Congrats A Rod.

[T Park]

Youngest player ever, to hit 500 homeruns.

Great job. :) :) :) :) :) x 100

[greenroom]

Glad to see the roids are working for you AROD

[K-State Spur]

I don't know who you can accuse of roids anymore and who you can't (other than guys like Bonds who have admitted to it).

To me, stats - in terms of personal accomplishment - have just been completely invalidated. 500 HRs just doesn't mean what it did 10 years ago - both because of the steroids and the fact that so many guys are going to be joining that club in the near future. Simply by becoming less rare (even if it weren't for steroids), the club becomes less spectacular. I'll put in the same mind as NBA or NFL statistical achievements. They are nice, but outside of the moment that they occur in, nobody really cares. Favre will likely pass Marino for all-time TD passes this year, and there is likely only a handful of non-NFL junkies who know that.

Hell, if you go back 10 years ago - the top 4 HR hitters of all time were Hank, Ruth, Mays, and Frank Robinson. Those are easily 4 of the top 10 position players of all-time. Now, 10 years from now, names like Sosa, Thome, Sheffield, Ramirez, and Palmeiro will be in that same group. Nothing against those guys, they are good players and probably hall-of-famers (except for Raffy), but it would be tough to put any of them in the same breath as the all-time greats. In relation to their own time, they simply weren't as great. Babe Ruth had a career OPS+ of 207, Bonds - who is a modern day OPS monster - has only equaled that total in an individual season 4 times.

[King]

Glad to see the roids are working for you AROD

Yeah - and have been since he was 18, right?

[BUMP]

Bonds tied the record also just now

[greenroom]

Yeah - and have been since he was 18, right?

Would it shock you if he was using some performance enhancers? It would not me.

[John Patrick]

root for pujols then godamit

[King]

Would it shock you if he was using some performance enhancers? It would not me.


What has ARod done that's made you think he's cheating? His numbers have always been great, and never exploded from year to year, nor dropped off following steroid investigations. He's been about the same size since he came into the league years ago - and it's not ridiculously big. He's known for his workout regimens. What has he done to make you doubt him?

If you're just going to live under the impression that anybody who is actually really good at a sport is a cheater, then why even watch?

[ducks]

a-rod will break hank records in 5-6 years

[FromWayDowntown]

Hell, if you go back 10 years ago - the top 4 HR hitters of all time were Hank, Ruth, Mays, and Frank Robinson. Those are easily 4 of the top 10 position players of all-time. Now, 10 years from now, names like Sosa, Thome, Sheffield, Ramirez, and Palmeiro will be in that same group. Nothing against those guys, they are good players and probably hall-of-famers (except for Raffy), but it would be tough to put any of them in the same breath as the all-time greats. In relation to their own time, they simply weren't as great. Babe Ruth had a career OPS+ of 207, Bonds - who is a modern day OPS monster - has only equaled that total in an individual season 4 times.

I think some of the guys who are moving into the upper statistical echelons are in keeping with the historical trend. Bonds and Griffey are clearly among the best position players to ever play the game (and I'd dispute Frank Robinson as one of the top 10, personally) and ARod will soon join them.

I don't buy the Ruth exalting in this case because while Ruth's career OPS+ is substantial, Bonds is 3rd all-time in that category. The 2nd place hitter is Ted Williams, who only surpassed Ruth's career number in that category 5 times. Ruth is a unique player historically, mostly because his greatness as a pitcher makes him so different than anyone else and because he played in an era where few could even come close to the numbers that he was putting up. At that, I remain convinced that it's not insignificant to the historical perspective that Ruth never faced any African-American pitchers and played in an era in which starting pitchers routinely finished games. I don't know specifically how the latter might have affected his overall numbers, but I also don't think that those indisputable facts are irrelevant.

I agree, though, that some of the names you cite do water down the historical significance of the feat, at least in terms of the names in the fraternity. But I think that's true with 300 game winners, as well, at least to an extent.

[FromWayDowntown]

a-rod will break hank records in 5-6 years

It probably won't be Hank's record in 5 or 6 years.