It’s been 5 years since Barry became king

79 Replies

My how time flies. It was 5 years ago today that Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron as the all-time home run leader among MLB players.

2007 Topps Update Barry Bonds 756 #HRK

I’ve got two questions–how did you feel then and how do you feel now?

Then–I didn’t care. Even more than that, I went out of my way to avoid news of it and acted like it was even happening. I hated Bonds as a person, hated Selig as commissioner, hated everything about the whole thing. I practically vomited in my mouth thinking about the spectacle that would ensue when it happened. I didn’t look at Barry Bonds as the poster child of steroids–I knew lots of people used them–but I certainly didn’t want to give him any accolades and act like it never happened.

Now–I still don’t appreciate Bonds as a person but I am a lot more comfortable accepting him as the home run king. Yes, he cheated. He deserves a major knock as a person for that. But lots of other players cheated, and the fact is that he has hit the most MLB homers. That’s a simple fact. Lots of factors have affected baseball records. Ted Williams would have given Babe Ruth a run for his money as HR king had he not lost more than 4 years to military service. Had Glenn Davis played in Fenway park and not the Astrodome, he probably would have been a superstar. Hundreds of players have used amphetamines dating back 50 years. I don’t like Bonds, but he is what he is–the all-time MLB HR leader.

What was it like for you then, and what’s it like now?

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Jeff

12 years ago

It’s the same for me then and now. Growing up in SF and watching Bonds play was a treat. Sure, he’s selfish and known for not being the best of teammates. What he is most definitely…the HR champ! He played his home games in candlestick/three rivers and At&T park…all three notorious pitcher parks. Aaron played in the launching pad and Ruth had a park built to his specific style of hitting. AROD might get there, maybe not but he also played in the Kingdome, Yankee Stadium and Texas for three years. I’d say that Mays and Teddy ballgame had the… Read more »

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John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Jeff

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating Bonds. But your points about park effects for Bonds and Aaron collapse under scrutiny. Your claims for Bonds ignore what he actually did in those 3 parks as compared to his road games in those years. In both SF parks, his HR rate, BA and SLG were better than his road rates. Only in his Pittsburgh days were his road stats better, and the difference in HRs was only 10. For his career, Bonds hit 4 more HRs on the road, but his HR% (whether of ABs or PAs) was slightly higher at home. As… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

We should probably note here that on average players hit slightly more home runs on the road than at home because ~50% of the time they don’t bat in the final inning in their own stadium.

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

I tweeted about this today. Over his career, Derek Jeter has averaged 4.7 PA per game on the road and 4.5 PA per game at home. His team has obviously been very successful at winning games at home.

Howard

12 years ago

Reply to Jeff

None of the players you mentioned, including Bonds, hit significantly more or less HRs on the road than they did at home. Williams had the biggest disparity with 25 more HRs on the road than at home. Mays, in fact, hit more HRs at Candlestick than he did on the road.

Evan

12 years ago

Reply to Jeff

Comparing park factors between different offensive eras doesn’t make sense.

Ben

12 years ago

I acknowledged him as the king when he set the record and I still do. He deserves to be a first ballot HoFer because he was a top 5 player of his generation and he among the greatest players that have ever played the game. It doesn’t matter how many HRs he would have it if he played along side Cobb/Aaron/Ruth/Mays. What matters is how he played WHEN he played. How many fewer HRs would Babe Ruth have hit if he had to hit against non-white pitchers? How many fewer hits would Ted Williams have had if the opposing pitcher… Read more »

Paul E

12 years ago

Bonds was a great player – the best from 1990 – 1998. But, without the juice he doesn’t hit 600 HR’s. Without steroids he was the best player in the game – top ten of all time. With the juice he was otherworldly. It was like watching a kid who dominating a little league game. Consequently, he ruined his legacy….and made an additional $ 80,000,000. Let him live with that

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

What do you think you take off for the roids years? 25%? 30%? 33%? If you do that he has Mays’ numbers it seems to me. Not a bad standard.

