More On Bonds

[Taxman]

I thought you might make a response like this and I should have been more clear. Yes his walk numbers are somewhat inflated by pitchers not giving him much, but he still was intentionally walked more than anyone in the game for years. The Barry Bonds shift is one of the longest and most well known instances of such a thing. Didn't the bases loaded walk moment come before his 73 year as well? In 1996 and 1997, Bonds walked 151 and 145 times, while the intentional walk numbers were at 30 and 34 respectively. That's a lot of non intentional walks. Last year, Bonds only walked 148 times total. His batting average has also reached new levels over the past few years, another thing I really don't think you can attribute to steroids.

You are absolutely correct that his power is what makes pitchers fear him so, but he always had great power. Anyone who can hit 40+ HRs is a premier power hitter and he was that long before he hit 73. Even with his supposedly steroid enhansed power however, it is not easy to hit so many homeruns. You can be as strong as can be, but you need to make perfect contact to knock it out of the park. He has done that time and time again even though he gets almost no chances. This is not just because of his selectivity. He's just on a whole nother plane of hitting than anyone else. Like I said McGwire and Sosa were nowhere near the hitters Bonds is and they probably used some kind of supplement as well (I will admit they are nicer than Bonds, well McGwire anyway). Do you think Bomds is the strongest player in the league? I certainly don't. He's hit over 40 homeruns 7 times in his career 3 of those before 1998. He's hit over 50 homeruns just once (and over 30 every year since 1992).

Also you're wrong about single hitters. Do you think with runners on base Tony Gwynn was getting good pitches to hit very frequently? I don't.

Even if Bonds used steroids, his amazing statistics have not been a mere result of that. He has elevated his entire game to a new level and for that he has my utmost respect. It's really a shame if he has used steroids just because I'd wager he wouldn't be much behind his current numbers if he hadn't.