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Barry Bonds' 756th home run ball has been voted to go into the Hall of Fame branded with an asterisk. Read about it here. This is the fate I voted for.

I voted to just give it to the Hall, unmarked.

(Disclaimer: I'm wearing one of my Bonds jerseys as I type this).

Here's my reasoning: If Barry was juiced (and yes, it's probable that he was), he was certainly not the only one. And as we've seen, pitchers were amongst the most egregious offenders in this regard. And juicing aids pitchers more than it does batters. So Barry was hitting against juiced pitchers, which kinda made the playing field more equal. We should all be mindful of the circumstances of the steroid era, and the fact that the record was set during that time, but I don't think it deserves an annotation any more than we annotate the records set or compiled when the pitchers mound was lower, or when blacks were excluded from the league.

I could, of course, expound on this topic for quite some time.

skippy the dead wrote:I voted to just give it to the Hall, unmarked.

(Disclaimer: I'm wearing one of my Bonds jerseys as I type this).

Here's my reasoning: If Barry was juiced (and yes, it's probable that he was), he was certainly not the only one. And as we've seen, pitchers were amongst the most egregious offenders in this regard. And juicing aids pitchers more than it does batters. So Barry was hitting against juiced pitchers, which kinda made the playing field more equal. We should all be mindful of the circumstances of the steroid era, and the fact that the record was set during that time, but I don't think it deserves an annotation any more than we annotate the records set or compiled when the pitchers mound was lower, or when blacks were excluded from the league.

I could, of course, expound on this topic for quite some time.

I'm a bitter Oakland A's fan, hence my vote. ;) Growing up, I was the biggest Mark McGwire fan. It broke my heart when he couldn't answer the steroid question and chose to remain silent about it. He hit 49 home runs his rookie year, most likely before the juice. He didn't need it. I completely agree with your post (especially the part about comparing old records to new ones...too many variables have changed in the game to make comparison possible). Many players were using steroids and it seems unfair that we only put the blame on the power hitters rather than the pitchers. If they wanted to solve the problem, they should just allow all the players to use steroids...that should even the playing field. Their bodies will pay for it later.

Tangent: I think all "career records" are ridiculous. I hate Cal Ripken's consecutive games played record (it's too much like those perfect attendance awards in elementary school). I hate Kareem's career points record in basketball. I hate the Marino/Favre career touchdown pass records in football. All these guys chose to play past normal retirement age. I don't think the career home run record is all that important. I don't understand why it is held up as the most coveted record in baseball. I would rather see a career home runs per career number of at bats average to normalize the stat.

The whole sport of baseball is no longer fun for me because of things like this. I mean, yeah, of course you can hit farther. You're on roids, buddy.... Who cares about that? Reminds me of an SNL skit called the drug olympics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrCGYtFAQ2U