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to PP

PP:

Bonds was a 241 OPS+ for ages 35 – 39. Next was Ruth (197) and Aaron (168)…..20 % – 30 % leaves him between the two greatest OPS+ numbers ever. But, was Bonds 1st, 2nd, or 3rd from ages 25-34?
Another thing, I don’t believe he necessarily plays in 716 games for those 5 seasons to accumulate the counting stats like HR’s , BB’s, etc…

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Through age 34 his OPS+ is a still human 163 with the highest yearly numbers between ages 27 to 31, so in the “normal” peak. You may be right on the counting stats, 445 homers at 34, he likely wouldn’t have reached 660, or 1900 ribbies, etc.

nightfly

12 years ago

Reply to PP

I tried to figure this out once, using HH2K1 – the one with Sammy Sosa on the cover. It’s not the most robust simulator ever, obviously, but it has the virute of a simple player editor and it starts at the beginning of the 2000 season. Anyway, I ran five separate five-year trials. The first set, I kept Barry as-is; the second, I made him ten years younger in the editor. The first set of trials, he finished at 610 career homers, on average, and even retired after only four years in two of them. (Originally I wrote “three times”… Read more »

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

This is just staggering…for Bonds to be that much higher than Ruth and Aaron, especially considering that A) those 2 guys are regarded as two of the best late-career players ever and B) Bonds played so much later, in an era when achieving such a high OPS+ was so much harder.

latefortheparty

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

This is said in several ways above and below this post but please bear me. Based on what I know of him, I don’t think Barry Bonds is the kind of guy I’d seek out as a friend. That said, do Mays and Aaron hit 600 home runs without speed (immortalized by Jim Bouton as “greenies”)? Keep in mind that they hit all those homers against equally greenied Drysdales, Gibsons, Seavers and others of the day. Though many of us infer, based on the scant evidence we have, that Bonds used PEDs, my point is that if Bonds used them… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to latefortheparty

Barry Bonds admitted to taking steroids, Late, he just claims to this day he didn’t KNOW they were steroids at the time.

jeff b

12 years ago

He was not the true HR king then, and he isn’t now and will never be. It was not babe ruths fault that there were only white players in the league. And ballpark factors are just part of the game. Aaron is the HR leader, period.

Ben

12 years ago

Reply to jeff b

“And ballpark factors are just part of the game”

so were PEDs!

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to jeff b

Donning my devil’s advocate robe … It’s not Bonds’s fault that the guys getting more attention than him were juicing before he did, or that the entire culture of the sport at that time created pressure to use PEDs. We can still fault him for succumbing to that pressure, but there’s no use acting as though the culture didn’t exist, or as though elite players aren’t generally driven by a single-minded urge to be number one. As for me, my feelings haven’t changed in 5 years: Bonds is the HR king, and I feel very sad about it. But baseball… Read more »

Phil

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Just to clarify my comment below, I don’t dispute at all that Bonds is the all-time HR leader. And I’m glad baseball doesn’t do insane things like the NCAA just did, which is to strip away things that were factually accomplished.

There just wasn’t any excitement at all for me when he broke the record, and I can’t retroactively conjure up excitement. I was phenomenally excited in ’98, and that will always be there, even though I now realize I was whistling past the graveyard a little. But by the time 2007 rolled around, that was long gone.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John – I think you make some fair and valid points. To which I’ll add…one thing that bothers me is the sanctimonious attitude of some of the old-timers. As if there’s no way they would have done PEDs if they had been available. Please. Of course they would have. Not all of them, but some of them, including possibly a guy named Hank Aaron. There’s no way anyone can say with 100% certainty that he wouldn’t have. Not to mention that the fact Aaron needed a lot more PAs to break Ruth’s record. So we have: Ruth: played against watered… Read more »

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birtelcom

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

If Ralph Kiner had gotten the same number of career PAs as Aaron, while continuing to hit homers throughout at the same rate per PA he (Kiner) achieved in real life, Ralph would have hit 822 homers.

Jason Z

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Ed, many of these sanctimonious old timers may have
done speed. As it was prevalent in many clubhouses
up until the early 90’s.

And I am talking about a first hand player eyewitness
describing it as a bowl filled up, that players would
just reach into and take what they wanted.

My point is that if we remove steroids from our thinking
I believe that the top three hitters of all time are, Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Barry Bonds

The order is the debate.

