You know who became just a little bit greater yesterday? Henry Aaron. With Alex Rodriguez's admission that he took performance enhancing drugs in the early 2000's, Hammerin' Hank's place as the "True Home Run King" was solidified for another generation.
Yes, Barry Bonds has hit more home runs than Hank, but do you really consider him to be the All-Time Home Run King? No you don't--because you know he cheated to get there. I'm not even sure how many he hit--because we all know it's a fraudulent number anyway. It's a safe bet that Hank Aaron didn't do steriods. He admits to never lifting weights in his life--he was just a naturally strong man with the quickest wrists that the game has ever seen--and he went out there and earned all 755 home runs he hit. And he did it all with class and graciousness that should serve as an inspiration for today's stars--but usually doesn't. You never heard broadcasters laugh at Hank half-assing it on the field and laugh it off by saying "That's just Henry being Henry!"
On the flip side, you know who looks like an even bigger fool today? Interim Commissioner for Life Bud Selig. You see, A-Rod was going to be the savior of the baseball record books. He would break the Bonds home run mark--and maybe Pete Rose's hit record as well--and bring "honor" back to the most sacred records in sports. But that is all gone now with the taint of steroids. It's sort of like when Obi-Wan Kenobi--after cutting off Anakin Skywalker's legs on the volcano planet--told him that he was the one who was supposed to bring balance to the Force, not to destroy it. Maybe now Bud will have the cajones to put the asterisks on the records set in the "Steroids Era" and preserve the honest legacy of the man Bud admits was his hero while growing up in Milwaukee.
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When you pay grown men bazillions of dollars to play a children's game that's of no real consequence to anything, what do you THINK is going to happen?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments in general, and especially this one. But a thought comes to mind, home run kings are generally thought of to be "power hitters", but does it really take power to hit a home run or just a good eye with good timing to hit a round ball with a round bat...squarely?
ReplyDeleteI'm not much good at physics, but yes, I think it does. If you have two identical pitches, contacting the bat identically perfectly squarely, but in one the bat is moving at 10 ft/sec, and in the other at 20 ft/sec, it seems like the latter ought to go farther, right? The ability to get that bat moving FAST would seem to be key, as well as hitting it right on the mark.
ReplyDeleteI guess you're right. I was thinking that the power end of it came when the bat hit the ball and "power" it over the fence, I didn't think about the power it would take to get the bat swinging in the first place.
ReplyDeletePublish the list.
ReplyDeleteThen either strip them of their records or asterick them as *performance drug enhanced.