand I'm not saying that it is morally acceptable. I'm also not saying it was acceptable when people popped greenies like tic-tacs in the '70s. What I am saying is that this is one gigantic slippery slope Selig is contemplating a climb aboard.
Yet another slippery slope is the talk of doing away with numbers from the so-called steroid-era. If you really want to do this, you cannot single out Bonds. You can't just add in A-Rod. You are going to have to go back and get rid of everything Jose Canseco, Rogers Clemens, and everyone else who has tested positive for, been suspected of, or admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Do you include those who have never been connected to use -- like Sammy Sosa -- other than people just thinking they did it? Then, of course, there is the realization that many more guys could have been using and simply weren't mentioned because they didn't matter enough. What if Bonds hit more than 755 homers off guys who were using? I don't think that's even close to being possible, but can we prove that? Major League Baseball didn't test until 2003, and only A-Rod's result from that year has been released to the public.
There's plenty more material here to illustrate how insane a move like this would be for Selig and "his" game, but you get the point. If you want to remember Hank Aaron as the best home run hitter of all-time, go ahead. No one is standing in your way. Every person is free to think that Bonds' record doesn't count if they want. Going back and altering history in such cherry-picking fashion, however, is completely unacceptable pandering on Selig's part.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-12-2009 @ 6:05PM
Tanners666 said...
Couldn't agree more. No direct comparison between records through the ages holds up under scrutiny. I also think that steroid use should only matter in hall of fame voting in borderline cases. Players like Bonds, A-Rod and Clemens loom so large over the last 10-15 years of baseball, are we really going to wipe them from the history books? When did MLB decide it had to whitewash all the unsavory things from baseball history? They should begin to credit current and future baseball fans with a little more intelligence - display the records, display the facts, and let everyone make up their own minds about these players.
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2-12-2009 @ 7:16PM
wolfpeace said...
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! This was an animus non-penalty testing. To suspend someone for testing then is the equivalent of testifying against oneself.
shalimar
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2-12-2009 @ 7:19PM
jhooperaa said...
What a joke Bud Selig is. He made $17,000,000 last year and since he has been commissioner the steroid scandal occured. Do you believe when Bonds, McQuire, Sosa, and others got bigger and started hitting a ton of home runs that Club Management and Selig did not know what was going on. Now Selig is shocked by A-Rod and may suspend him and may take Bonds records away. Selig should be fired.
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2-12-2009 @ 7:31PM
Jules said...
If Bonds actually did test positive, versus being just suspect, then he should not be entitled to being the record holder plain and simple. I am sure that Hank Aaron, his family, and fans would also appreciate that as well. There is a big difference from earning and winning something based on the merits of true human athleticism rather than attaining and ultimately beating such records with the help of performance enhancing drugs; which doesn't seem sportsmanlike for one thing, and moreso is outright cheating to me. Bonds and other players maybe even should be banned from the sport if they test positive, which would send a much stronger message against using or make a player reconsider the consequences. Besides Bonds seems like a jerk on and off the field, and is nothing but an egomaniac. Boo, Barry Bonds.
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2-12-2009 @ 7:33PM
svetahor said...
"I also think that steroid use should only matter in hall of fame voting in borderline cases" bothers me in the true sense of justice. So the above average player gets the shaft but the one rich in potential gets a bye? However, baseball went along with the homeruns and the big muscles pounding them out of the park. And the fans packed the stadiums to watch essentially bodybuilders hit'em out of the park. What really can be done even now? Heck, take the roids in high school or college, get the muscle base, then train to maintain and hit'em out in the pros. I'm very pessimistic on this. Sports will never be pure again. Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams my heroes as a kid. They looked like human beings. Never again!
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2-12-2009 @ 7:36PM
Stephen W. Amodt said...
Clearly, the players were juiced when balls flew out of parks after players' neck sizes and their bulk was so obvious. Most of us who have been around juicers see them for what they are. Why did Selig just sit around and do nothing.......because fans filled the seats to watch home runs hit in record numbers. Selig needs to go because he and the players' union allowed this travesty that significantly impacted the game's integrity. So what does he do now? How about Gonzalez who hit 57 then never more than 31 or so before or after. I feel players like Frank Thomas could hit them anywhere and never did juice so what do the players who were clean, feel about this? If I were one who was drug-free, I'd be outraged!
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2-12-2009 @ 7:40PM
willieswiger said...
bud selig should look in a mirror to see the real shame of the game. when mark,an sammy, an barry were giving life back to the game after the strike bud though it was great. now that he has looked like a idiot with calling the allstar game an the world series game,he thinks he can save his name with stupid comments liks this.
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2-12-2009 @ 8:07PM
jamdcts said...
Bud Selig...a baseball owner, elected commissioner by....lemmee see...baseball owners. By the way, what ex-baseball owner was elected two-time governor of Texas and President of U.S.A....? A hall of famer moron named "Dubya".What a buch of morons...baseball owners. What you see is what youb get...Big Bud and Dubya...what more can I say...lol.
