Quote:
Originally Posted by Profits of Doom
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree a bit. As much as I dislike Bonds, he is doing it in an era where the pitchers are also on steroids, HGH, and a ton of other pharmaceuticals.
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this is true but it doesn't add much to Bonds' case as the legitimate home run king of all time - pitchers are not helped anywhere near directly as much as a home run hitter is by the use of steroids. Bulking up a pitcher's arm isn't going to make him put 5 miles on his fastball or make his breaking ball break better - Bonds' record will be a function of two benefits of his steroid use - the ability for his body at an advanced baseball age to recover better and to train harder prolonging his career and the muscle bulk it puts on has a direct effect on his ability to hit home runs - power. Without steroids Bonds would never have been anywhere close to this record. He is not facing superior pitching to what Aaron did in his day - in Aaron's day there were 4 man pitching staffs, practically every team had at least 2 aces, some had 4 20 game winners - pitching depth sucks in major league baseball today - Bonds is hitting against a lot of guys who should not be in the major leagues.
on the other hand in Aaron's day relief pitching wasn't as specialized, there were no guys groomed to be closers.
Without steroids Bonds would not be within 150 homers of the record - and no even with pitchers using chemicals today Bonds is not facing superior pitching relatively to what Aaron faced.
The media hates Bonds - with good reason. But I hope that when Alex Rodriguez breaks Bonds record they don't forget that most of A Rod's career has been smack in the center of the steroid era.