Riggo#44 Posted August 29, 2017 Author Share Posted August 29, 2017 The thing that really irks me about Bonds was he didn't need it do it. He was one of, if not the, best players in the game. I love that Griffey is in the HoF and Bonds isn't. As for the Wild Card, I like the current format, even if a barely .500 team makes the 2nd slot there. In the NL, the Nats and Dodgers are cruising, the Central is close. The AL the East is close, but the Central and West are pretty much locked up. The WC format is keeping 5-6 total teams in the race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDoyler23 Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 1 hour ago, Riggo#44 said: As for the Wild Card, I like the current format, even if a barely .500 team makes the 2nd slot there. In the NL, the Nats and Dodgers are cruising, the Central is close. The AL the East is close, but the Central and West are pretty much locked up. The WC format is keeping 5-6 total teams in the race. I love the Wild Card system. It puts a premium on winning your division. It makes the stretch run better when the division races are boring (I mean, the NL East was over before Memorial Day - arguably opening day...) and keeps hope alive in additional markets. You get two prime time elimination games and the winners of those games have fared reasonably well in the LDS. The lowest win total for a team in this thing is 87, but many teams have been well into the 90's -- like the 97 win Cubs played the 98 win Buccoes. So far, the only team that hasn't benefited from it is Pittsburgh - they've been in the game 3 times, all as host as the #1WC and have lost 2/3. But it worked out pretty well for the Giants a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 1 hour ago, Riggo#44 said: The thing that really irks me about Bonds was he didn't need it do it. He was one of, if not the, best players in the game. I love that Griffey is in the HoF and Bonds isn't. As for the Wild Card, I like the current format, even if a barely .500 team makes the 2nd slot there. In the NL, the Nats and Dodgers are cruising, the Central is close. The AL the East is close, but the Central and West are pretty much locked up. The WC format is keeping 5-6 total teams in the race. He didn't need to. He could have quit after 1999 and have been a Hall of Famer. He'd have finished with 445 home runs (when that was still a relatively large number), 460 stolen bases (IIRC, the only player in the 400/400 club) and a .968 OPS. He would have finished with three MVP awards and 8 Gold Gloves. He might have fallen short on the hit total (2010 if he'd quit after 1999) but the accolades and the reputation as the decade's best player should have been enough to get him there. But it wasn't enough. Driven by jealousy and pure spite at the attention that McGwire and Sosa were getting he started juicing. And while I was horrified at the time that any baseball player would do such a dastardly thing that would tarnish such a game with a checkered past full of racists, cheaters and assholes clean, beautiful and pure sport that has the most hallowed records of all, I now understand it. Bonds knew that he was a hell of a better ballplayer than both of those guys and wasn't getting the respect and attention for a career that was better than McGwire's and Sosa's by a mile. A stupid home run record was all it took for those two guys to take any spotlight that was his. So he showed what he could do. And while he was a better player than McGwire and Sosa before the juice, he was sure as sweet holy **** better than them while on the juice. If you saw Barry Bonds play in person between 2000 and 2004, you were effectively watching Babe Ruth hit. Sure, the steroids helped but let's not forget that he was hitting them off juiced pitchers, too. I saw him play when the Giants came to Baltimore in 2004 where he hit #675, an opposite field shot that barely got into the first row in left-center. It was a banner day for PEDs at Oriole Park for that game, Rafael Palmeiro hit two homers that put him past Mickey Mantle on the all-time list. The feeling in the crowd that day was electric when he came to the plate. To this day, I've never seen anything like it at any other sporting event, save for Cal Ripken's 2130 and 2131. But this was different, this was absolute greatness at it's zenith. For a meaningless game between the Orioles and Giants, it was an amazing atmosphere and it was all because of one man. There was an audible buzz that raised when he came to the plate and I've heard that for anyone at any sporting event, before or since. You're absolutely right, he didn't need to do it. But he was so incredibly driven that he didn't care, he wanted people to know how great he was, juiced or not. I'm not saying juicing was a good thing to do, but I understand the mentality of someone who wants to just kick the living **** out of everything in their path and leave no doubt as to who the greatest really is. And if he had to juice to get there, well so be it. That's the thing about Bonds, I don't even think he WANTED to do it in the first place. He'd done it clean for so long, it didn't make sense for him to try it until he saw others stealing what he perceived to be his glory. In regards to Griffey, he didn't juice (as far as we know) but I also don't think he had the "**** you" mentality that Bonds had. Maybe if he did, he could have propelled himself to bigger, better heights. Maybe not. Who knows. But Bonds didn't give a **** about anyone other than himself, which, IMO, made him the greatest. And in regards to the Hall of Fame, I love that Griffey is in. And while the early 20s Spaceman Spiff was outraged and horrified that guys like Bonds, Clemens, McGwire and Sosa and others were juicing, the mid 30s Spiff has come to understand that the baseball Hall of Fame is a museum about the game where a lot of assholes are immortalized. That Hall of Fame has plaques for people who kept blacks out of baseball. Guys like Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige (he got to the MLB, but far after his prime) were robbed. And when I started thinking in those terms, all of a sudden Bonds juicing didn't seem like such a big deal anymore because baseball has been tarnished time and time again over the years. This time, it just happened to be with funny sounding chemicals that no one could pronounce and sacred records were broken (you know, records that were set while players were on greenies. But greenies sound cute and harmless. Androstenedione sounds a lot more sinister). Anyway, I still think it's the greatest game ever. To me, it's a perfect game played, managed and ruled over by imperfect people. Some of those imperfect people who stained the game are in the Hall of Fame. Bonds and the rest should be, too. Ignoring it and keeping those guys out of the Hall doesn't mean it didn't happen. Keeping those guys out of the Hall of Fame isn't telling the complete history of baseball. Which is what a museum is, a place to present history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 The thing that really helped me empathize most with Bonds was the 10th Inning of Ken Burn's Baseball series. Not only did he remind viewers that PED have been a part of the game for half-a-century ("Greenies" I think they called them) but they talked about the thigns you mentioned, @Spaceman Spiff - his drive and resentment of the attention other folks (who weren't even close to being the all-around player he was) were getting. No, he didn't have to but the older I get and the further removed I am from the Bonds controversy, the less I care about it from an "integrity of the game" standpoint (but the more I think it should be kept far away from sports because of the lasting impact it can have on the body). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 3 minutes ago, thebluefood said: The thing that really helped me empathize most with Bonds was the 10th Inning of Ken Burn's Baseball series. Not only did he remind viewers that PED have been a part of the game for half-a-century ("Greenies" I think they called them) but they talked about the thigns you mentioned, @Spaceman Spiff - his drive and resentment of the attention other folks (who weren't even close to being the all-around player he was) were getting. No, he didn't have to but the older I get and the further removed I am from the Bonds controversy, the less I care about it from an "integrity of the game" standpoint (but the more I think it should be kept far away from sports because of the lasting impact it can have on the body). I agree that it should be kept away from sports as much as it can be...but let's be real here we're also sports fans that love to see a 6'3 260 pound linebacker who can run a 4.6 40 destroy everything in his path on Sundays. I always thought it was weird that people vilified baseball players for taking PEDs but love their football players as big and strong and as fast as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 The 2nd Wild Card is one of the greatest innovations in the history of baseball. It's making so many more of these late season games meaningful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 2 hours ago, Spaceman Spiff said: I agree that it should be kept away from sports as much as it can be...but let's be real here we're also sports fans that love to see a 6'3 260 pound linebacker who can run a 4.6 40 destroy everything in his path on Sundays. I always thought it was weird that people vilified baseball players for taking PEDs but love their football players as big and strong and as fast as possible. I don't want football players on PEDs either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo#44 Posted September 1, 2017 Author Share Posted September 1, 2017 Orbit has taken over as my favorite mascot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRobi21 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Uhhhh ohhhhh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 First of all, **** the Red Sox. Second, I'm not sure how the Apple Watch helped them. Third, **** the Red Sox. Right in the neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 Meh, the history of baseball is littered with cheating. They're big market Boston, they'll get a slap on the wrist. If it was Washington they'd consider stripping us of our playoff spot. I'm only half kidding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRobi21 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Only Boston teams can get caught cheating, and have all other teams punished for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Why does it matter if they knew or didn't knew? If they broke a rule, they should be punished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Getting towards the end of the season here, it's been a pretty good one I'd say. I think this summer will be remembered for Judge and Stanton, perhaps rightfully so. It could also go down as the year that Trout missed a big chunk of time and still won the MVP. It's the year for most homers in a season and by a wide margin, the 30th year anniversary of 1987 where power exploded due to balls that were tightly wound and maybe the first emergence of PEDs. I found this to be amazing: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20838323/jose-altuve-houston-astros-reaches-200-hits-4th-season-row Quote If Altuve finishes the season as the AL hits leader, he will be the first player ever to lead the AL or NL in hits outright in four consecutive seasons. Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, George Brett, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn...Ichiro...None of those guys lead the league in hits for 4 straight years. I'd have bet that Ichiro, with all those years of 200+ hits in a row would have lead the league 4 straight years. A few more years of this performance and Altuve will be entering Gwynn territory, but perhaps better. He can hit for that .350 average but with more pop. I don't think Gwynn ever hit over 20 homers in a season and I know Boggs did it once ('87). What have been your favorite parts of the 2017 MLB season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Altuve is my AL MVP. I can't give it to Trout when he missed so much time. And Altuve is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 It can't be Trout this year. With all the time missed, plus slumping down the stretch. It has to be somebody else. Even Judge has gotten back into the conversation with his late season hot streak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Wandering over to the AL Standings and was surprised to see the Eastern Division is still up for grabs. Yankees seem to have an easy schedule going down the stretch while the Red Sox have to deal with the red hot 'Astros. This one might come down to the last day like it did in 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Remarkable turnaround for the Twins. 100 losses last year, playoffs this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 32 minutes ago, Warhead36 said: Remarkable turnaround for the Twins. 100 losses last year, playoffs this year. How do you reckon they match up against the Yankees (if the Sox hold on and win the division)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Not good if their last series against the Yankees is an indicator. I really want the Twins to beat the Yankees in that one game playoff, but they're not winning at Yankee Stadium. They're not ready for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Yeah, 2-4 (with a three-game sweeping and an aggregate 6-18 score) doesn't bode well for the Twins, especially if they're playing in the Bronx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo#44 Posted September 29, 2017 Author Share Posted September 29, 2017 This reads a lot like the 2015 Nationals Post-mortem: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 Sox got blown out by the Astros last night. Yankees playing the Blue Jays today at 1 p.m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozo the kKklown Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 IIRC, that Royals team is probably getting dismantled this offseason. They had a hell of a run and were a really fun team to watch for a couple of years. Lights out bullpen, team speed and defense with timely hitting. In a power happy era, they did it in a kind of old fashioned way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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