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to Jason Z

uh……no, disagree, Jason, because, if we are having this conversation after ’98, when it is generally accepted that Barry started doping, do we, at that point, accept that “Barry is one of the three greatest hitters of all time?” No way. First ballot HOF? Yes. But, let’s keep this in perspective….. steroids allowed some to think that Barry is one of the best ever. But, players from previous eras, did not have access to such, um, advantages. If one wants to change the parameters of the discussion to, “what if everybody had the same advantages?…..’ I think, that with the… Read more »

Jason Z

12 years ago

Reply to Jason Z

My point was that if you remove steroids from the discussion, than Bonds is top three. That being said, his late career numbers are just insane, and in my mind attributable to the cattle steroids he took. As many have said, steroids don’t help you hit better. While true, this totally discounts the recovery effect, and overall how much better one would feel late in the season. If I am not sore and tired, I will hit better than others late in the season who are. Back to Bond’s ranking, in 1998 I think most people would have had Ken… Read more »

Bill Johnson

12 years ago

Reply to Jason Z

Just because “many have said” that steroids and HGH don’t enable you to hit better- doesn’t make it so. If anything the overwhelming evidence is that they DO make you hit better. Increased bat speed allows you to wait longer on a pitch and increased muscle mass allows you to generate that speed. I think its likely they helped nearly every batter who took them hit better. Just because Barry started from a higher base than most of his peers doesn’t mean it didn’t help him. Ken Caminiti, Brady Anderson, Sosa- what’s a shock to me is that people still… Read more »

MikeD

12 years ago

Reply to Jason Z

The overwhelming evidence is inconclusive. I do believe that steroids help baseball players, but I don’t think it’s consistent, I don’t think it helps all equally, and believe for the most part the impact is overstated. Yet I don’t have any more evidence to support my side than those who believe greatly in the impact of steriods. (I am much more sure HGH by itself does nothing and there is more evidence to support that position.) Overall, there’s a lot of confirmation bias going on on both sides of the issue. Steroid use to me is not a reason to… Read more »

Duncan Idaho

12 years ago

Reply to jeff b

Let me put it this way. My Mom doesn’t know much about baseball, but she knew the number 755. Even many baseball fans don’t remember what Bonds final tally is

Phil

12 years ago

I wasn’t excited then, not marking the day today. It wasn’t a conscious decision–I didn’t decide that I was going to reign in my excitement–there just wasn’t any.

Editor

birtelcom

12 years ago

Over the decades my personal feeling has become that the very highest profile stats are more for the casual fan than for me. To me each stat is a small brushstroke in an enormous un-finished mural that collectively represents a wide range of nuanced portraits of players, teams, games, seasons, leagues. That Bonds has more regular season career homers than any other major leaguer is a fact useful in understanding him and the context in which he played. But so is knowing that Bonds is third in career homers among all players through their age 40 season, and fifth among… Read more »

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

This comment is like poetry. Very well-said, B.

The Dwight Goodens

12 years ago

I think there’s only one thing in baseball that I hate more than Barry Bonds, and that’s the Marlins although my hatred for Bonds is older than the Marlins, going back to his ’80s Pittsburgh days. It gives me the willies to know he has more HRs than Aaron, regardless of steriods.

My hatred of the Marlins is a story for another day.

TrivialSteve

12 years ago

Bonds was one of the greatest players of all time; as of 1999, he was legitimately compared to Mays as the best all-around player of all time. Had he retired after the ’99 season, he would be a first ballot HOFer. Nothing he did subsequent to that time changes any of that. The problem is that any measure of his greatness that include statistics accumulated after 1999 owe more to science than his greatness; how could a first-ballot HOFer post 4 of his top 10 WAR seasons (and top 3) after the age of 35? Simple answer: he was using… Read more »

K&J

12 years ago

Reply to TrivialSteve

Logic calling:

Bonds used an illegal substance, creating an “unfair advantage.” To be clear, Bond’s use of the illegal substance IN THE ABSENCE of others using creates said “unfair advantage.”

“The fact that many of those other were using PEDs is irrelavant” does not make sense. If both a player and his adversary have the same “advantage” (in this case, steroids) then there is no advantage.

Hartvig

12 years ago

This past Sunday I drove past a billboard that said: “Welcome to Fargo, ND” “Home town of Roger Maris” “The legitimate home run king” on 3 separate lines. So you know how people feel about that ’round these parts. I still don’t have an answer for steroids. Ben says in the second comment to judge the players for what they did on the field. So does that mean the Bonds was a better player than Ken Griffey? Or was Sammy Sosa better than Jeff Bagwell? Is it fair to keep Fred McGriff out of the Hall of Fame if he… Read more »

Michael Sullivan

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Sosa wasn’t better than Bagwell, period. You don’t have to adjust for PEDs to see that.

