Saturday, July 28, 2007

Barry Bonds' place in the record books

Curt Schilling started it this week on his appearance on Bob Costas’ HBO show Costas Now. Schilling talked about what a disgrace it is to see guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in the record books. He talked about how these cheaters should be punished harshly and not rewarded for tainting America’s Pastime.

Curt Schilling started it, now it is time for the rest of baseball to stand up and follow his lead. It is time for the rest of baseball to be as disgraced with Barry Bonds as Schilling. It is time for the rest of baseball to stand up and do something about it.

Barry Bonds knows that no one wants to see him break the most storied record in sports. He seems to be driven to break that record just to make everyone in baseball have to reference him as the greatest home run hitter ever. In an interview with Baseball Digest Bonds said:

“The game has changed. Records are made to be broken, and whatever happens
in the future, we should allow it to happen on its own and not question
it. We are not machines. We are human beings.”

That is a very interesting quote. I can’t help thinking of Ivan Drago from Rocky 4 saying those types of things before his fights. Can’t you picture Bonds someday while talking to himself about the record saying things like, “I must break you,” and “If (it) dies, (it) dies.” I think that would be fantastic.

In complete honesty, I agreed 100% with what Bonds said in that quote. I agree that records are meant to be broken. Barry Bonds has broken many records in his baseball career. I think he should be in the record books forever. To do this however we will need the help of every pitcher and manager in the league. Lets give Barry Bonds a record that isn’t made to be broken, a record that will live forever, the all-time intentional walk record. Coming into this season Bonds had more than double Hank Aaron, which is 2nd all-time in IBB. Just for good measure lets make sure that he will always be #1 in that category.

There you have it, my solution for baseball. Never give him another pitch to hit! Never let him swing the bat again.

The Florida Marlins did this last night after Bonds hit #754. They walked him the next four times he came to bat. Lets hope the rest of baseball does the same.

2 comments:

Brian said...

Great article from Tom Verducci discussing the difference between numerically having the record and owning the record.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/07/17/aaron0723/index.html

Glad The Rant is back.

Brian said...

the end of the website was cut off...

Here it is again.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci
/07/17/aaron0723/index.html