Congratulations Barry Bonds!

[IronHorse4]

A hearty congratulations to Barry Bonds for breaking Major League Baseball's all-time home run record! A truly momentous occasion. And congratulations to Hank Aaron for holding the record for an impressive 33 years.

[MSBNYY]

Congratulations to Balco for selling him the steroids that allowed him to cheat his way into history.

Congratulations to OJ for getting away with it as well.

[IronHorse4]

Bonds and OJ are two absolutely, completely different situations.

[4dogg]

congrats to the steroid crazed spook,B.Bonds on his accomplishment for most HRs by a coon...the real record is still held by white man, Babe Ruth , with 714

[MSBNYY]

Well, one is a sick murdering son of a bitch, and the other is steroid using, cheating son of a bitch.

I hope I live long enough to see the record broken by someone who actually deserves it.

[IronHorse4]

Barry Bonds deserves to have the record.

More to the point, Major League Baseball deserves to have Bonds hold the record.

Your ire should not be directed at Bonds. If Major League Baseball did their job, Bonds wouldn't be the record-holder. Instead, Bud Selig stood idly by while McGwire and Sosa and Bonds juiced the game back into the spotlight.

Barry Bonds deserves to have the Major League Baseball record, because Major League Baseball sold its collective soul to the Devil. And so, Major League Baseball deserves Barry Bonds.

But sorry...I can't fault Bonds one bit. He did it within the parameters presented to him.

The funny thing is, Babe Ruth held the record for about 40 years. Aaron held it for 33. Bonds will probably hold it for about 7 or 8. That will have to be justice enough.

Go A-Rod.

[MSBNYY]

You have decent points except for "Bonds deserves the record." No he doesn't. He cheated. He used illegal substances to artificially pump up his body. He can even go to jail for his actions.

But I can't argue your point on baseball as an institution. MLB and Selig especially are also culpable for this crime against the baseball record books. It's disgusting to watch.

I really hope ARod can do this.

[IronHorse4]

No, he does deserve it, because he played within the framework of the game. I think Aaron's accomplishment is far more impressive, but Bonds deserves the number, given the environment in which he played. I'm talking about from a purely logical standpoint. Not talking about sentiment or heart or the fact that Aaron had to deal with far more friction (in the form of higher pitching mounds and thousands of death threats) than has Bonds.

Based on the climate and the environment available to Bonds, and on a purely logical and objective basis, he deserves the record.

But frankly, in my opinion, it's a damn shame.

[Jason Giambi]

i think his civil rights are being violated by the Yankees, better include him in the lawsuit

[MSBNYY]

Steroids are illegal substances, whether banned from baseball or not. He used illegal drugs. His record is not real. It's as tainted as his piss. To accept and even HONOR this "accomplishment" is only an encouragement for cheating.

At least Aaron really did it.

[crazilyz]

What gets me is that these allegations have been flying left & right for years but Bonds hasn't been given a piss test to prove who is right.

If A-Rod stays healthy, he can break the record in about 5-6 years...assuming he maintains the pace of generating 100 HRs in 2 seasons.

[$heriff Tom]

Ever consider the possibility that A-Rod is also on the juice?

He's another player that bulked up quite a lot over the years.

[9]

That sign is the single funniest thing Philadelphia sports fans have EVER done, even trumping firing snowballs at Santa Claus.

[Jason Giambi]

The estimate is that 80% of the LEAGUE has taken something. So yes, He, Jeter, Mussina, Sal Fasano all probably take something.

[MSBNYY]

There has never been any accusation of ARod on the juice. And if he is, then his record would be just as tainted.

[$heriff Tom]

There has never been any accusation of ARod on the juice

Well, I am making one now.

Try looking at pics of how jacked he is now, as compared to when he first came into the majors. Also, A-Rod is not a noted gym rat....where does it all come from?

I want answers.

CONGRATS BARRY! You deserve it.

[mac0822]

ARod was outed by Canseco aka the authority on who's roiding.

