As far as Babe Ruth is concerned, there is no questioning the man’s abilities. However, it must be pointed out that all baseball records before 1947 should have an asterisk, since many of the best players of the era were frozen out of the ‘major leagues.’

Discuss.

I really love the game and am personally enjoying the on field drama.

GO DODGERZ!!

People often try to diminish what Ruth did by saying he benefited from playing in that era. Only playing against 7 other teams and seeing the same pitchers over and over again, but such criticisms are unjustified. Ruth hit a ton of home runs in cavernous ballparks where balls had to travel 450+ feet just to get over the fence. The balls used weren’t the oversized golf balls they use now.

Like Mambo points out, the guy was also awesome pitcher. He went 89-46 in his pitching career and he was largely responsible for the Red Sox winning the World Series in 1918. The guy had a streak of 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings the World Series, a record that stood until Whitey Ford broke it in 1961.

There’s a great book by Bill Jenkison called, ‘The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs’ which says that with todays field dimensions and rules (before 1931, when balls hit the foul pole, it was foul) Ruth would have had a total of 818 career homers.

He was also, despite his big frame, a terrific outfielder. That description came from Tris Speaker, considered one of the best outfielders of his day.

CO Dave, as far as “best baseball player of all time” goes… tough not to give the nod to Babe Ruth. Cliche, maybe… but the guy was on a completely different planet as far as hitters go, moreso than anyone else in history, including Mays, Bonds, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron. Not to mention that he was one of the best starting pitchers in the game before he was moved into the outfield.

Prior to 1998 (when allegedly jealous of Sosa and McGuire he began to juice) Bonds had hit 30/30 four times. In ’96 he hit 40/40.

At one time Bonds was a five-tool player. He was a great defensive player with both his arm and glove. He could run the bases. He could hit for both power and average.

In 1998 it was guaranteed that Bonds would be remembered as one of the best players in baseball. He had no good reason to juice.

Now, he will be remembered as a cheater.

Talk about you classic (and I mean ancient greek) case of hubris.

Two words for Barry Bonds?

Willie Mays.

Mays does not hold the single season home run record.

Mays does not own the career home run record.

Willie Mays is also the best baseball player of all time.

That being said, what the hell is Bonds gripe? Costas just asked a question. It was Schilling that talked. And Bonds in doing what he did, once again avoided the question and the subject (himself).

I’ll explain. Mr. Bonds does not even pretend to care about anyone other than Mr. Bonds. He distances himself from his teammates in the clubhouse and surrounds himself with sycophants off the field.

A few years back, he achieved some milestone (stolen bases?)late in the season and immediately went on vacation, leaving his teammates to slog through without him.

He’s also a crybaby. When he gets bad press for his antics, he plays the victim.

In short, he’s a great ballplayer but an astonishingly self-centered one.

I got two words for Barry Bonds.

David Eckstein.

Four more.

Spud Webb, Mugsy Bogues.

I still don’t get why Bonds draws such ire. Notice the outcry when Bonds makes a comment but no such outcry when Curt Schilling opens his mouth and inserts his foot, as he did a few hours ago.

Alex Rodriguez will hit his 500th homer any day now. He’s 31 years old.

By the way, I’d much rather have Barry Bonds (Zero positive steroid tests) as the face of my league rather than Shawne Merriman. If we’re going to continue to test players, then we actually have to acknowledge when they come back negative.