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Thanks for Nothing Barry

How lucky we are.  We have seen some of baseball’s most sacred records be challenged and broken in the last few years. It takes an athlete who is superior over his or her counterparts to break a record and maintain it for a long period of a time.  People say records are meant to be broken, but when I hear that statement I assume it means all records are meant to be broken fairly. Almost every record has been put to the test by steroids that took any type of powerful strength to achieve. Baseball is known for the home run, and for 37 years Roger Maris was known for having the all time record for 61 homers in a season. The 1998 season was a rebirth for the fans that slowly lost interest after the player’s and owners had a lockout in 1994. The powerful force of Mark McGwire and the hustling erratic Sammy Sosa gave the term “home run” a whole new meaning.

Casual fans were brought back to our country’s pastime as they would watch the games not to see who won or loss but to see if “Big Mac” or “Slammin Sammy” hit another home run. On September 8, 1998, Mark McGwire broke the holy record of baseball as he passed Roger Maris when McGwire hit his 62nd home run in a season. With still multiple games remaining, Sosa also broke Maris’s previous mark of 61. The regular season ended with two giants of baseball finishing with an astonishing 136 home runs combined, as McGwire led the charge and held the new record of 70 in a single season and Sosa sat #2 in the record books with 66 round trippers. A record that was said untouchable for 37 years was surpassed by two different players in one single season.

McGwire was never proven guilty but almost everyone knows he used performance enhancing drugs which helped him climb the ladder to greatness the unfair way. Sosa was never caught with any illegal drugs but in 2003 he did experience the corked bat instance when his broken bat was found to contain cork in it which is said to give the bat a little more pop to it.

If these players did use illegal performance enhancing drugs what does that mean to the players who played the game fairly in the years previous? Roger Maris was not a gigantic man but he used his talent and hard work to hit home runs. Pete Rose surly wasn’t a steroid user as he used every bit of his 5 feet 11 inches and 192 pound frame to have 4,256 hits. The players of the past who used only hard work and determination will soon fall out of the top records in baseball to the genetically altered freaks that call themselves professional baseball players. What about the fans? I pay my $30 to see a live pro baseball game, because I want to see the best baseball players in the world. I am not paying to see the riskiest or maybe the stupidest players in the world who are bold enough to cheat the game and hope they will never be caught. The past players who were clean are cheated, the fans are robbed of their money, and the owners who decide to play fair and refrain from signing players suspected of cheating are all hurt too much.

Barry Bonds did not take long to move ahead of McGwire as he hit #73 in 2001 and was crowned the single season home run king. Bond’s tough guy attitude wore on the fans and media as he eventually became hated by his peers. Fans that would look at a picture of Barry Bonds’ early days with the Pirates and then would look at one in the present they would see a completely different man. He is no longer a solid built man. He is now a huge man full of muscle that is slowly breaking down with excessive injuries. He credited his transformation to hard work, but his muscle gain happened so quickly everyone assumed he used some type of performance enhancing substance. Bond’s home run total jumped from 49 to the record setting total of 73 in just one year. I can understand how hard work can enhance his totals to maybe 9 or 10 home runs but his number jumped 34!

In our country one is said to be innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately in this predicament the evidence is overwhelmingly against Bonds. Just this year a book was published called Game of Shadows which is said to contain conclusive evidence against Bonds, proving that he did use illegal performance enhancing drugs. If Barry Bonds is proven by law that he cheated the game it will put a damper on baseball’s most thought upon record. He is coming very close to passing Babe Ruth for #2 all time in home runs and is also close to passing Hank Aaron for #1 in home runs hit over a career. One can only think that baseball is praying that Bonds just retires after this season without ever surpassing Hank Aaron.

Yes, records are meant to be broken. The words that must be added in that statement is fairly broken. Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, along with many more players all may have cheated the game, the opposing players, and the fans. Bonds captivated us with his famous season and we now have learned that he did it with the little help of steroids. The chance of such an impact of just using a simple injection of a drug is I guess to appealing to Bonds instead of just playing on the same level as all other players. Bonds cheated the game and he cheated us. He may go down as the most prolific homerun hitter of all time but to me he will just be a good player who took advantage of baseballs’ ignorance of steroids over a long period of time. Until the power hitters of are day are cleared of all allegations there will be a damper put upon America’s pastime. It will truly become a game of the past if we don’t get baseball cleared of all steroid use quickly. Thanks Barry; thanks for wasting my time caught up in your cheated glory; thanks for nothing.

3 replies on “Thanks for Nothing Barry”

Good Article, But I believe McGwire broke Maris’s single-season HR record on September 8, 1998.  It would be hard to break the record 9 days into the season (April 9th).

However, I still give you a positive vote.  I like the topic and think Barry Bonds is a cheater.  I’m glad Sammy Sosa has fallen from glory.  However, I was a little disappointed in Big Mac; he was my idol in 1998.

FACT CHECK I’ll fix the date and the layout.

Remember people, a whole line space between 2 paragraphs.  Use the <p> tag.

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