[MSBNYY]

Actually, all Canseco said was his book mentions ARod. Not necessarily about roids. The book isn't out yet.

As for Tom's accusation, that's meaningless.

[kingdzbws]

I agree with Justin 100%...Barry played the game the way it was presented to him.....Is he a sympathetic hero? NO. Did he use the loopholes left open by Selig? YEP. But if baseball really wanted to clamp down they could have. The league made a BIGGER show of McGwire and Sosa's race and turned a blind eye.

Players have cheated the rules since the invention of the game. Pitchers are lauded for their amazing 'spitballs' and other junk pitches. Guys going back to the 50's were corking their bats, taking speed, and other performance enhancers. Barry is hardly unique in his cheating. The fucking '98 Yanks could barely fit into their helmets. Just 'cause no one caught Tino, Scotty, BERNIE, and whoever else doesn't mean they were innocent.

Barry's just deserts is that someone else will take his crown sooner rather than later, big freaking deal.

[MSBNYY]

Players have not used illegal drugs to enhance their performance. And the two wrongs make a right defense hardly gets Bonds off scot free.

Bonds is a cheat, period. His record means nothing. He did not get the record legitimately. He is not the homerun king.

For Barry to get his just desserts, his entire career should be stricken from the record book as if he never played. THAT is what MLB should do.

And as for 98 Yankees, prove it. They weren't caught, they weren't even accused. And if they did that, then THAT team's accomplishment would be just as meaningless.

[kingdzbws]

You have points.

Willie Mays admitted using little 'greenies' - They are and were illegal amphetamines. YES two wrongs do not make a right whatsoever. My point is that guys like Mays and Mantle got off easy in an age when this shit wasn't scrutinized.

And really you can't assert that "Players have not used illegal drugs to enhance their performance." - That's too broad a statement. We know Barry, Sosa, Mac, Cansucko, Grimsley, Palmero, and others have. How can you be so sure no one else did?? Mays admitted to Pills, I don't think he was alone in Popping 'greenies'

Fuck Barry, who cares about Barry, but let's not pretend it never happened elsewhere.

I do applaud your stance that if the 98 yanks were found to be juicing then "THAT team's accomplishment would be just as meaningless"

[MSBNYY]

Greenies don't enhance your strength or performance. If anything, they hurt their careers. It's like drinking a massive cup of coffee. Greenies did not extend careers. Greenies do not do what steroids do. They do not make it possible to hit over over HR in your mid-late 30s.

I'm not saying it never happened elsewhere. But what we have here is setting an example that cheating pays off. But not just cheating--using drugs that can shorten lives and even worse, penis size.

All steroid users should have the book thrown at them. Zero tolerance.

[grover]

Balls, I will tell you first hand as someone who goes to the gym on a regular basis, a cup of coffee does wonders for a workout. Saying Greenies doesn't enhance performance is incorrect.

[$heriff Tom]

Yeah, Balls, you jerk, why do you think Greenies were commonplace in that time? Cause they tasted good?

[kingdzbws]

"Greenies don't enhance your strength or performance."

I REFUTE THAT

Play 150+ games at the same energy level, then we can talk. Play 28 games in a 30 day month including travel, and not have a 'tired' day. hundreds of players did and do it on the regular.

Have you ever taken amphetamines? You can be dead tired and BAM get a burst of energy....perhaps enough to swipe that base where if you were tired you might be caught by a foot or two. Imagine being tired and being able to have that extra step to catch that deep fly to the track that you might have not caught up to.

Some guys mix in coffee grinds into their chew to get a burst of energy. Illegal? NO, but effective in the short term. YEP.

Speed enhances performance in the short term.....perhaps in the long run it hurts career longevity, but for today it can make a guy run faster, and recover quicker. It's proven.

And Painkillers mixed with speed allow a player to, say, run hard on a bum knee, perhaps allowing someone to score from second who wouldn't be able to make it home. These are just a few examples of how those drugs have helped guys. BONDS IS A CHEAT. BUT NOT THE ONLY ONE.

