- 03:23 AM
- 12/22/24
First off, let me say that if it comes out that Bonds was clean through this whole thing than I say congrats to Barry and say that we witnessed one of the greatest careers in team sports history, obviously, and he would have to go down as one of the top five players in baseball history and a surefire first ballot HOFer. That being said, I wonder if some of you out there are having the same problem I am with this whole thing. I'm in my late twenties and started watching baseball in the late '80s, I was a huge A's fan and still followed McGwire when he went to the Cards, so my whole baseball watching existence feels like it has been completely tarnished by steroids. I think I'm not unlike a lot of people when I say that part of the reason that I love sports as much as I do is the appreciation of the almost unreal natural athletic ability of the athletes I am watching. It just saddens me to think that I have no idea if anything I've rooted for in the past twenty years has been real or if it was manufactured in a lab. Anyways I would much rather they figure out who definitely wasn't on the stuff so we have something to look at and say that "this guy did something amazing and he did it himself, without having to turn to steroids to help him out."
posted by grad2480 at 12:35 AM on August 09, 2007
Because football is so team oriented, a great player is still always dependent on those around him. If Emmitt Smith hadn't had the most dominant line of his era would he have gotten past Payton? If Elway or Marino had garbage lines would they have gotten their passes off? Although it seems like it sometimes Jim Brown didn't run over 11 guys to get to the end zone. Football is the one sport where you can't take over a game by yourself. The problem I have is that Rice gets discriminated against in this discussion because he's a wide receiver. All included, records, pressure performances, career longevity, Rice's resume stacks up against anyone, quarterback, running back, receiver, defensive player, whatever.
posted by grad2480 at 09:21 PM on September 07, 2005
Jerry Rice needs definite consideration as the great player of all time. The game of football is about gaining yards and scoring touchdowns and nobody did either of those more than Rice. I watch these guys on TV talk about how a receiver can't be because of how physical football is, but was there ever a more physical receiver than Rice, and is there nothing more dangerous to a football player than getting smashed over the middle by someone you can't see and then the very next play laying a safety out with a crackback. Also have you ever seen so many clips of a receiver dragging defenders into the end zone. I don't think so. Hats off to Rice for showing the rest of the sports world that its not OK to take plays off (Randy Moss) and its not OK to talk trash about the teammates that put you in position to make great plays week after week (TO).
posted by grad2480 at 04:58 PM on September 06, 2005
756.
The point I was making was that there are people who played baseball during this era that didn't use performance enhancers and those are the athletes I choose to look up to and respect. I don't know how many home runs it added to Bonds' total, and if it turns out that it didn't do anything, then like I said before I would congratulate him if I got the chance. It seems to me like performance enhancing drugs must be doing a little bit more than nothing for athletes, since they have the power to strip Olympic athletes of their medals, brand an entire sport as somewhat of a joke (cycling) because of how rampant the use is, and cause what seems like the vast majority of the nation to pretty much view the breaking of the most historic record in sports with indifference, among other things. Maybe I'm naive but I just want to see athletes build themselves up naturally without the benefit (whatever those may be) of performance enhancers and then somewhere down the road have to suffer the consequences of the drawbacks that they may pose.