thoughts on bonds

Last night, Barry Bonds broke arguably the most hallowed individual record in all of sports. Here are my thoughts.

One, is there any doubt in my mind that Barry Bonds extensively used steriods for a period of his baseball career? None. Bonds, on the other hand, denies ever taking performance-enhancing drugs, and I don’t understand how people can believe him. I mean, did you see how much bulk Barry put on in the late 90s, early 2000s?? That’s not natural. Also, it should be noted that I’m not a Bonds fan. He comes across as a jerk in the media, his teammates dislike him (there is a noticeable lack of congratulation following most of Bonds’ big HR’s), and he has always struck me as a me-first type player (how many World Series rings does Bonds have? None.).

That said, does Bonds deserve to hold the career HR record? Yes, he does. For one big reason: steroids were never against MLB rules until (around) 2003-2004. The realist in me asks: how can you accuse someone of “cheating” or “breaking the rules” if his alleged “cheating” wasn’t even against the rules? Of course people are going to look for an edge if something isn’t in the rule book. There’s plenty of notoriety and money at stake for these athletes, and they’re going to/did exploit the opportunity. A brief summary of MLB’s steroid policy:

2002

• Before 2002, Major League Baseball had no official policy on steroid use among players. As part of a collective bargaining agreement, players and owners agree to hold survey testing in 2003. If more than 5% of results from the anonymous tests are positive, formal testing and penalties will be put into place the next year.

2003

• Baseball announces after the season that 5% to 7% of test results were positive, triggering the new policy in 2004.

2004

• Each player is tested once a year in season. A first positive test results in treatment, followed by a 15-day suspension for a second positive and up to a year suspension for a fifth positive. The result is no player is suspended for steroid use.

2005

• Baseball agrees to a new policy. Banned substances include steroids, steroid precursors, designer steroids, masking agents and diuretics. There will be one unannounced mandatory test of each player during the season. In addition, there will be testing of randomly selected players, with no maximum number. And there will be random testing during the offseason. The penalties for a positive result are, first positive, 10 days; second, 30 days; third, 60 days; fourth, one year, and all without pay.

 

What kind of easy-way-out rules are these? Even after the HUGE media backlash, the current 10-game suspension for the first positive test is nothing.

Couple more thoughts on this:

• Bonds was a likely Hall-of-Famer even before he allegedly started using steroids. Let’s assume that he started using steroids in ‘99. Prior to that season, Bonds already had 3 MVP awards and 8 Gold Gloves in his pocket. He was a constant speed and power threat who rarely struck out and regularly hit over .300 (both rare for a power hitter). Granted, his numbers post-steroids are gaudy (esp his 2001-2004 seasons…and his ‘04 season might be the best individual season ever in baseball). But let’s not forget, Bonds was a constant force throughout the 90s.

• If you start throwing around asterisks for all of Bonds’ records, you have to do something about the other notable players who allegedly used steroids: Sosa, McGuire, Palmeiro…to name a few. This doesn’t even factor in all of the players who used steroids but flew under the radar (for God’s sake, Neifi Perez just received a hefty suspension for a positive test). Remember, “5-7%” of steroids tests came back positive during the ‘03 season. Being generous to MLB, thats 50 players. Also, and people forget this, but pitchers account for a large percentage of steroids users (ehem, Clemens). So what are you going to do now? Start wiping full seasons off the record books? Aren’t both hitting and pitching stats tainted now? Come on.

We don’t have to like Barry. But let’s please stop with the whole asterisk talk. It’s not your fault, Barry.

It’s MLB’s fault.

~ by mcarey99 on August 8, 2007.