And Again it is too broad to say that 'Greenies don't enhance your strength or performance,' you cannot say that with any certainty.


All steroid users should have the book thrown at them. Zero tolerance.

[cactusjames]

Congrats Bonds, too bad more people don't appreciuate the fact steroids have no effect on seeing the ball. But I am glad all this malarky is done and over with and all the Bonds haters will only be pissed for just about over 5 years.

[Chris]

Wait a minute now....who said Bonds hasn't been given a test? I would be astounded to learn that Bonds hasn't been tested.

I would bet almost anything that Barry Bonds has been tested more than once...and I'll bet he's passed the tests.

If this country has learned anything about illegal drugs, it's that the purveyors of the drug trade always adapt and always find a way to remain one step ahead of the authorities.

Do I think Bonds juiced? Hell yes. Do I think Bonds stopped juicing after MLB formally made steroid use against the rules? Hell NO. I think Bonds is juicing to this day and he just has the modern technology at his disposal to pass the tests. To this day there is still NO effective repeatably consistent test to detect HGH. Baseball players could use HGH at will and potentially not test positive. The guy is SO adamant about his "innocence" despite the overwhelming evidence of his flagrant use of roids...he's just brimming with confidence that he can't be caught/detected. And perhaps he's right - perhaps by the time testing is implemented to detect whatever designer steroid Bonds' is on, he'll be out of the game.

What I do wonder is, do these testing labs keep specimens of urine or blood for later testing as new testing methods are developed. I mean, is there a jar of Bonds' piss or blood from 2006 sitting around in a lab somewhere?

[Domi]

baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6557

You don't know Mark Silva, but you know his work. As a certified orthotist, Silva is one of the top builders of custom sports braces for athletes. He's made them for football players in his work with the San Francisco 49ers, and he's made them for baseball players, including Rickey Henderson and Mo Vaughn. It's the brace that Barry Bonds wears while batting that Silva is best known for.

On Monday, an article was published regarding the brace, first at Editor and Publisher (a specialty publication covering the newspaper industry), purporting that the brace worn by Bonds was an illegal aid that helped Bonds hit home runs. The assertions of the author, Michael Witte, were on their surface difficult to believe, but I wanted to know more about this brace. What was it made of? Who made it? Could it possibly help Bonds hit? (I should note here that e-mails to Mr. Witte remain unanswered at the time of publication, and I was unable to find a phone number for him.)

It took me one e-mail and one phone call to find Mark Silva. I called Mr. Silva on Monday evening, interrupting a bocce game. Silva had not seen the article nor heard the assertions made against his handiwork, but he was willing to talk to me about both. In an interview recorded Monday night, Silva broke down each of the assertions and provided the facts of the brace he has made for more than 15 years. Our conversation brought out a fact that as yet has never been documented. Mr. Silva states that not only has he never spoken of this, but that he's never been asked about it.

The brace that Bonds wears was first constructed in 1992. Bonds needed a brace to protect his arm after surgery, and Silva's work with athletes was already well-known. Each year, Bonds comes into Silva's workplace and has a mold made of his arm, which allows Silva to custom-build the brace. Silva explains that "it's a pretty labor-intensive. I take a negative cast of the arm. Each year, I make a cast of Barry's arm, a plaster mold. I cut the mold off, put a lead pipe down the center for strength, then strip off the negative cast, making a positive cast or a model to work with. I then sculpt it with plaster to build out areas we don't want pressure applied to, and then choose the materials specific to the sport so they can function at the highest level." The completely custom brace, which Silva estimates weighs between four and six ounces, is designed to "not be noticed" by the athlete. The straps are elastic and allow the arm to move within the brace during the swing, protecting the arm without restricting motion.

It's the molds that bring forth the most interesting fact regarding Bonds since Game of Shadows was published. Silva states that because of the custom nature of the work, he's been asked to make casts of Bonds each year. In the first couple of years, he went through the entire process, but due to his workload, he started checking Bonds with precision calipers each subsequent year. "If I made the same brace every year for 12 or more years," Silva said, "it was because there was no size change in Barry's arms."

