ItsTheBlog™

There are a few different ways to look at the career of Barry, and I'm going to try to take an entirely objective point of view throughout... lets do this. At the end of the article I will reveal which category I fall into. Hold onto your seats, bee-yotches.

Viewpoint #1: The Giants fan slash I support Barry until the end of time fan: This approach is simple. Most of these fans are San Francisco residents, attend Giants games on a regular basis, and cheer for Barry because (a) he helps them win and (b) he's an amazing talent. They push the mere steroid issue aside and stick to the American way (kinda) of innocent until proven guilty.

Viewpoint #2: The Baseball Purist: This fan, most likely not a San Franciscan, despises everything that is Barry Bonds. He is a juice monkey, cheater, jerk, media-hater, lousy hitter (still confused on this one), horrible teammate. This fan is also very likely a Jeff Kent lover. The belief here is that not only should the title of HR King be stripped from Bond's grip, but also that he no business in the HOF/game of baseball. He should go to prison for a number of different heinous crimes. Generally, this fan has done their research and can hold an intelligent conversation about Barry Bonds and baseball.

Viewpoint #3: The non-Baseball fan slash I argue because it pisses people off fan: Generally the most despised of the views, this fan wavers on his take on Bonds an a weekly, if not daily basis. If he's talking to a Purist, he loves Barry. If he's taking to a San Franciscan, Barry's a douche bag. Most people with an "opinion" fall somewhere in this category.

Viewpoint #4: The Objective/Non-Purist/Non-San Franciscan/Student of the game fan: This fan generally tries to form an opinion of Barry based on more then his staggering increase in power, HR production, and bulging neck. (with or without "The Juice", no timeline can tell when it did or didn't start) This fan does not cast the Steroid Scandal by the wayside but does not give it credit for 100% of Barry's performance.


Now that that's settled, go ahead, take a few minutes and try to figure out (honest reflection time) what category you fall into. In the mean time (cue Jeopardy theme song), allow me to stat you to death, I just hope Skip isn't reading, he hates that kind of thing.

16, 25, 24, 19, 33, 25, 34, 46, 37, 33, 42, 40, 37, 34, 49, 73, 46, 45, 45, 5, 26, 23.

Mumbo Jumbo you say... Nay I say. Those are Barry's HR numbers, by year, starting in 86, ending in present. One. One season, Barry hit above 50 Homeruns. The infamous 73. The first 4 seasons Barry was under the age of 25. When he hit 25 years old, the age many players come into their "prime" and get their "man strength", he only hit fewer then 33 HR's in a year one time. He did that in 1991. He hit 40+ HR's three times in the 90's, five time's this decade. Not so staggering. So to say that Barry's HR production has completely taken off is absolutely wrong. I am not dismissing the thought of Barry using 'roids, I think he did, but it's not like they magically made him hit 80 bagillion homeruns for like 20 years. He hit 73 HR's one year. That year, Barry was 36, a polished big league hitter with an eye like no other. I remember watching the chase for 70, and I have never seen a hitter square up [in Lamen's terms, hit a ball directly in the center, in turn the ball being hit harder and farther then If you miss by a centimeter] as many balls as he did in so few of swings. Steroids cannot do this. What can, you ask? The best hitter to walk the face of the earth.

In case you're wondering, I would put myself in group #4. Is Barry a model citizen? No. Did he use steroids? We don't (and probably will never) know for sure, I'm guessing yes. The man has a career OBP of .445 and SLG of .608, equalling a mind blowing 1.053 OPS. That's really damn good guys. The only time he struck out 100 times in a year was his rookie year. Again, absoltely phenomenal for a power hitter (greatest all time). Last I checked, steroids don't improve contact percentage. He has 514 career SB's, of which 89.5% came before Y2K, so don't blame his speed on Juice. 2,541 BB's = 121 BB/year. Wow. Oh and he has 2916 career hits, so even if you take away all 757 HR's, he's still over 2000 hits for his career. Again, very mother humping good.

Call him a cheater. Call him a liar. Call his records tainted. In fact, call him anything you want.

I'll call him the greatest [hitter] of all time.

Labels: Barry Bonds, best of all time, juice