13yrs ages 21-33 vs 9yrs from 34-42

A goat on steroids is still a goat

He had as many walks in his final 9 seasons (1,129) as Cal Ripken Jr. did in 21 seasons.

and now that Pujols has retired...he makes a good foil to Bonds

Pujols' first 10 years (2001-2010) were equal or better than Bonds'

but then the natural decline started in his early 30's --- especially in the slash lines

Meh, Pujols has always been about 7 years older than what his birth certificate shows.

Ag_07 said:

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Ag4life80 said:

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Let's not forget being an arrogant ***** didn't aid his cause in HOF consideration

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This

PED use aside...Guys like Bonds and Clemens were pretty crappy people and while PEDs are the ultimate culprit their character certainly doesn't help their cause.

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Bonds without PEDs is a 1st ballot HOF. So is Clemens.

Their attitudes and personalities allow the voters to let the PED issue give cover to their "no" votes.

And even though Clemens is an inveterate tea-sip, I'm still a big fan of him as a pitcher. He was legendary for his work ethic. He was a fierce competitor. And even though he was a big-time power pitcher he didn't have near the walks a lot of other power pitchers have.

And because of his work ethic and mechanics he never really had any arm trouble. If you're teaching a young pitcher, they could do a lot worse than to emulate Rocket's mechanics.



1) stays tall on the backside until his front leg is up, down, and then out when he drives off his back leg
2) glove gets out front pointed at home, then pulls, and tucks it in to keep his front side from flying open too soon and stays moving downhill
3) quick arm action so his elbow is above his shoulder at foot-strike- being on time with this reduces stress on the arm because the power is transferred efficiently and the arm isnt's trying to catch up, also generates downward tilt for more velo and run
4) release point is out in front of his nose
5) front leg is a brake which absorbs all the power from his backside hip and transfers it up through his arm allowing for the velo and deceleration of the arm

Yeah, I watched the Balco story on Netflix. Conte is definitely a major scumbag.

Barry Bonds is easily the greatest major league baseball player I've ever seen.

Barry Bonds' hat size grew 1 1/8th in about a year. Literally.

I was actually lucky enough to see two of his homers in 2001 live in person. One in Seattle (#41 or 42, I forget) and then #73 in SF.

The game where Bonds hit #73 was originally scheduled to be played on Sept 16th. But because of 9/11, that series was postponed, and ended up being the final series of the season, with the Sunday game being game 162.

I saw a little trivia bit on opening day this year: including Bonds' last year (2007), SF has now started a different player in LF for 18 straight seasons.