You read that correctly--the man who not only builds Bonds' brace, but who has taken precision measurements of his arm since 1992, has not seen any increase in the size of Bonds' arm. Point blank, Silva said "there's been no significant change in the size of his arms."

Forget hat size--this is Bonds' arm. I'll admit that this seems counterintuitive. Bonds looks like he's grown. Even after listening to the interview over and over, it still sounds wrong as he says it. Was his arm just unnaturally large, I asked? "No, I don't think so," Silva said. "Rickey Henderson's arm is more muscular than any arm I've seen, as far as definition, and Mo Vaughn's not a very small guy either."

The assertions of an orthotist, not to mention a man who has Bonds as a customer, are not going to change anyone's mind about the perceived guilt or innocence of Barry Bonds. They won't stop someone from waving their foam asterisk, and I've learned that larding an argument with facts tends to fall short when it comes to the steroids issue. If we accept the assumption that Bonds has used performance enhancers and a well-documented workout regimen, would we expect Bonds' arms to show no change? Most major-league baseball players talk about maintenance workouts, a type of training regimen designed to aid in recovery and to keep players from losing muscle mass during the course of a season. However, Bonds' braces are built at the start of each season, precisely when a measurement of his arm would be most telling due to his ability to conduct longer, more strenuous workouts designed to build muscle mass.

While the jury is out on whether steroids help a baseball player, there's no question that they build muscle mass. That Bonds did not see any measurable gains in the one place where most men want to show gains--in their "guns"--is remarkable. The measurements taken by Silva are the most interesting fact added to the discussion since Game of Shadows, one more cogent than hat size, more important than any perceived visual change in size. (Let's face it, Ken Griffey Jr. and Andruw Jones don't look the same as they did when they debuted either.) These are precision measurements of Bonds' arms. It stands to reason that any player, or even any man hoping to look good at the beach, would see significant increase of size in their biceps or triceps when paired with the use of androgenics and a personal trainer.

Instead, Mark Silva's calipers and plaster molds give us another piece of information, something else to think about as we attempt to make our own sense of the new home run king and his legacy. From questions about a brace, we've learned something that may help us to understand the most controversial sports story of our lifetime.

You're free to make up your own mind. To hear the Baseball Prospectus exclusive interview with Mark Silva, the man who builds Barry Bonds' elbow brace, click below.

www.baseballprospectus.com/radio/audio/bpr_070807_1.mp3

[MSBNYY]

Greenies had the effect of a LOT of coffee. Maybe "not performance enhancing" is too strong, but it's just not the same thing.

Energy may help you "get up" for a game, but it does not increase your ability like steroids do. Greenies are more mental than physical. They keep you alert. Do they help your performance? Probably. Do they do what steroids do? No.

Steroids make you heal faster and your body recovers from workouts better. Greenies do not make you become more productive in your late 30s than you were in your 20s. They are a mental stimulant that gives you energy. They don't physically improve your skills.

Greenies increase your heart rate to give you that burst of energy. Just overhyped coffee.

[Chris]

"Congrats Bonds, too bad more people don't appreciate the fact steroids have no effect on seeing the ball."

That's a ridiculous statement - has nothing to do with the increased ability to hit the ball out of the park due to roids use.

I have posted this before, so I will give the abbreviated version.

Steroids and HGH do not only contribute to faster recovery time, the directly increase muscle mass and strength. Increased strength DIRECTLY increases a man's ability to swing the bat harder (aka FASTER, aka increased bat speed). Increased bat speed DIRECTLY increased the distance a ball will travel when stuck. Does Bonds have a good hitting eye? Of course. But, how many hits that would have normally been fly balls to the outfield went out of the park due to the increased bat speed.

Roids = < strength = < bat speed = < distance on a batted ball

Physics 101 my friend.