Bones on Bonds

I hate Barry Bonds. As a lifelong Pirates fan who was tragically scarred by the early 90s heartbreak trifecta, I have no control over this hatred, it flows naturally. Barry choked big-time as a Buc, posting OPSs of .542, .392 (!), and .868 in the 90-92 postseasons . His only postseason HR as a Pirate was in the 1992 8-run 2nd inning of the Bucs' 13-4 ass-whooping of the gutless Braves. But scrawny little Barry just couldn't prove to be the difference. Of course he couldn't since Ted Turner had already paid off Randy Marsh. But that's getting off the subject.

So now, 12 years later, Barry is the Greatest Hitter Ever coming off the the Greatest Season Ever.

Rowdy's argued at great length that steroids were not that big a factor for Bonds, and weren't to Bonds as spinach was to Popeye. As Supervisor of the Biomedical Advisory Board for HW, I'm contractually bound here to weigh in.

First off, I'd say I agree with a few of Rowdy's points. Such as:

1. That professional sports regulation is currently a bigger political issue than more important domestic issues (e.g. the environment) is mind-numbing.

2. In general I think drugs are poorly understood and often wrongly demonized by the American public and media.

But in general, I'd say I disagree with most of Rowdy's other points about steroids not being that big a deal, not obviously enhancing performance, and comparing them to other drugs. I won't belabor each of these points, but for the record, I think:

1. Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are a serious problem to society today because young people are likely to emulate Bonds and Santiago and take whatever they can that might confer some kind of advantage. This being a problem hinges upon steroids having adverse long-term effects on human health, which I think (but don't know) is true.

2. Steroids should not be compared to nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, or other psychoactive drugs that to me are pretty clearly different in that they don't obviously confer an advantage. Sorry, Leyland's managerial record stands.

3. Evidence abounds that steroid use has enhanced the performance of MLB players. True, one never has an ideally controlled experiment (e.g. Bonds 2004 +/- HGH). But, c'mon. Look at the career stats of Bonds or Bret Boone. Bonds suddenly doubles his HR rate at the age of 35. The statistical unprecedence requires explanation. He got juiced and probably has at least 50 more career HRs than he would've otherwise.

But whatever, he stunk for us. Thanks for nothing, Barry.