The Namesake had another article this Sunday, on how it should have been Ken Griffey Jr. passing Hank Aaron, not Barry Bonds. You see these articles all the time in the press - "Ken Griffey Jr. should have been the greatest player of this generation"; "If not for injuries, Ken Griffey would have passed Hank Aaron", etc.
And that's why I'm grateful to Barry Bonds for possibly taking steroids, for staying in shape. I get to tell my grandkids (assuming they even care about baseball in the future) that I saw the greatest player since Babe Ruth play in his prime, and do things no person will ever be able to do. Make no mistake, Ken Griffey was a great slugger in his day. But Bonds was a better overall player. Check the stats:
Ken Griffey Jr, son of fellow baseball player Ken Griffey, broke into the majors in 1989 at the age of 19. He hit 438 (and was the fastest to 350 and 400, at the time) by the end of the 2000 season (his first in Cincy). He had missed significant time in a season only once - in the 1995 season he only played 72 games due to a hand injury. At the same time, he had only one season of over 20 SBs - 24, his career high, in 1999. He won a MVP in 1997, and finished second in 1994. Those are the only times he was in the top-3 in MVP voting in his career.
After hitting over .300 for his first 6 full seasons, he became more of a power hitter in 1997 - his average was .304, but he hit 56 HRs. He hit another 56 HRs in 1998, but batted only .284. Since then, he has hit over .300 only once - .301 in 2005.
Early in his career his strikeout/walk ratio was close to 1:1. In 1991, the year he batted a career high .327, he had 71 BB's:82 K's. In 1993 he was at 96 BB's: 91 K's, his career best season. He would never top 96 BB's again. But the late 90's power surge, he was well over 100 K's, averaging 114 K's a season for the stretch between 1996-2000. He hit 249 HRs in that 5-year span (50 per season), with 137 RBIs, a slugging% of .604.
Now let's look at Barry Bond's first 12 years, which are, for the record, considered steroid-free. He started in 1986 as a 21 year old rookie. By 1997, he had won three MVPs, and would have won four in a row if not for a second place finish in 1991 to the immortal Terry Pendleton. He had only 374 home runs in his first 12 years, but was a more complete all-around player. He topped 29 SBs 10 times in his first 11 years, to go with his power. He had a 30/50 year in 1990, 30/30 in 1992, 46/29 in 1993, 37/29 in 1994 (strike shortened, otherwise a 40/40 was likely), 30/30 again in 1995, and finally a 40/40 in 1996, and three SBs short of that again in 1997.
He had over 93 BBs for 8 of the 9 years between '89-97, including a 151 BBs in 1996, and 145 in 1997. He had a 1:1 BB/K ratio or better in all 9 years, including a 151 BB's: 76 K's (2:1) in 1996. His batting average was weak his first four seasons, but from 1990 until 1997 it never dipped below .291, including 5 seasons over .300. He OBP was over .400 every season; Ken Griffey has never topped .385. His slugging% was .617 for his 5 seasons between 1993-1997 (and he slugged .624 in 1992, too).
Point is, Barry Bonds was a better all-around player than Griffey at the same point in their careers, and only a slightly less home run hitter (but still able to get more power numbers, in terms of slugging %).
In 1998, Bonds hit 37 HRs and 28 SBs, two shy of another 30/30 season. He finished 8th in the MVP voting, as inferior home-run happy, steroid-users Sosa and McGwire were celebrated for their monster season (both breaking Maris' record), and finished 1-2 in MVP voting. Also ahead of Bonds were other HR hitters with suspicious power, namely Greg Vaughn (50 HRs, 4th in MVP voting) and Andres Galarraga (44 HRs in Atlanta, 6th in voting). Hell, even relievers like Trevor Hoffman were getting more votes than Bonds.
Griffey in 2001 had the first of his many injury plagued seasons - he played only 111 games in 2001, the most he would play in any season until 2005 (128), before dipping back to 109 in 2006. He's a shell of the player he was, and we have all been robbed of watching one of the greatest players of our time due to injuries. That's what the media would have you believe. The comparisons to another injury-prone centerfield slugger start pouring in - "it's like Griffey is our Mickey Mantle". Indeed.
