Posted By:
David SmithFirst off, if I were a clean (drug free) and self-respecting Pitcher, I wouldn't give Bonds ANYTHING to hit. Furthermore, I might actually try and plunk him. I mean, it is my livelihood he is messing with. If he hits a Home Run, that goes against my ERA and I might possibly lose the game. When arbitration or Free Agency comes up, being the one who gave up the record Home Run IS NOT going to endear me to my employers or get me any more money. In fact, it is going to work against me because it will say that I am prone to giving up Home Runs and my ERA and Won-Loss record was affected.
Bonds was a good ball player before using Steroids and was probably going to the Hall of Fame anyway. Why take drugs to enhance yourself?? If I were a Pitcher who was young or good enough to make the show but was hanging on for my baseball life, why would I pitch to Bonds?? Nothing good is going to come from it.
Furthermore, since I am a purist, if I owned a ML Baseball team and Bonds was coming to town and on the verge of breaking the record, I would try my best to keep him from hitting the record breaker against my team. I wouldn't want it to be remembered that he hit it against my team and in my stadium. At the very least, I would ask my Pitchers to NOT give him anything to hit. Whether they would or not would be up to them.
Taking things farther, I would try and keep people out of the Outfield seats. Why?? Because I wouldn't want to hire extra security to police the area and I wouldn't want to be held liable for what the fans might do to each other. In fact, I would try and allow NOBODY to attend the games, media included. Having the least amount of people see the record being broken and no video of it for future generations would be worth the lost revenue to me.
If Bonds hadn't cheated, then he wouldn't be breaking the record to begin with. If he wasn't breaking the record to begin with, then there would be nothing to remember. Having very few people see the "accomplishment" would be as close to "nothing to remember" as I could get as an Owner.
Hopefully, Barry Bonds will be found guilty of tax evasion and perjury, sentenced to jail, fined and put on baseball's restricted list, just like Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.
As far as Bud Selig goes, I don't like him either. He has had numerous opportunities to do what was "in the best interests of baseball" but hasn't. This includes things other than the Barry Bonds fiasco.
David
Edited to add, Bobby Bonds wasn't a very nice human being either. A surly alcoholic with a racist chip on his shoulder.