Can you believe that. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...nts-add-barry-bonds-special-instructor-spring
Special instructor for hitting (the needle). How much do you wanna bet he bought this job, some vain attempt to improve his HOF chances. What's next, Clemens the pitching coach? Maybe Sammy Sosa can work with Dominican kids with big Papi. McGwire the coach....nevermind StL has already done that...
The McGwire thing really surprised me & really not so much because of the roids. But because you hire a career 260 hitter to teach hitting?
Hoooooooooooooooooo! (Ed McMahon) If MLB is trying to distance players from the PED era, why bring the posterboy's into camps? Or is this going to be a new commercial: Barry Bonds....greatest hitter of his generation Barry got jealous of Mark & Sammy's attention Barry loses confidence in himself turns to drugs Barry let's PEDs rule his life, becomes a freak, liar and cheat Barry career ends in disgrace, lucky to be a special instructor in ST Don't waste your talent like Barry did. Now if they do something like that, get them all on a roadshow.
My thing here is that its only ST for Bonds. McGwire should not have been allowed to work on a regular basis in the sport.
Rick, I don't really see the distinction being that fine. Either these guys are allowed baseball or not. Assuming the MLBPA will defend against the latter, we have what we have now. Having spent time in StL on business, Mac is loved and revered in that town, regardless. Bonds on the other hand is a very different story.
The distinction as I see it is that Bonds was invited back as a TEMPORARY guest while McGwire has been rewarded for his part in the scandel with a full time job in the sport that he helped disgrace.
Maybe I'm reading the tea leaves, I see the Bond thing as trial balloon. If it doesn't spark a major protest or negative media blitz, the team would likely expand his role. No one wants to deal with a prospect of collusion to keep him out of baseball, that has massive legal issues for MLB. And frankly this is a way for the Giants to address the 800 lb. Gorilla in the room, the one they knew about all along and continued to profit off of the circus act. Maybe the way we get past this era is not by putting it in exile, but rather including it to a level that can be better controlled. I for one always felt a path to reconciliation with Pete Rose would have served baseball better than his exile. Of course, complete transparency with these players needs to happen. Braun and Arod were not deterred by the treatment of their predecessors. MLB needs a new vehicle to entice players to walk the straight and narrow. A constant reminder of seeing those that squandered talent could be the approach. And if these guys work under contract, they are much less the lose cannons they could be otherwise....Canseco ring any bells?
Yep. Baseball accepting steroid cheats back and giving them jobs around young corruptible players, steroid cheats being rewarded with high multi year contracts. Pretty soon the writers will get the word that its ok to put these cheats in the hall of fame. The foundations of baseball purism is cracking and sort of like our society in general. But I hope they put Pete Rose in the hall before all these steroid cheats.
This is 100% an MLB issue IMO. They tolerated (encouraged?) steroids and the teams just followed their lead. Bonds is the poster boy for steroids and apparently is still the martyr (judging by this thread), but why is he attacked so much more than McGuire, Sosa, ARod, Braun, etc. Those guys all get their licks but ARod and Braun were caught cheating multiple times and were still allowed to play. Bonds was "cheating" when it wasn't against the rules. Plenty of other guys juiced and shat on the game before, during, and after he did. He was just the best and a variety of factors made him a target. I get why hes a target, but its frustrating to even read this thread and see how much resentment people have for this guy compared to other known cheaters. If the MLB wants to end this shit or deal with the steroid issue, its up to them to do so. They don't want to acknowledge the problem and acknowledge their passive approval of steroids and steroids continue to be a problem in the sport. They could try to ban everyone and go for a full on clean-up of the game. They could acknowledge that its a part of the history of the sport and that they didn't do enough to stop steroids (and that would be a political way of saying it). Instead they pretend like they're disgusted with the steroids and that they're policing the players and they try to downplay the steroid era and make it seem like this is a new era of baseball.
...actually it's up to the MLBPA just as much...afterall, Selig approached the union in 2000 about addressing the growing problem but was shot down...2 years later the MLBPA finally admitted there was a problem and they are actually the ones who pushed the current program through...but I know what you mean.
That's what pissed me off so much about Selig, this hypocrite turned his back to this shit when the chase of 98 was going on (McGwire & Sosa) and even at one point credited them with saving the game & bringing back the fans. And now he's all holyier then though trying put an an end to something that he for many years turned a blind eye to. Remember all the commercials, "CHICKS DIG THE LONG BALL" it wouldn't surprise me at all if he directed & produced most of those.
...rick, to be fair, back in 1998 there were only whispers about PEDs (how many of us were talking about it back then?) and Baseball was still trying to overcome the damage done by the strike of '94...Selig did try to do something but the union would not acknowledge the problem at the time and quickly rebuffed him...and he was not formally told of the problem till 2000 when he was approached by some concerned medical experts...is Selig accountable?...of course he is, he's the Commish...but the MLBPA and the BBWAA should also share the blame. ...I know you weren't serious but the "Chicks dig the long ball" thing was a Nike commercial...so I doubt Selig had much input...but it was a very funny commercial; [video=youtube;qLECMCargd8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLECMCargd8[/video]
...possible, but I think Bonds got the most grief because because he was also a total dick and very unpopular with the press...he was very polarizing and very "hatable", much like ARod.
