Do you want Bonds to hit 755?

[Marc]

According to a poll, half of fans don't: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2631763&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
Half of baseball fans are rooting against Barry Bonds in his bid to break Hank Aaron's career home run record. That said, it's getting tough to find anyone rooting for the sport at all these days.

An AP-AOL Sports poll released Thursday shows that only one-third of Americans call themselves fans of professional baseball -- about the level of support for the last decade, but lower than 1990.

And they see another problem competing with steroids: stratospheric salaries.
So are you rooting for Bonds or the record to stand? And is baseball at a crisis level with only 1/3 of Americans calling themselves fans? Baseball needs to attract future generations, and it seems the best athletes go to other sports...

[LA sports]

Even if he breaks the record he still won't be the HR champ IMO.

[boston_aloha]

I have the same thoughts as LA. Last year I would of said "hell no!!!" but now... I honestly don't care - cuz it means nothing to me. Guys a loser IMO and I could care less about what he's doing etc. until he leaves the game and just goes away.

[tobynosker]

I think I share similar sentiments that LA and boston have expressed already, but I would be interested in seeing how the sports media would cover the story and how the fans in the stadium might react to the "record-breaking" feat.

I remember how great it was watching live on television when Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game in 1995, and watching live on television when Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run in the 1998 season.

As much as I detest Barry Bonds, I can only fathom what a surreal experience it would be watching him become the "home run king."

[bama4256]

Actually I would like to see him in a state prison being someone's sissy.:lol:

[Anthony]

Well I hope he does; hey, I hope he reaches 800 before he retires - just to see the look on the faces of these self-declared moral guardians, who are the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

[boston_aloha]

that sounds like bait ^ to turn this into "did he or did he not use steriods"!! :lol: I'll pass

[LA sports]

Well I hope he does; hey, I hope he reaches 800 before he retires - just to see the look on the faces of these self-declared moral guardians, who are the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

The look you would see would be one of disgust, and who are these supposed moral guardians you speak of anyways?

So people who think Bonds did steroids are hypocrites. What a weird statement. So are you saying that because other people have made mistakes they should be cheering Bonds on for taking steroids or else they would become hypocrites? To me you hold people accountable when they do things wrong, not cheer them on because you have done things wrong that have nothing to do with what Bonds did.

[SanchezSlamma]

Yes, the baseball people handled the situation in a terrible, terrible way. However, do we the fans need to be subjected to Barry prancing around, proclaiming himself the best ever? No, we do not because we all know he cheated. It is not about the institution, it is about the game and those that support the game.

[Tarkus]

that sounds like bait ^ to turn this into "did he or did he not use steriods"!! :lol: I'll pass

:lol:

A wise man indeed.....;)

[Hoosier Daddy]

Let's say he does break the record (which I'm sure he will), would the record be diminished if it was proven that he was juicing (which I'm confident he was). He was facing pitchers that were juicing, and in my opinion, that kind of evens things out.

Tim.

[coachJ]

Juicing wasnt wrong except for the past few years. Everybody says that Bonds, McGwire and Sosa cheated the game and everything, but there was no rule that they couldn't do steroids in baseball. Of course it was wrong and they never should have done it, I agree with that, but they didnt cheat, they just used whatever they could to get an edge.

[trayhezy]

The problem is this....while most of us believe that Bonds was using we have no PROOF. Just like with Mcgwire and or Clemens etc. If it is an asterisk for one player it should be for all. I believe Roger juiced as much as Bonds did. Look at how he has grown and gotten better past the age of 35. Why is it any different for him? This whole thing just seems like a witch hunt to bring down 1 player and that to me is just BS

[catman]

Lets not go down the "did he or did he not" road here as was previously suggested. There are other threads for that discussion.
Lets leave this discussion to the topic, which is 755 home runs, OK?

[LA sports]

I think steroids has to be a very big part of this thread. The question Marc asked to start this thread was do you want Bonds to hit 755, steroids would be one of the main reasons why someone would vote no. I think the reason people are not as passionate about other players is because many of the players in question are now retired but I think the point about Clemens could be a good one. Also, even though steroids were not banned by MLB back then they were still against the law. Saying it was not banned by baseball is like saying that baseball did not officially ban murder so if you commit murder baseball does not officially take a stand against it. I know that is an extreme example but hopefully you get the point I am trying to make.

If you really don't want us to talk about the steroids on here Catman than I will stop but like I said I think you have to have it in here or people can't explain their answer when steroids is the reason for their answer.

[catman]

I'll open a new thread entitled "Steroids in Baseball" for that discussion, OK?

[boston_aloha]

Sounds good c-man. I wanted to respond to some posts - so I'll put your "quote in there" and reply.

[bama4256]

Bonds will break the record, but u must remember if he had the same at bats as Ruth or played in the same number of games as Ruth he would fall way short.