Bonds Breaking Home Run Record

[Jigga]

So now we're all paragons of virtue? When the hell did that happen? For real, none of us are really fit to live in glass houses are we?

You're my dog, JR, but what the are you talking about?

[Epiphanic]

Personally, I'm ambivalent over the record. I'm upset that Bonds has used steroids and the influence they have his late-career explosion of homeruns. Yet, I see him as a tragic figure of the home run/steroid era. I really want to celebrate his record, but I can't do it uninhibited.

I think steroids and other performance enhancing drugs shouldn't be in sports. Saying we can't catch them all so let's just legalize it ruins what sport and its records are about. If it's simply about wins and losses with no testament of individual achievement, you could make a reasonable argument. But the whole point of records is that players from different eras are compared. Giving one player artificial enhancement isn't fair. If baseball and other sports should be just pure entertainment (like professional wrestling) then steroids are more acceptable (although I'd lose interest in the game). If baseball and other sports should be a venue for human athletic achievement, then steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs need to be banned.

Anyway, that's how I feel about the record and this issue. I recognize it as happening, but I have a hard time accepting it given the conditions. Tragic for Bonds and fans like me.

[STL FANATIC]

So now we're all paragons of virtue? When the hell did that happen? For real, none of us are really fit to live in glass houses are we?

Good to see you're okay using that argument when it fits your own cause.

[Jigga]

So now we're all paragons of virtue? When the hell did that happen? For real, none of us are really fit to live in glass houses are we?

Good to see you're okay using that argument when it fits your own cause.

That's high praise coming from you, Justin. But you must admit, I'm nowhere near as good at doing it as you are.

[TFoA]

That elbow pad article is among the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

Absolutely. People are just reaching now.

[OnWis97]

That elbow pad article is among the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

Absolutely. People are just reaching now.

Yeah. The only thing it does is make him more comfortable. MLB should outlaw such things, but as long as they don't, who can blame Bonds, or anyone, for wearing it?

While there will be an asterisk in my mind, I am kinda pulling for him to break it out of spite to everyone that is so up in arms.

[tp49]

The body armor thing to me seems more a slap at pitchers and how many seem afraid to pitch inside. Example, if Bonds wore armor like that and stood as close to the plate as he does back when Gibson and Dryesdale were pitching you can bet that he'd hold the record for being hit the most times by a pitch. As long as he can get away with it though who can blame him for doing it. Makes me wish for the days when the "policing" of the game was done by the players on the field.

[rams80]

I found this:

Beyond his alleged steroid use, Barry Bonds is guilty of the use of something that confers extraordinarily unfair mechanical advantage: the ?armor? that he wears on his right elbow. Amid the press frenzy over Bonds? unnatural bulk, the true role of the object on his right arm has simply gone unnoticed.

This is unfortunate, because by my estimate, Bonds? front arm ?armor? may have contributed no fewer than 75 to 100 home runs to his already steroid-questionable total.

Bonds tied Henry Aaron?s home run record of 755 on Saturday night and will go for the new standard this week back at home in San Francisco.

As a student of baseball ? and currently a mechanics consultant to a major league baseball team -- I believe I have insight into the Bonds "achievement." I have studied his swing countless times on video and examined the mechanical gear closely through photographs.

For years, sportswriters remarked that his massive "protective" gear ? unequaled in all of baseball -- permits Bonds to lean over the plate without fear of being hit by a pitch. Thus situated, Bonds can handle the outside pitch (where most pitchers live) unusually well. This is unfair advantage enough, but no longer controversial. However, it is only one of at least seven (largely unexplored) advantages conferred by the apparatus.

The other six:

1) The apparatus is hinged at the elbow. It is a literal "hitting machine" that allows Bonds to release his front arm on the same plane during every swing. It largely accounts for the seemingly magical consistency of every Bonds stroke.

2) The apparatus locks at the elbow when the lead arm is fully elongated because of a small flap at the top of the bottom section that fits into a groove in the bottom of the top section. The locked arm forms a rigid front arm fulcrum that allows extraordinary, maximally efficient explosion of the levers of Bonds' wrists. Bonds hands are quicker than those of average hitters because of his mechanical "assistant."

3) When Bonds swings, the weight of the apparatus helps to seal his inner upper arm to his torso at impact. Thus "connected," he automatically hits the ball with the weight of his entire body - not just his arms - as average hitters ("extending") tend to do.

4) Bonds has performed less well in Home Run Derbies than one might expect because he has no excuse to wear a "protector" facing a batting practice pitcher. As he tires, his front arm elbow tends to lift and he swings under the ball, producing towering pop flies or topspin liners that stay in the park. When the apparatus is worn, its weight keeps his elbow down and he drives the ball with backspin.

5) Bonds enjoys quicker access to the inside pitch than average hitters because his "assistant" - counter-intuitively - allows him to turn more rapidly. Everyone understands that skaters accelerate their spins by pulling their arms into their torsos, closer to their axes of rotation. When Bonds is confronted with an inside pitch, he spins like a skater because his upper front arm is "assistant"-sealed tightly against the side of his chest.

