The Barry Bonds Saga

Barry Bonds probably did take steroids. But the only reason that made him stand out among the other hundreds is that he was actually good. Sure he might have hit a few extra home runs because of steroids, but he was still on pace to hit quite a few of them. Supposedly, the main reason he was hated so much was because he took steroids and refused to tell anyone the truth. How many hundreds of players have done the same thing and are still doing the same thing after the Mitchell Report? No, he was hated because the media portrayed him as a bad person. The media disliked him because he was obnoxious to them. I think it's great that he was obnoxious to them. They deserve to be slapped in the face at times. Now that everybody read all the things about him that made him look bad, they followed everybody else. They probably thought, "If everybody else hates him I probably should too." The fact is, he was picked to be the evil person of this baseball era because he was hated by the media. It was an added bonus that they found out he took steroids. Bonds is marked for hatred when he hasn't done anything different from hundreds of other players.




I read in an article in the New York Times, that after reading over the report, most of the people who took steroids didn't have any increase in their stats and some even had a negative turn in their
stats. Bonds was one of the few exceptions. But that doesn't necessarily mean the steroids worked for him. In fact, this article compares him to Babe Ruth in the sense that both player's last six years in MLB, they increased there rate of hitting home runs. You couldn't say that steroids had any more effect on Bonds, then Ruth's addiction to tobacco and alcohol had to on his record.

Now others might argue that steroids don't have an effect on your skill, but rather on how long you are able to play. Barry Bonds might have been able to stay a home run leader each year for a few years longer than he should have. If he hadn't taken steroids he might not have gotten the record. But I still think he should be considered as one of the greatest hitters of the century.

Barry Bonds was a great hitter and I am glad he got his home run title as a Giant. It was a fun ride and I am sad to see one of the best hitters eyes have such a terrible end to a great career. I may be one of the few who still like him and I don't mind that at all.

Here is the article on statistics after steroids.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/opinion/22cole.html