Yay Barry!

[howeird]

Barry Bonds broke the career HR record tonight while I had flipped channels from the game to see the ending of Tru Calling on the Sci-Fi channel. When I switched back, people were shouting, and some guy who looked like he was wearing a Washington Nationals shirt** was being escorted out by several cops. I thought the guy might have made a scene or something and was being given the bum's rush, but then I noticed he was shaking hands and high-five-ing all the way, and then the announcer broke in to say this was the fellow who had caught the ball.

So I got to see live Bond's little thank you speech, which was gracious, articulate and touching. Nice to know he had it in him. After the speech they replayed the hit several times, as well as the whole at-bat session, and I have to say this was a hit worthy of the record. I had seen him hit a double and single earlier in the game.

**Seeing the replays, the fellow who caught the ball was wearing NY Mets gear.

About steroids. IMHO, there is nothing wrong with professional athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs. We are not all created equal, regardless of what our pie-in-the-sky founding poets claimed, and I don't think there is anything wrong with a professional in any field using chemicals to help level the playing field. Banning steroids from professional athletics is as ridiculous as banning coffee from business meetings.

Comments

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

It's a bad message to give to kids that look up to these guys as heroes. When you've got kids juicing for JHS and HS sports, there's something wrong.

Other than that, he doesn't come close to Hank Aaron who got to where he did without drugs.

[howeird]

I disagree. I don't think it gives kids any such message. If kids are juicing, blame the parents and teachers who put unreasonable pressure on the kids to succeed, not the pro athletes. And you have no way of knowing if Hank Aaron was using drugs or not. When he played, there were no tests, and nobody in the media gave a crap unless the drug abuse landed the guy in jail. Babe Ruth abused alcohol and hot dogs, but since those are performance-destroying drugs it made his prowess with the bat even more amazing.

[edith-mf.livejournal.com]

I agree with U -- it is illegal. It is a bad example to set for any kids, including howeirds. If it was legal and merely a bad idea, then perhaps I'd lean more in your direction. There are cases of 'roid rage where the use of performance enhancing steroids hurt even more than the user. It is illegal and should be illegal because this sort of non-medical use maims or destroys people, and that is not in our society's best interest.

As to how great Hank Aaron was, I don't know how he would do against pitchers today. I'm not sure there is a way to draw a comparason, drugs or no.

There are tons of absolutely insane statistics people generate on baseball. I think I'll just throw this one on the pile and apply the match of who-the-hell-cares-anyway. I haven't heard it mentioned at work today at all yet.

[howeird]

Steroid use has not been illegal for very long, and compared to the number of people who have used it, the number of 'roid rage incidents is very small.

I don't buy the "setting an example" argument. I grew up on heroes of the Wild West and WWII, but it didn't make me want to carry around a six-shooter and solve my problems with gunpowder and lead. Okay, it did, but my parents and teachers and the local Police Athletic League gave me socially acceptable alternatives. I expect the same of parents and authority figures today.

Total agree on baseball's insane fixation on stats. When you have a game which consists of one team mostly standing around spitting while the other team mostly sits around spitting, you need something to keep the fans interested.