Meanwhile, at the same point in his major league career, Barry Bonds avoided breaking down with injuries, or losing his skills, through a stellar workout regiment that may or may not have been supplemented with steroids. There are many people in the press who have propagated the "evidence" of Barry Bonds' steroid use, and somehow have turned a bunch of half-truths into a myth that most baseball fans, even the hardcore ones, believe. Hell, even Curt Schilling believes that Bonds admitted to using steroids (false). For a better, in depth breakdown of the myths surrounding Bonds and steroids in general, please read D-Wil's excellent series on this very topic.
I could do a list of the amazing stuff that never gets reported in the mainstream media that D-Wil found - the Carl Lewis failed drug test in 1988 that the American Olympic Committee covered-up; the Lyle Alzado brain tumor that is often believed to be what happens to steroid abusers (a death sentence by cancer!) is totally false; that Bonds never admitted taking the clear or the cream, and that the evidence seized from Balco's lab is as minor and insufficient as can be. In fact, it's pretty obvious that the government, despite spending millions of dollars and thousands of manhours to bring down Bonds and his ilk, has nothing to show for it. Which is why they have resorted to using the press, and willing dopes like those two reporters in SF that would do anything for a buck, to tarnish Bonds via false reporting of steroid myths, since there is little else to show for all their "investigating". But that's not the point of this post.
Let's suppose that Barry Bonds took steroids. Cool. He avoids the nagging injuries and loss of strength that most post-35 years old suffer from. So Bonds counteracts that, and for once we get to see what Griffey, or Mantle, or whoever, could have done had if they had been able to play productive 150 games a year for their 35-40 years. I know, baseball players that old aren't suppose to hit career highs in home runs.
Well, can we agree that a 40 year old possess a lot more baseball knowledge than a 25-year old? So if Bonds was already a 4-time MVP by 30, imaging how smart a hitter he is at 40. The difference? He still has the body he had at 25. Or actually an even stronger, more fit body.
Is Bonds' career path any more surprising than 40 year pitchers who are among the best in the league? There was a time when 40-years old pitchers would be out of the majors, unless they were knuckleballers or junkballers. A power pitcher at 40? No way. Then you got Nolan Ryan (the king of the buff workout pitchers, and my pick as the likeliest old skool steroider). Then, all of a sudden - Schilling. Randy Johnson. Clemens. Glavine. Maddux. Smoltze. Kenny Rogers (did you see the 'roid rage last season?). David Wells. Orlando Hernandez (who spent too much of his prime pitching in Cuba, where pitch counts start in the hundreds). Jamie Moyer. All still productive. Never before has there been as many 40-year old aces as there is right now.
Does anyone speculate on why that is? Well, in some cases (Schilling, Clemens, Rogers) it might be steroids. In other cases, it's just supreme conditioning combined with modern technology and medicine. Surgery saved Smoltze's career. But the bottom line is this: whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, these pitchers have done what many, many pitchers before them could only dream about - having the brains of a 40-year old veteran in the body of a younger person. So, too, as Bonds.
I don't really care too much why that is. All this talk about the sanctity of the game, of the history of the baseball, of the stats - total garbage to me. I care about watching the game, and seeing amazing things being done that I've never seen done before. I care about the most incredible season I'll probably ever see, a .370 with 46 HR season in which a man was walked 198 times. Most on purpose. This after a 73 home run season. Two years after that, a 232 BBs season, with a .362 BA and 45 HRs in 373 official ABs. 4 straight MVPs, and only teammate Jeff Kent's MVP in 2000 preventing Bonds from 5 straight.
He'll never win another award in all likelihood, but his career will go down as the greatest career we've seen since Babe Ruth. And they might try to add an asterisk to it like they did to Roger Maris, but someday that asterick and those haters will be gone, just like the Maris haters all disappeared, and all that will be left is the amazing numbers. That's the beauty of the baseball - it's numbers.
And I'm glad I'll be able to say that I saw it all, instead of say how great he would have been if he didn't get injured.