And Bonds on the field was so much better than everybody else, it’s really hard to see how PEDs could be the whole difference, especially if he wasn’t taking them before 2000, because he was already the best player of the 90s by a mile.

MikeD

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Griffey was considered the heir apparent to Bonds as the best player in the game, but at no point did that occur. They might have approaced being equals at times, but Griffey never moved ahead. Bonds went into overdrive in his latter 30s, most likely assisted by PEDs, whild Junior became quite injury prone, and went from an exceptional defensive OFer to a poor one.

K&J

12 years ago

Bonds did not begin using until inferior players who were using were excelling in the game, eclipsing his clean game. (Yes, we all know this and we all know Bonds is an egomaniac.) No one in Major League Baseball lifted one finger to stop it. No one. Not one team. Not the commissioners office. Not one player. No one. In perhaps the greatest sanctimonious waste of time and money in the history of the world, the Congress of the United States of America decided to involve itself in the matter of steroids in Major League Baseball. Because baseball did nothing.… Read more »

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to K&J

No one? What about Canseco? His book was released in 2005 and that was the first time someone openly talked about steriods. Yeah, I know, he did it to sell a few books, but at least he admitted using steroids.

K&J

12 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Jose Canseco’s ceased being a player in 2001.

It’s interesting that your one example of a FORMER player calling out steroid use was the one player who had perhaps less integrity than Bonds.

Caminiti could be added to the list of former players who also admitted well after his playing days were over. Caminiti talked about it before Canseco’s book.

But I stand by my point: Every single person who was making a buck from major league baseball said nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not until Congress forced their hand.

Larry

12 years ago

I was born in 1953. When I was a boy in the 60’s I knew the number 714 as Ruth’s record. If I think about it, the number 755 comes to mind as Aaron’s record. I don’t have the slightest idea was Bond’s record is and I don’t have the slightest urge to pay him the honor of so much as looking it up.

Chris

12 years ago

I saw one of Bonds’ 73 home runs from 2001 in person, and I got much more excitement out of that than I did Bonds becoming the all-time home run king.

Larry

12 years ago

What will be the definition of the “steroid era” in MLB? Offhand I would guess 1991 to 2001 although I could be persuaded to add three years to make in 1994-2004. Presumably the gaudy power numbers helped to draw fans back after the acrimony of the 1994 strike/, hence the blind eye that was turned. What year had mandatory testing?

Michael Sullivan

12 years ago

PEDS might make you stronger. They might make you come back from injuries faster, and they might extend your career.

But they can’t make you hit a baseball, and Bonds did that as well as anybody in the history of baseball for 20 years.

He belongs in the hall, and he deserves the record. plain and simple. It’s how I felt then, and how I feel now.

no statistician but

12 years ago

Reply to Michael Sullivan

At the end of 1999, his age 34 season, Bonds’ cumulative BA was .289, his OPS+ 163. In 2000, age 35, he had a season consistent with his performance in many of the years earlier in his career: 49 HR, 106 RBI, 117 BB, .306 BA, 188 OPS+.For four years, starting at age 36, he suddenly produced, not merely incredible, unprecedented numbers of HRs for those years in a career, but BA, BB, and OPS+ numbers that defy understanding. Even given the skew of the outlandish BB numbers—120 IBB alone in his age 39 season—his OPS+ figures of 259, 268,… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

It’s all incredible, for sure, but those 232 walks and .609 OBP in ’04 get me shaking my head even more than the rest of it. That was done in MLB. Just crazy.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Michael Sullivan

I agree with no stat here. No, steroids can’t help you hit a baseball, but if you already are one of the best human beings in recorded human history at hitting a baseball, and suddenly you become 15 or 20 percent stronger, staggering things can (and did) happen. And the results of this increase in strength can lead to a drastic increase in confidence, which obviously also happened. As to earlier claims that Bonds is easily one of the three best hitters in baseball history, I really don’t think you can say that without his steroid years included. Were we… Read more »

Nash Bruce

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

sorry, I’ve had a few, and sort of carelessly rambled on, along the same lines, that you more eloquently expouned on…..I did so before I even got down to this comment. Sorry 🙁

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Nash Bruce

No worries, Nash. Good to hear confirmation of my opinion on the subject, actually. 🙂

Steven

12 years ago

If the likeness on his HOF plaque is from the later years of his career, will there be any room left for the statement about his “accomplishments?”