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2-12-2009 @ 8:16PM
Tanners666 said...
"I also think that steroid use should only matter in hall of fame voting in borderline cases."
What I meant by that, and I think I put it badly, is that we shouldn't exclude the great (and I use that to mean ability rather than character) players of the generation from history. Take the years when they used steroids away from Clemens, Bonds, A-Rod and they would still be amongst, if not, the best of their era. Do the same with someone like McGwire and it becomes much more subjective.
I don't think cheats should prosper, but unfortunately steroid and HGH use is a fact of the last 15 years, and it was unofficially sanctioned by Selig, the players' union and MLB because it was good for baseball as a business. To suddenly become sanctimonious about drug use, as Selig has become (and only since Congress got involved) is hypocritical in the extreme, and he should be ashamed and run out of the game for it.
The stain caused by this runs throughout all of baseball, and it's unfair for the players to totally take the blame for it, when the culture was so prevalent on every level.
I believe the only fair way to handle this is to wipe the slate clean - it was a bad time, but baseball has learnt and will move on. How else can you do it? You can't punish Bonds and A-Rod over other players just because they were more successful, and you can't go through nearly two decades of baseball rewriting the statistics. If you take this action through to the logical conclusion and you start taking World Series away from teams, and that would be ridiculous. But, you either target everyone who ever used steroids or HGH, or no-one.
Like I said, put all the facts in front of future generations, and let them decide. That's what baseball fans have been doing since time immemorial anyway.
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2-12-2009 @ 8:48PM
Kyle Chrise said...
Fire Selig! If you think the league, the owners, the managers and the union all were caught completely off guard by the steroid era, then the wool you're pulling over your own eyes is half polyester. The truth is all the records must stand. This won't be the last time baseball has to deal with performance-enhancers. Just wait until a pitcher has a shoulder surgery that replaces bone and tissue with plastic and pistons.
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2-12-2009 @ 10:18PM
jdbreeze1 said...
Well said. Selig needs to come out right now and say "NO ASTERISKS".
Or, the next commissioner can say that, after Selig is thrown in jail.
2-12-2009 @ 9:52PM
Joseph R Buchler said...
At least we have a Ryan Howard, who appears to be an anti-Bonds or anti-Maguire, in Baseball right now.
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2-12-2009 @ 10:57PM
knute9 said...
Let it be noted that the baseball hero, Babe Ruth, was drinking illegal alcohol throughout his career. He played from 1914 to 1935, prohibition of alcohol was from 1920 to 1933. Isn't he in the Hall of Fame.
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2-12-2009 @ 11:15PM
greatr said...
Ruth also ate hot dogs on the bench. But the fact remains that booze does not enhance your natural athletic ability, it reduces it. Ruth would be in the Hall of Fame if he never hit a single home run....as a pitcher.
2-12-2009 @ 11:04PM
Rick said...
Maybe it's time for baseball to hire a Commissioner outside of the game, & in doing so, have a panel of a set amount of owners & player reps as a search team. Then take it to a vote of both the owners & players. Since both have a say in hiring, the Commissioner is not just the " right hand man" for the owners. Maybe this would help make the game even stronger, & with the owners & players working together in that regard, this might just be the best way to go. Any one else have a suggestion?
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2-13-2009 @ 11:15AM
Sparky said...
Mariotti, you low life. What's this statement got to do with anything? and besides, if it we're Babe Ruth batting, of course the pitcher would of been white.
Just a tired -- from pumping out 150 pitches during the day -- white guy in the ninth stood in his way.
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2-13-2009 @ 12:14PM
Matt Snyder said...
1. I'm not Mariotti.
2. It means that Mariano Rivera isn't coming down for the ninth against Babe Ruth. It means that they played all games during the day, when it is much hotter. It means that the pitchers were rarely relieved, so they could have been cooked in the fifth inning and still expected to finish the game.
It was an illustration of how much different the game was back then than it is today -- which means that you shouldn't be comparing eras simply with numbers. They don't compare.
Even if you disagree, that hardly makes me a lowlife.
2-13-2009 @ 6:16PM
David said...
Oh please. All this gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes is too much hypocrisy to bear. I direct your attention to the year after the great baseball strike, when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were having their homerun derby. Baseball was in the dumps. Fans, ticked off after the strike-shortened prior season, weren't exactly filling the stadiums. Then, low and behold, Mr. Sosa and Mr. McGuire stepped forward to save the day. It was apparent to me, and anyone else who had ever stepped inside a gym, and it had to be apparent to all the sports writers and owners, that Mr. Sosa and Mr. McGuire were "juicing". But no one said a word. Why? Because, their jobs, careers and cushy lifestyles were on the line--this goes for the sports writers who are now tsk-tsking over Bonds steroid use and for the owners who were anxious to turn the sport around and go back to raking in the money. I'm not sure what's more offensive--the steriod use or the gross hypocrisy.
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