6) At impact, Bonds has additional mass (the weight of his "assistant") not available to the average hitter. The combined weight of "assistant" and bat is probably equal to the weight of the lumber wielded by Babe Ruth but with more manageable weight distribution.

At the moment, Bonds' apparatus enjoys "grandfathered" status. Similar devices are presently denied to average major leaguers, who must present evidence of injury before receiving an exemption.

Bonds has worn some sort of front arm protection since 1992. In '94, a one-piece forearm guard was replaced by a jointed, two piece elbow model. In ?95 it got bigger and a small "cap" on the elbow was replaced by a "flap" that overlapped the upper piece and locked the two pieces together when the arm was elongated. In '96, the "apparatus" grew even larger and so did the "flap."

It seems to have remained relatively the same until -- interestingly? 2001, the year of his record 73 home runs, when an advanced model appeared made (apparently) of a new material. It had softer edges and a groove for the flap to slip into automatically at full arm elongation. More important, the upper half of the machine was sculpted to conform more comfortably to the contours of Bonds' upper arm. Since 2001, the apparatus seems to have remained relatively unchanged.

Several years back, baseball was rightfully scandalized by the revelation that Sammy Sosa had "corked" his bat. The advantages conferred by the Bonds "hitting machine," however, far exceed anything supplied by cork. Ultimately, it appears the Bonds "achievement? must be regarded as partly the product of ?double duplicity" -- steroidal and mechanical.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003621797

Interesting...

I admit, I never paid much attention to that gigantic thing he wore on his elbow...

This indeed falls under the category of "reaching".

Semi O/T...

Has anyone else ever wanted to watch Barry charge the mound with his gauntlet on? That might be an entertaining brawl.

[DEAD!]

Semi O/T...

Has anyone else ever wanted to watch Barry charge the mound with his gauntlet on? That might be an entertaining brawl.

.... fe, fi, fo fum....

[I Am A Flaming Douche Bag]

He will hit a homerun tonight against Wash.

[charger77]

And so what anyway? Aaron used a heavier bat than Ruth did, and benefited from more teams with crappier pitching. Does Aaron's record not count?

Barry Bonds played the game according to the rules at the time he played.

I'm with you there

[Fred T. Jane]

This indeed falls under the category of "reaching".

Semi O/T...

Has anyone else ever wanted to watch Barry charge the mound with his gauntlet on? That might be an entertaining brawl.

A brace too far?

Baseball Prospectus (via Deadspin) has the retort: According to Bonds', er, "Armourer," his arm hasn't grown in 12 years.

[STL FANATIC]

So now we're all paragons of virtue? When the hell did that happen? For real, none of us are really fit to live in glass houses are we?

Good to see you're okay using that argument when it fits your own cause.

That's high praise coming from you, Justin. But you must admit, I'm nowhere near as good at doing it as you are.

The difference is that I'm not throwing rocks at anyone's house the rest of the time.

[Jigga]

So now we're all paragons of virtue? When the hell did that happen? For real, none of us are really fit to live in glass houses are we?

Good to see you're okay using that argument when it fits your own cause.

That's high praise coming from you, Justin. But you must admit, I'm nowhere near as good at doing it as you are.

The difference is that I'm not throwing rocks at anyone's house the rest of the time.

Well, considering the altitude of your high horse, I am quite surprised you are even conscious right now, let alone lucid enough to post.

Oh, and I don't throw my rocks at any one else's houses. I just wait for you bastards to come outside, then I jump out from behind the bushes all guerilla style, yelling "BYAAAAAH!"

[STL FANATIC]

There's no need to get into any real personal argument with you. I've no major problems with you, Jigga.

But please don't mistake my true, legitimate refusal to pile on people and to let others as a high horse.

[JQK]

Bonds cheated. The testimony proves that.

His "owning" this record, is a farce, and in my eyes, and many baseball fans eyes, he will never own that record.

Much in the same way as i refuse to recognize his "owning" the single-season HR record. I still give that record to Maris, as Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa all look dirty, and more than likly were dirty when they passed that record.

Will Bonds ever be brought to justice? With the joke that is was and still is the MLB testing system, the answer is probrally "no", but in the court of baseball fans, he is guilty, and his so-called achievments will never be recognized outside of his little San Francisco bubble...

[Jigga]

There's no need to get into any real personal argument with you. I've no major problems with you, Jigga.

But please don't mistake my true, legitimate refusal to pile on people and to let others as a high horse.

Like the song goes, "don't start none, won't be none." You're a good guy and all, Justin, but it's funny how YOU made it personal with me and then you come back saying you don't want to get in any personal arguments with me. I'll except whatever olive branch you're extending, but don't for a second think you can just get personal with me and expect me not to strike back. I guess I'm just stupid like that.

Back on topic, Uh...yeah, Bonds took 'roids.

[habsfan1]

He did it.

[slapshot]

*

756

[Jigga]

Hate all you want, but...Barry Bonds IS Major League Baseball's HOME RUN KING (and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it)!

Congratulations, Barry. I'll remember this all my life.