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How can you say bonds is a better all around player?His stats dont mean NOTHING! If Jr. used roids his game would have been better. So when you are old and you tell your kid you watched the best baseball player since Babe Ruth, you will be lying to him. Oh and might want to tell him to take sreriods also .
You must be a biproduct of the Bay area or Pittsburgh to say something so stupid. Who really cares that Bonds is passing 755 considering he was juicing for so long. Honestly how can you even stand to watch a CHEAT? Also, pitchers are in a better position to have a longer career, they don't have to play everyday like the rest of the team. They work in a rotation, I assume you know that. And any injury they may face is more overcomable due to medical advancements, meaning surgeries and rehab, not steroids as you have stated gave Bonds a better body than when he was 25 and kept him healthy. Most people, outside of qwacks like you, would agree that he is a weak fake to turn to steroids like he did. I would much rather see a team of players like Mark Lemke play than a bunch of juiced up pride bitten wanna be HE-MEN like Bonds.
mickey mantle was and still is THE GREATEST POWER HITTER he also was and still is THE FASTEST in baseball
mickey mantle possessed pure raw power at bat and pure raw speed in the outfield and the sprint from home plate to first base bar none.he was and is the personification of God given talents that surpassed all despite his injuries.
Allen: How much longer would MM have lasted had he taken care of himself instead of partying like it was 1999? How about the B-12 shot that he got from a quack doctor that cost him the rest of the 1961 season;which cost him a shot at the HR record and during a pennant race I might add? Any answers? At least today's players know to inject themselves without creating an abscess. Today's players are a lot healthier than past players;how many HOF inductees were alcoholics and died at an early age?
Clay: Do you take into account that BB played in Three Rivers Stadium (not a hitters paradise) and also in Candlestick Park (definitely not a hitter's park) then in the more hitter friendly AT&T park? Or is the stadium dimensions inconsequential? So how many HR would Ruth have hit if Yankee Stadium didn't have that RF short porch?
Bryan: Define "cheat". If there were no prohibitions at the time,then it wasn't cheating, was it? Burleigh Grimes threw a spitter at the time and was granfathered when it was made illegal. Hold it.He could use an illegal pitch, when it was illegal and there is no campaign to put an asterisk next his name, is there?
Is Burliegh Grimes a..."cheater"? Or is he a Hall of Fame pitcher? Mull that one over.(Hint:He was inducted in 1964 by the Veteran's Committee)
Isn't the whole point of weight training and taking suppliments to enhance performance? You don't take suppliments alone and expect them to work unless you have a workout program in the first place-it's not a "magic bullet". A mediocre player who takes suppliments will still be mediocre, just more muscular. The fans worship at the alter of the Home Run while ignoring the good hitters that sit in front of them; Ichiro Suzuki broke the single season hits record held by George Sisler for almost 80 years-no one in the MSM noticed. Why, because good old fashioned baseball isn't popular anymore; we prefer more offense-(lowered mounds, band-box stadiums, the DH rule) and we wonder why players try to bulk up?
What a bunch of hypocrites you fans are.
In making the case for "the greatest player of his generation" you cannot go by offensive statistics alone (albeit they are the easiest to measure). Based on those numbers I'd give the nod to Bonds. However, Griffey dominates Bonds by a substantial margin on defense.
I don't care about Gold Gloves. There's not a person alive (who isn't an idiot) who would at any time have chosen to have Bonds over Griffey in the field. Given the choice of any outfielder in baseball for defense I doubt Barry would even be a top 10 choice if the game is on the line and a manager wanted the best defense possible in the outfield.
I've never seen a highlight of Barry Bonds leaping up and reaching over the wall to steal a would-be homerun from an opposing batter. I can't even remember ever seeing Bonds lay out (not slide, lay completely out) and make a spectacular catch. Griffey was on SportsCenter as often for his defense as his offense. And he did most of it on the green concrete they used in the Kingdome!
Incidentally, Griffey missed most of the '95 season because he broke his hand making one of the best catches in the history of baseball. Just ask Randy Johnson.
Bonds allegedly started using steroids in 1999, not 1998, but his 98 season would count as a clean year.