Robinson can't sub for Bonds

You're right, HP. There are guys who don't cheat, IMO. Just not a lot of them. Bonds only started because he looked at the whole Mac-Sammy thing, and he said 'F this.' By himself, I don't think he cheats. But that's just my opinion.

 

You're not the only one who thinks that. I just think it's a bullshit excuse. It's like the third-grader who says, "He started it."

 

Ok, I hear that.

But think about it like this:

You have to compete against a writer taking No-Doz every day, and after a while you get sick of the shit, and say 'screw this,' and you take some, too.

Now, what you're doing may be 'wrong,' but is it totally unjustified? You're trying to compete on a level playing field.

That's where I'm coming from, on this one.

 

Baseball has turned a blind eye to cheats since the days of King Kelly and Cap Anson.

If this witch hunt is about performance enhancing, and not just steroids, then they need to turn around the culture of cheating, not just steroids.

But that'll never happen. And thus, steroids will always be a part of baseball. So will cheating.

 

I get your point. I just really don't think I would do it.

Then again, the money in this field and his are totally different.

Still, it's wrong. And anyone who can be busted should be busted.

 

You can always hope it will change, though, right?

 

So, a 35-year-old confirmed great falls to some bastardized form peer pressure? I don't think so. Barry Bonds knew what he was doing.

Both McGwire and Sosa have forever been tarnished, so it's not like we're applying some racial double-standard here.

 

Bonds is a miserable human being, and the record won't change that, just like the money hasn't changed it and the fame hasn't changed it.

He'll hit 800 home runs, and still not get what he's looking for.

 

Minor point: I don't know how to fish back for this, so I'll just quote buckweaver:

Robinson was a fiery guy, by all accounts but I've never heard him described as "cantankerous" ... a.k.a. disagreeable. He was a private man, and -- for obvious reasons -- he certainly had a chip on his shoulder. There were plenty of guys he didn't get along with on the field, but that was mostly due to their bench-jockeying (and/or race baiting), and/or head-hunting, etc. Also, he was a scrappy player -- but Billy Martin and Eddie Stanky and Clint Courtney made a lot of enemies that way, too.

From what I've heard, Robinson was a hell of a bench jocky who could give as good as he got--often better--and didn't hesitate to do so after that first couple of years of holding back. No, not "cantankerous", but no silent brooder on the field either.

 

Absolutely. He gave it all right back, beginning in 1948. After that first year.

Anyway, the point was: the writer said Bonds and Robinson were both cantankerous. Robinson was not, on the field or off.

 

Those guys are insanely competitive. Ask creamora. Bonds had to have a pretty good idea of what was going on before he ever took anything. That "Home Run Chase" year, IMO, just pushed him over the edge.

If you work harder than any other writer, and are naturally more talented than anyone else, and they hold a "Cumbaya" year for two guys you think are cheating, you don't think you're going to start thinking about joining in the 'supplement' party?

Remember, these guys are just human.

And I agree, this isn't racial, although for some I think that does skew things.

 

Bonds deserves a fastball in the helmet, so that Hank Aaron, a truly admirable African-American athlete, can keep the record rather than lose it to a chemical mutation.