BryanM

12 years ago

Andy – I’m late to the party here but I’ll just echo what Birtelcom said more eloquently above. Bonds is the home run king, It’s part of the record, but individual numbers are very small brushstrokes in a complex portrait. My feelings are not hurt by the fact that he is the leader; but they are hurt, and my interest in baseball has been permanently eroded, by the conspiracy between the owners and the players union to only gradually begin to enforce the rule against PEDs that has been in effect at least since 1991, and ,arguably much before that,… Read more »

K&J

12 years ago

Reply to BryanM

The two-step process outlined above is the perfect succinct summary of MLB’s response to steroids. Well stated.

Bill Johnson

12 years ago

I felt bad when Bonds got the record and I still feel bad about it. Henry Aaron is the home run king to me. All cheating is not equal. Stimulants like amphetamines do not in any equate to steroids and HGH (Barry was doing both- the increase in his head size is staggering). In fact it is unclear how much greenies would even help one to hit a baseball. Help play after being out too late and not getting enough sleep- maybe but not as advantageous as actually having gotten enough rest. Steroids and HGH on the other hand fundamentally… Read more »

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to Bill Johnson

Bill J:
…. and don’t forget the baseball spikes that went from a 10 1/2 to a 12?

Man, steroids work. It’s a conspiracy of Malthusian genocide that the elderly aren’t given them to supplement the ‘dog-food’ diet they are given in nursing homes….obviously, I digress – quite a bit

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Paul E

Your digression is a far more important discussion to be had than the one we are having here.

I’m 39 and got hit by a car last year.
Whatever Bonds was taking, I would take some right now.

Author

Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Ugh! Sorry to hear that! A colleague at work recently got hit by a car, has no health insurance nor disability pay from work, so he’s back at work 6 weeks later and can barely walk, much less do his job.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

I went back to work after one week
(with a 3-week old baby at home).

Lost the job a month later.

…… I could go on with a sob story from every angle of the situation – but the essential truth is that a miracle occurred. I was crushed into a brick wall by a bmw suv, and while my back and neck and hip will never be the same, today I went kayaking, did a headstand, and danced with my daughter.

K&J

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Voomo, best wishes for your continued recovery.

Mike L

12 years ago

I’m starting to think of Bonds as I would a boxing champion I dislike because he’s a crud, in the ring and outside of it. He’s still the champion, and I still dislike him, and question whether his accomplishments were earned fairly. But he did hit those home runs. As to bstar’s comment @35, if I recall, Bill James was already, in 1992, calling him the best left-handed hitter since Williams. I wonder if Bonds didn’t have three stages-early, when he was still figuring it out (86-89) then really taking off as a more mature player (the next five or… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Wow — that was quite a piece of reasoning and writing, Mike.

Mike L

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John A-it is astounding how different the tone is at HHS as compared to any news or political site. People actually research what they say here and support their views with data. Seriously, thanks again.

12 years ago

Reply to Mike L

I know James said (pre-steroids) that Bonds was a better overall player than Williams, considering he was better defensively, better on the bases, etc. I don’t remember him saying anything about Bonds being the best left-handed hitter since Williams but I’m sure there’s lots that James wrote that I never read.

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Actually in the Postscript to the 2003 edition of Baseball Abstract James still has Bonds behind Musial, and Williams of course.

Mike L

12 years ago

Reply to PP

I was wrong. I found who quotes in the 1995 Abstract, James said that “Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Frank Thomas were the best three hitters God put on this Earth”. Not sure what happened to Stan. He did say Bonds was the best player in baseball.

Author

Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Mike L

The obvious implication is that Satan put Bonds on Earth.

Mike L

12 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Andy, the comment was from 1995, but I think we would all agree that James has always been ahead of his time.

Paul E

12 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Mike L:
I believe in that same abstract James mentions Dick Allen as the most talented/gifted baseball player he ever saw. I imagine that opinion may have been derived from watching Allen in 1972 against his beloved Royals. He certainly was critical of Allen 8 years later in the revised version/ win shares editon……

Larry

12 years ago

Duncan, that is exactly right. Bonds number is an unknown to probably the majority of people who would call themselves “baseball fans”. I think it is because Bonds had no “farewell tour”; no season that was he “last season” – he seemed to be hankering to come back for a couple of years. Hence there was no game where a HR would be known to be his last HR. Like I said in an earlier post, I refuse to look the number up.

