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The Best of Our Generation...?

As a die-hard baseball fan, there was no way I could avoid seeing Barry Bonds come to town.
He bestrides the current baseball world like a colossus, rising larger than life above the rest of the talent in the majors, and bearing, perhaps, the same crosses and stigmas attached to the game at large.
Like the other 45,000 odd fans in attendance, I was curious to see if he would hit the warehouse. He did not, although he did hit career home run number 676 on this day. He also received the loudest cheers, including a deafening cheer for said home run. The loudest boos came when he was intentionally walked (only once, though).
No one else comes close, today, to having the effect Bonds has on a game. Who else routinely earns intentional walks, routinely distorts traditional baseball strategy, like Bonds? He's one of the very best who has ever played the game, and to let an opportunity pass to see him, perhaps for the last time in Baltimore (unless he plays until 2010), was unacceptable to me.
Who else is even close to Bonds in all the history of baseball? Babe Ruth is the only one I'd say is greater, and that's because of the stamp he put on the game in the early part of the 20th century. In terms of pure ability...Ruth has an edge in pitching, Bonds in baserunning. Ruth played before baseball integrated, which is a slight demerit in that he didn't have to face 100% of the available talent. Bonds plays in an era of inflated power numbers and steroids (more on that later), but he plays against the best in the world. Expansion has diluted the talent pool, but integration just about balances that out. Ruth has a place in the game's history, its legends. Bonds may earn such a place in the fullness of time, but he is certainly the hitter feared most by a comfortable margin.
Because people dig the long ball, here are the top four on baseball's all time home run list:

  • Hank Aaron: 755
  • Babe Ruth: 714
  • Barry Bonds: 676
  • Willie Mays: 660

Bonds needs 38 to pass Ruth (if he's healthy all year, he has a slight chance to do that this year). Should Bonds play another two years at around 125 games a year, he may pass Aaron, and should certainly pass Ruth in early 2005 if he's healthy. Bonds really wants to pass Ruth, having made no secret of that in the past. He's less concerned with Aaron, although should he last three more years, Aaron will almost certainly fall to number 2.
Back to others in Bonds' class. Willie Mays, certainly, is in the conversation. His fielding, baserunning, hitting, and power match up well with Bonds.
Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Ted Williams...they may have a place too (particularly Williams). Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston are both deified and damned by spending their entire careers in the Negro Leagues. If they were in the majors, they may very well be in the conversation (particularly Charleston, who's practically unknown as a player but may have been the most complete ballplayer who ever lived). Then you have your transcendent figures like Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken, who had lesser skills, but who did things which no one else had ever done, although Ripken probably hurt his career numbers by playing in 2,632 consecutive games, as Gehrig did with his 2,130, not to mention the unspeakable pressure Jackie Robinson felt at all times.
Aside from Ruth, who does so only on the basis of his ineradicable place in history, no one else is clearly better than Bonds, looking just at the numbers (and Bonds may well end up edging Ruth out on that score, they're pretty much even now). He is a truly unique talent the likes of which we may spend many years before seeing again.
But then there's the whole "did he or didn't he" steroids issue. Many people conclude, based on Bonds' change in musculature over the past 10 years, not to mention some damning links to the BALCO situation, that he is certainly on the juice. The 73 home runs in 2001 are considered a point of evidence, too. No one has done some of the things that Barry's done, and since other players have come out and said that they've taken steroids during their careers, Bonds ends up falling under that shadow.
The links to the BALCO investigation, which involved Bonds' personal trainer dispensing steroids to various high-profile clients, are strong ones. I remember reading that Barry's name was allegedly on the list of distributees, but the leap from receiving to using is one that no evidence has covered yet. It's not quite the same as Mark McGwire admitting to using androstenedione and calmly displaying it in his locker back in 1998. To McGwire's credit, he stopped using the supplement, had one more good year and then broke down. Supposedly he is smaller now than he was in his heyday in the mid to late nineties, but I haven't seen him, and don't really have strong feelings one way or the other about him, aside from the fact that he hit his 62nd home run in 1998 when I was down the ocean on a date with someone I'd be seeing for the next three years.
Most people have no problem making the leap to Bonds' use of steroids based on the evidence which has been leaked so far. I agree that he has not put himself in a position to be above suspicion, but I'm not comfortable making that logical jump myself. For one thing, Barry's been dominant for a large portion of his career, although the power numbers have spiked somewhat, especially since 1998 (an expansion year, by the way).
Sure, he may hit balls into McCovey Cove in San Francisco routinely. Sure, he may have gained 45 pounds of muscle since 1989. He's also playing in an era where strength training is the norm and not the exception for baseball players.
There's also no evidence that steroids increase hand-eye coordination. They certainly increase muscle mass, which means that a juiced player can hit whatever he hits harder, but he still has to hit a round ball with a round bat. Barry's success is tied to his incredible bat control and speed. He's so locked in right now that it doesn't matter if he's seen a pitcher 100 times or not at all. His eye is so good that he rarely misses a ball in his strike zone, and his discipline is so remarkable that he rarely swings at a bad pitch, unless he's completely fooled, which can happen to the best hitters from time to time.
I prefer to wait until I hear something definitive one way or the other about any steroid use before I comment one way or the other about it. If it turns out he is guilty as sin of juicing up, then what does that do to his stature in the game? Does he fall from the category of truly great to just great? Is he blacklisted like Pete Rose (a true scoundrel, but a very good player for a very long time, who was in no way connected to steroids, even if he broke baseball's cardinal rule against gambling, but still one of the greats on the field). Certainly his name would be smeared, but I don't think his talent would fall so much from what we see today. The man is a lethal combination of talent and intelligence on the diamond. I hope his name is cleared, so we can give him the respect his deeds deserve. If, on the other hand, he's guilty, then his deeds, while still remarkable, will bear the stain of his actions.

Photo Day at Camden Yards

When I found out that the first 5,000 fans in attendance would get a chance to go onto the warning track at Camden Yards so they could take pictures of their favorite players and coaches, I couldn't resist. I arrived at the stadium around 9:30, only to find a line wrapping from the south gate around the corner of the warehouse. I knew that my chances of getting to take part in this promotion were pretty good, since I counted around 730 people ahead of me.
I have no great and burning love of any of the current Orioles. None of them. Sure, I admire their abilities, but aside from maybe Rafael Palmeiro (on his second tour of duty here), and B.J. Surhoff (also on his second tour), I don't have any visceral connection to them the way I did to Eddie Murray or (to a lesser extent) Cal Ripken, Brady Anderson, and perhaps one or two others (Mussina was the best bet to be anywhere close to Eddie's class, but he became a Yankee, 'nuff said). So the real incentive for me was to simple stand somewhere on the field of play. Nonetheless, I did take a number of pictures, and even featured in a couple, and I got to press flesh with some of team (mostly, oddly enough, the coaches). It was fun, but I'm not sure I'd do it again, unless there was someone else with me. Here are the pics:

Oh, and for the record, the O's lost, 7-3. I saw some strange creature in the audience at one point. I guess even freaks of nature like to watch baseball, too.

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Most people in baseball don't really love Barry Bonds from what I understand. I felt like I'd stepped into some other world...O's players were routinely booed, while Bonds was cheered (and booed). My admiration for his skill may seem like idolatry, but I've always called a spade a spade, and Bonds is simply the best player I've ever seen.

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