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The Gammons interview with Bonds last night was painful to watch. He certainly had some prepared statements to make and it would have been okay if he hadn't prated on about how he shouldn't be judged by third parties for several minutes.

 

Simply put, he's a guy who refuses to face evidence that he's done what he's done and dismisses it by continuously side-stepping the truth in hopes that he can come across as misunderstood. His veneer is rice paper thin.

 

Yawn. Big yawn. He's supposed to admit that he used steroids on a nationally televised interview? Come on, what did you expect?

 

I'm a pretty big Bonds apologist, mostly because with our without steroids, he's still the greatest player of this generation, bar none and since I don't like the idea of assuming that guys like Griffey didn't use steroids when there is no evidence one way or the other, I'm not going to assume anyone was clean. And either way, he dominated the steroids era the exact same why Ty Cobb dominated the dead ball era, or Babe Ruth dominated the Live ball era. You cannot judge a player like Bonds against history, you have to judge him against his peers. He played in an offensively inflated era, so you have to judge him against that. What he did from 2000-2004 has never been done by anyone in baseball history. He dominated the game for those 5 years in a way that nobody has every dominated their game. Since there is plenty of evidence pointing to numerous pitchers using steroids, it's not like he was on an uneven playing field.

 

Looking at it this way, even before he was supposed to have started taking steroids (1999) he was the indisputable best player in the league for 4 of his first 13 years, and was in the top 5 in every other year but 86, 87, and 89. Thats ridiculous. And since 1999, he has been far and away the best player in the league, and there is simply no way to dispute this. He's absolutely dominated the game in a way that maybe 2 or 3 players have ever done. Anyone who says he doesn't deserve to go into the hall of fame is fooling themself.

 

 

And all of this is putting aside the fact that cheating has been an accepted part of baseball since day one, with numerous spitballers and known bat-corkers in the hall of fame. And I'd be willing to bet that the 1919 world series wasn't the first one that had some type of shady dealings. Baseball doesn't have the pure history we like to pretend it does, and Barry Bonds has nothing to do with "ruining" baseball. If anything, the owners and commissioner are more to blame for "ruining" baseball by turning a blind eye to the obvious steroid usage until it became too late to do anything about it.

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I'm not going to re-hash the same argument we've had several times but will just state again that I disagree with a lot of your points.

 

I did not/do not expect him to admit using steroids-whether on a national broadcast or in front of a grand jury- as he is Barry Bonds. He is incapable of accepting the shit storm he deserves because he's seemingly incapable of being forthright with himself, the press, and the fans.

 

My only point was that it's somewhat irritating for some baseball fans (myself, certainly) to watch Bonds dismiss allegations and their consequences and attempt to make himself look like the victim. To gloss over evidence that he did not (does not?) play the game on the level is an assumption that the average fan is gullible. I was irked by the horse shit oozing from his mouth, is all.

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Actually, I'm looking forward to the "Bronx is burning" or whatever it's called mini-series beginning tonight on espn.

Stupid west coast time zone with the home run derby going on out here. The first episode was pre-empted last night. :hmm (I know nothing about baseball, but I love a good miniseries! :thumbup )

 

 

Untrue. You also now know who HacMan is.

 

(Our brother bumped into him on the street yesterday.)

I had a vague idea before. Now I have a slightly less-vague idea. The one-arm-down thing, right?

 

 

!!!!!!! :w00t :w00t :w00t

 

Jeffrey "don't call me Jeff" Leonard.

 

ahh, the sweet days of The 'Stick. :wub

Evonne, there was a thing in the Chronicle the other day about how the "new" ballpark was specifically angled to block the wind, so it's a considerably more pleasant experience than Candlestick. And yet, people from all over this great land of ours are still complaining about the cold...

 

Ballpark was designed with a twist to keep breezes at bay

 

And then there's this:

 

A Candlestick legend that just won't blow away

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"The Bronx Is Burning" got a really good review in the NYT. John Turturro as Billy Martin was especially praised.

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I've come to the conclusion that Tony La Russa just gets trashed before games and then continues drinking throughout the game. It's the only way to explain the decisions he makes.

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Well, we've got another couple of days before the games start up again... :monkey

Bonds is probably like O.J. in that way.

 

Bonds is like O.J.

 

Seventy percent of white fans say the allegations of steroid use are definitely or probably true. Only 46 percent of black fans believe the allegations.
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Albert Pujols needs to grow up. I don't care how great he is. What a prick.

 

He should've been put in the game. I have no idea what he has said about it, but in that situation, you put Albert "I'm One Of The Most Ridiculously Talented Baseball Players On The Planet" Pujols in the game. You don't save him to be a late inning defensive replacement or a utility player, especially not if "It counts".

 

So Ichiro is getting a gigantic new contract from Seattle. Kind of hard not to think that it's no coincidence that the announcement is following so closely behind Hargrove's resignation.

 

This makes me even more hopeful that the Marlins will be able to convince them that they don't need their top Centerfield and Catcher prospects and will give them up for Willis.

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That was the first inside-the-park homerun in ASG history and not a half-bad game, all in all.

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Mark Cuban applies to buy Chicago Cubs

 

42 minutes ago

 

Add internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to the list of potential Chicago Cubs buyers.

 

"I submitted an app," Cuban said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

 

Interested parties must submit an application to Major League Baseball to examine the team's finances. Cuban told the Chicago Tribune he sent in the application last week, although he wasn't sure of the date.

 

Tribune Co., which owns the team, announced in April it was selling itself for $8.2 billion to Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell, who made the deal contingent on shedding non-core assets. That means the Cubs will go on the auction block at the end of the season

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As threatened, pics from my visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame & Mvsevm.

 

(You'll note the Red Sox/Yankees-centric nature of these, my apologies)

(The HOF is not very photo-friendly, lighting-wise, but the atmosphere the lighting creates as one walks through is a hell of a nice trade-off for better pics)

 

3and9.jpg

 

Great wooden statues of The Babe and Teddy Baseball greet you once you enter - the uniform pics are from Ruth's 'room' (best part of the whole damn building) and Williams' display

 

 

Clemente-1.jpg

 

Roberto!

 

Hustle.jpg

 

Hustle!

 

Reggie.jpg

 

Mr. October

 

Pudge.jpg

 

Pudge Fisk's uniform

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