Larry

12 years ago

Steroids constitute cheating much the same way as does a corked bat. Batters “cork” the bat to put to maximum surface area of the bat head through the hitting/contact zone with the maximum bat speed. (They sacrifice a little bit of a energy by the decreased bat weight which is compensated by quicker bat speed and better ratios of bat/ball contact).

Jim Bouldin

12 years ago

Reply to Larry

You’ve got me wondering what the rules are regarding what woods can be used in bat construction.

I’m also wondering how much of the desired effect there is due to changes in bat elasticity.

Brendan

12 years ago

Yeah, I’m not even going to guess what Barry’s career HR total was… but I’m not likely to forget the all-important number “756*”. Is that asterisk ball actually on display at Cooperstown? Seems like it will make Bond’s plaque that much harder to explain to my 7 year old son when I take him there… ‘Son, the asterisk means that everyone knows that he had an unfair advantage, the plaque means that… um… there’s not much you can do about it.’ But the fact is I don’t know anyone who calls themselves a fan of Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, etc.… Read more »

Jimbo

12 years ago

755 is remembered so well because it stood for so long. As did 714.

If 762 lasts 30+ years, people will know it the same way. Arod sure looked like a lock to break it a couple of years ago, but he’s fading fast. If he and Pujols can’t do it, I expect it will last a very long time.

Author

Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Jimbo

Jimbo, you’ve hit the nail on the head. I raised this issue (the recognizability of the numbers 714, 755, and 762) on Twitter a while back, and the consensus was exactly what you’ve said. People old enough to remember when Aaron passed Ruth said that the only number people knew then was 714, and when Aaron passed him, nobody was salient of Aaron’s running or final total. It was only years later, when other sluggers passed 500, that people began to take notice of Aaron’s 755, particularly when so many guys were stalling in the 500s, making Aaron’s number look… Read more »

Jeff

12 years ago

First off, Bonds…not Griffey Jr. was the best all around player in Baseball in the 90’s. Look at the numbers. Bonds trailed Griffey slightly in HR and RBI due to his ridiculous walk totals. Every other number favors Bonds(SB, OBP, doubles, triples, fewer K’s and runs scored. Bonds also didn’t have Edgar Martinez and Arod batting before and after him while hitting in the Kingdome. The often injured yet very good Matt Williams for a bit and then Jeff Kent for 3 years in the 90’s. In 93′ Bonds did have Will Clark(one of my all time favorites and very… Read more »

Jeff

12 years ago

That last sentence was meant to say he led in OBP. Anyway, look at his numbers in ’07, you can’t tell me he couldn’t still bring it at the age of 42, he was pushed out of the league. And those were post “steroid” seasons…

Disco

12 years ago

Could it be that there is some other reason than 762 is not well-known? Hmm? Could it be? Blah.

Doug

12 years ago

It’s just struck me what’s really odd about that Topps HR 756 card. Bonds is admiring his handiwork and raising his arms in triumph as the ball leaves the park. Yet, the catcher (Brian Schneider) remains frozen in his crouch, glove poised to receive the pitch. Seems like a strange reaction to me – surely Schneider would have have wanted to get up and take in that historic moment (at least I would have, if it had been me). Watching it just now on YouTube, Schneider is still at home plate being engulfed by a Giants team waiting for Bonds… Read more »

Drew

12 years ago

Then: He’s the best ever. PEDs don’t effect home run and slugging stats.

Now: He’s the best ever. PEDs didn’t effect home runs and slugging stats.

Mike Felber

12 years ago

PEDs massively effected his homer runs. He received a special strike zone & was pitched around so much due to his enhanced strength, bat speed, & power. Nobody thought he was the best ever naturally, but the best of his generation, yes. Steroids dramatically transformed his & other’s abilities. They were illegal for many years before they were even tested for. He has been investigated at great length & is a complete liar about his use. Cmpletely dishonorable, he should have to pay for the investigation. It is not nearly an equal playing field, because so many did not cheat,… Read more »

Willie Poorboy

12 years ago

Reply to Mike Felber

Agreed. That’s why I don’t sweat Barry much. His rep may improve long after we are all dead, but I doubt it. He made his money, he has his record, but he will never receive the reverence he desired so much. So much, in fact, that he could not be satisfied with “just” being the best player in baseball