ESPN just reported that Barry Bonds said 06 is his last season.

No link yet.
He hits 48HR's and he passes the great Hank Aaron.
Note to NL pitchers: DONT PITCH TO HIM!
I cant stand Barry Bonds

Link just came up: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2336586

:) But, either way, it's definitely time for him to hang it up.

Look at his stats from when he played for the Pirates till he came to the steroid-laden Bay Area.
He was a skinny leadoff man for years, then suddenly he bulks up like he did so quickly?
Hank Aaron played in a less watered down Major Leagues in the era of great pitching and he NEVER used steroids!
Fuck Bonds he's a punk and doesnt deserve to be the alltime HR king!

Really, everybody knows that. He's a jerk, he's got more chemicals in him than a tank of gas.

His job is to hit the ball. Let him hit the damn ball. Until he gets caught he can't and shoudn't be punished. Aaron will still be regarded as the better player and Barry Bonds may be one of the biggest assholes in sports but he'd be the first guy to tell you so. For all his faults he does give a great deal of respect to the players who've gone before.

He gets more shit than any of the other obvious substance abusers because he's had an uneasy relationship with the media for years and they're loviing the opportnity to paint him as the bad guy, rather than other obvious or admitted abusers who were/are personable, marketable and white.

Babe Ruth, O Hell yeah. But doing in Aaron, with Bonds shakey development
of muscles and late career god-like cranking...I think he wants to avoid
those questions and slide into the Hall of Fame with a minimum of fuss.

I can only imagine the shitstorm should he break Aaron's record.

Anybody who cared figured it out years ago. I mean his head grew two hat sizes or some crazy thing like that. :eyes: He hasn't exactly been subtle about it.

they test him, like, weekly.

Hank Aaron is a man of honor and integrity that never blamed the media or fans for anything.
Bonds does this routinely.

have egos the size of Bonds' alibi, and will pitch to him anyway, as they're so certain they'll strike him out.

So I'll be glad just to see him off the field after next season. Seems like an extremely unpleasant person to be around.

That's not baseball.

Throw him your best stuff. If he hits it, he earned it.

No matter how rediculously big he is, he has to hit the damn ball to send it to McCovey cove. You throw your best pitch and take your chances. :shrug:

I was fucking embarrassed for baseball when he was intentionally walked 120 times in 2004, and who knows how many of the other 112 were "unintentionally intentional"?

I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it.

both the lack of skill and the timidity.

No wonder I don't enjoy watching baseball (or listeing on teh radio, which was one of my favorite thigs to do as a kid) as much as I used to. :(

Some people would say that Roger Maris broke Ruth's single-season record because pitchers were pitching around Mantle, who batted ahead of him in the order.

Mantle drew 126 walks in '61 — only nine intentional — which, while a lot, wasn't even a personal high. And he hit 54 homers himself, despite missing the last week of the season with an infection from an unsterile needle for a flu shot.

Besides, you don't walk a guy to pitch to a guy who hit 61 homers and drove in 142 runs.

he was going to hit 61 homers. Starting the season, he was a nobody... why not throw crappy pitches at Mantle to get to him?

Nonetheless, his 126 walks was the most on the team (and in the MLB), followed by Maris with 94, followed by Clete Boyer with 63. Mantle had twice as many walks as anyone on the team except Maris.

As for the Intentional Walks, the league leader in them only had 19. ...not as common of a practice in 1961 as it is now.

who hit 39 homers (second in the AL) and drove in 112 runs (first in the AL) the year before.

I did add some stats though... read again.

BTW, coming into 1961, Mantle had hit 317 home runs with 935 RBI, to Maris' 125 HR and 395 RBI. Mantle was certainly the bigger threat coming into the season.

and had the good fortune of playing in Yankee Stadium with its short porches in left and right — though fences didn't affect Mantle much, since he hit a baseball farther than anyone except perhaps Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx.

Maris, OTOH, spent his first three seasons in Cleveland and Kansas City, both of which had huge yards.

But, hey — we're just going back and forth here. I maintain there're situations where the intentional walk is called for, and they don't often apply to Bonds. I don't know how many times he got walked in 2004 with nobody on, but there were a few.

That ain't baseball.

I never saw either of them play. But I know one thing for sure, the # of Intentional Walks Bonds got was ridiculous.

I agree with you... let them pitch to him... it was McGwire himself that said "it takes more than big muscles to hit a home run" or something like that.

The 'roids only let 'em hit it farther, and virtually every major league ballplayer is already capable of taking a ball out of the yard.

Any ballplayer will tell you hitting is about timing, and timing starts with the eyes. So if these guys were smart, they'd be taking beta carotine instead of steroids.

Thank the gods.

I do not want him to break Aaron's record.

He's such an undeserving, cheating piece of shit.

He doesnt deserve to have that record at all. It will be a real tragedy if he manages to pass Aaron.

Pitchers are supposed to challenge hitters, stuff against stuff.

The "real tragedy" would be if he missed the record because he was denied the chance by wussy-assed managers. That would be a travesty upon baseball's house.

Baseball will miss one of it's greatest emissaries and role models.

Extreme :sarcasm:

Does he HAVE to play this season?

he`s made frank thomas look like an angel. the "big hurt" was the only big hitter of that generation that wasn`t on the juice

wishing injury on somebody you don't knwo just because you dislike them?

That is all.