Like him or not, he is the best ever

Cremora, Zagoshe, Chris Rock, the idiot who wrote the article, or whomever:

Babe Ruth was the greatest baseball player ever.

Greatest.
Baseball.
Player.
Ever.

First of all, the guy have four or five great pitching seasons which would have put him on the road to a Hall of Fame career. Find how many pitchers with more than 100 career decisions have a better winning percentage than the Babe. It isn't a long list.

Second, he saved baseball after the Black Sox scandal. Baseball might have become an insignifcant sport without the Babe.

Third, he hit more home runs by himself than a lot of teams hit. He revolutionized baseball. When he hit 60 home runs, he hit more on the road than at home.

Fourth, it was later in his career where he was overweight. He was out of shape in 1925 when he had injury problems but was in pretty good shape from 1926 thru 1928.

Fifth, this "Babe Ruth didn't have to play against non-white players" argument. First of all, baseball was not very developed outside of the US mainland in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was after 1925 or 1930 that baseball became more developed in Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc. As for black players, lets say 15 percent would be in the majors if there were no color barrier. They would have replaced the 15 percent weakest white players. How many home runs would Babe Ruth have lost if he had to face Satchell Paige and other black pitchers. Maybe 20 or 25 tops. And he would have taken Satch over the wall his share of times.

Sixth - the guy did all of this while being one of the great partiers of all time. That is what makes Babe Ruth a legend. Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, and Ted Williams (I guess the Houston writer never heard of him) are great hitters. Babe Ruth and Willie Mays are legends.

Seven - he was the first major sports celebrity. If we fight a war in 25 years, we aren't going to ask the enemy "Who Was Barry Bonds?" at checkpoints.

 

So the absence of evidence IS evidence?
Drug frenzies make strange logic.

 

Barry Bonds is not the best player ever.

And I have two words for anyone who cites him as anything but an average corner outfielder:

Sid Bream.

And Buckdub, Andruw is a great defensive outfielder, but he isn't the best of his generation.

That's Torii Hunter.

 

I've talked about this with a couple other writers who were in agreement, and I've wondered why it never got mentioned, during the 73-homer season or since:

For the games and at-bats that I saw in 2001, it looked pretty clear to me that Bonds was trying to break the record. That seemed to be a bigger factor to me than anything he might have put in his body.

And Ragu is right on the locker-room etiquette. Don't read too much into the on-record silence.

"Don't check Bonds' bat," an NL Central player told me in casual conversation in '01. "Check his piss."

 

The Sid Bream nonsense is the mother of all "I have nothing intelligent to add as a negative against Barry Bonds but I irrationally hate him so I'll just throw out one play that was clearly misunderstood by the ignoramus's who don't understand how difficult of a throw it actually was and act as if I've accomplished something" arguments.....

 

An above-average leftfielder throws out Sid Bream from second on a two-hopper, zag.

You can pound the keyboard until you're blue, and that will still be true.

 

A big part of the on-the-record silence from players as well as the entire locker room culture of which you speak is this --- a helluva lot more players were taking something funky, be it creatin (sp?), HGH or whatever else is out there and they don't want people to start sniffing their locker's as a result of their opening their mouths....

 

Well Jim Leyland would disagree with you and call you and others who hold the same opinion a jackass, which he has, on the record, many times, including in one of those Fox "Beyond the Glory" type shows.

Barry Bonds was playing deep and towards the line, the ball was hit on the ground into the gap between he and Andy Van Slyke, he not only had to charge it, he had to charge it at a difficult angle given how hard it was hit and his throw still wasn't terrible.

And I've watched Barry Bonds take a ball off the wall in the corner off of one bounce and throw guys out at second.

 

I've seen Manny Ramierez do it more often, and no one is putting him up as an excellent defensive outfielder.

I don't think Bonds was shit in the outfield, I just think calling him above average is a stretch. He was average. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Zeke, I think it's a bit much to judge the guy's defensive abilities based on one throw. No doubt, a relatively weak arm was the biggest flaw in Bonds' game in his prime, but I put that more under the heading of his playoff failings than a lack of defensive ability.

Can't say I totally disagree with zagoshe's point, either, though Leyland is a very loyal guy, so I wonder how much of his explanation of that throw is his real opinion and how much is standing up for his former player.

 

It's all just "bubbling under the surface."

As much as you might want to believe all of this "bubbling under the surface" resentment you imagine, a huge majority of players, on or off the record, believe the entire steroids-in-baseball story has been blown far out of proportion and have a much better perspective on it than the steroid zealots.