Testy Copy Editors

Our new website is up and running at testycopyeditors.org. This board will be maintained as an archive. Please visit the new site and register. Direct questions to the proprietor, blanp@testycopyeditors.org
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:33 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 18 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Better yet, how will Bonds be treated this year?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:51 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 741
Location: The Empire State
How will Bud (Kenesaw Molehill) Selig treat Bonds' breaking of first Ruth's career home run record, then Aaron's, both of which will probably happen this year? We already know MLB canceled a marketing deal for Bonds' breaking of Aaron's record with MasterCard, but what else will or won't happen?

Will Selig ever address Bonds' all-but-certain steroid use and how it has affected his performance? Will he order a literal asterisk (as opposed to the metaphorical asterisk for Maris) inserted after Bonds' records that says something to the effect of "Achieved with performance-enhancing drugs"? Can Selig possibly be seen in the stands and cheering when Bonds breaks both records this year?

What a p.r. nightmare for Selig.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject: Re: Better yet, how will Bonds be treated this year?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:35 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
A no-win situation for baseball.

It won't dare glorify Bonds a quarter as much as if the roid accusations had become so widespread, but it can't ignore him--more than any sport's, baseball's individual records matter to its fans.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 6:05 pm 
Offline

Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 968
Location: Champaign, Ill.
Definitely a Catch-22 for baseball.

I don't want to see him break either one. I especially don't want to see him do it at the hands of Cardinals' pitchers, who gave Griffey his 500th home run last season (though that one was long overdue and nice to see).

The only record I hope he shatters this season is the one he set for walks.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject: Re: Better yet, how will Bonds be treated this year?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:04 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:03 pm
Posts: 103
Location: Illinois
What can Selig do?

I may be mistaken, but steroid use was not illegal under the Collective Bargaining Agreement until after the time frame to which Bonds admitted to using steroids.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:13 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
ndugan1 wrote:
The only record I hope he shatters this season is the one he set for walks.

Good lord, man! Why?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:12 pm 
Offline

Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 968
Location: Champaign, Ill.
Oeditpus Rex wrote:
ndugan1 wrote:
The only record I hope he shatters this season is the one he set for walks.

Good lord, man! Why?


So he doesn't even have a chance to break those records. And no, I'm not bitter; not even a little.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:46 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
ndugan1 wrote:
So he doesn't even have a chance to break those records.

I'm ambivalent to Bonds breaking anymore records, but to keep him from it by walking him in nearly half his plate appearances only makes a joke of the game.

It almost seems like there should be an asterisk for the records he didn't break because the pussies were afraid to pitch to him.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:40 pm 
Offline

Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 968
Location: Champaign, Ill.
Oeditpus Rex wrote:
It almost seems like there should be an asterisk for the records he didn't break because the pussies were afraid to pitch to him.


You misunderstand me, good sir. I am not advocating that he be walked because I am afraid he might break a record. I am advocating he be walked because I have a vendetta against him. I know he can slam pretty much anything in the strike zone into McCovey Cove; I just don't want pitchers to even have to try while he's at the plate. Save their arms, I say. And, like you said, it does make a joke of the game to do this. Then again, it also makes a joke of the game when you jack 73 home runs on in a season while on steriods, just three years after the initial record was broken.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:41 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
ndugan1 wrote:
Then again, it also makes a joke of the game when you jack 73 home runs on in a season while on steriods, just three years after the initial record was broken.

No argument there — though I'm compelled to point out that it hasn't been proved he was juicing. Still, it's a pretty safe bet. And were I the Lord of Baseball, if (when) it's shown that he was, I'd definitely stick asterisks on his records, and those set by other 'roid freaks, Andro McGwire included.

Anyway, Niko, I don't think I misunderstood you. I was referring to the pitchers being afraid, not you. If I implied otherwise, I was in error.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:03 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
I don't think putting asterisks next to the stats or records of a few high-profile players is sufficient. We have reason to suspect that dozens of players, if not hundreds, took steroids in the 1990s. We'll never be able to prove them all guilty. Maybe we need an asterisk for the whole damn era.

Btw, I think the sportswriters deserve a large share of the blame in the steroid scandal. Maris's record stood longer than Ruth's. Suddenly, it's broken five times, I think, in matter of a few years. Meanwhile, Brady Anderson is hitting 50 homers and guys you never heard of are hitting 40+. (To think that Andre Dawson once won the MVP when he hit 49 for a last-place team.) Obviously, something was out of whack, and the usual explanations--diluted pitching, tightly wound balls, etc.--never satisfied me. I'm sure some sportswriters voiced suspicions, but these guys should have blown the lid off this scandal long ago.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 8:31 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
ADKbrown wrote:
Obviously, something was out of whack, and the usual explanations--diluted pitching, tightly wound balls, etc.--never satisfied me. I'm sure some sportswriters voiced suspicions, but these guys should have blown the lid off this scandal long ago.

Maybe this is my own misperception, but it seems to me that far too many sportswriters are also fans, and thus might've worn blinders and/or been afraid to bite the hands that feed them.

Anyway, history won't really need asterisks. Just as the early 1900s were the Dead-Ball Era and the late '60s were "pitchers' years," the late 20th and early 21st centuries will be remembered as the Steroid Era.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:21 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
You're probably right about the sportswriters' being fans. The Sosa-McGwire rivalry was too good a story to ruin with a lot of questions about drugs. What differentiates the Steroid Era from the Deadball Era is that not all the players in the Steroid Era played by the rules, and we'll never know who cheated, who didn't. I know some players cheated in the old days, but cheating then was occasional and inconsequential by comparison.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:36 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:40 am
Posts: 39
Location: 60'6" from home plate
I have to disagree about sportswriters being afraid to reveal secrets of steroid use, or having blinders on regarding steroids. Steroids have been a hot topic in sports since the mid- to late 1980s (SI did a great story around 1989-90 on a South Carolina FB player who wrecked his body with steroids), and there has been a ton of speculation in print and on the air over the past 10 or 15 years regarding players who may/may not be juicing (Albert Belle, Brady Anderson, Ken Caminiti, and Conseco years ago; Barry, McGwire, Sosa, and others in the past few years). The main problem has been that -- since baseball has had no real steroid testing policy -- it has all been pure speculation. There never has been any proof, and no players had "come out" until Caminiti did just before his death.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:38 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
If there was plenty of speculation — and there was — why wasn't there at least one person with the professional fortitude to dig into the story?

Speculation alone is worth little.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:22 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:40 am
Posts: 39
Location: 60'6" from home plate
Oeditpus Rex wrote:
If there was plenty of speculation — and there was — why wasn't there at least one person with the professional fortitude to dig into the story?

Speculation alone is worth little.


I completely agree. The problem is that you can dig all you want, but if you don't come up with proof (positive test; charge or conviction for controlled substances, etc.) or players willing to talk on the record, all you still have is speculation, and all the fortitude in the world won't give you a good story.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:42 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1286
Location: Saranac Lake, N.Y.
"I don't know what cheating is," Bonds said. "Is steroid use going to help you in baseball? I just don't believe it. I don't believe steroids can help you, help hand-eye coordination, technically hit a baseball. I just don't believe it, and that's just my opinion."


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:04 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:03 pm
Posts: 103
Location: Illinois
Funny thing about asterisks is sometimes it's hard to stop putting them in once you start.

If the steroid players get asterisks, do the amphetamine players of the 50's through 70's get them? Do the "whites only" players get them? Do the hippodroming players get them?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:12 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
Good points all around.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 18 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group

What They're Saying




Useful Links