This is a essay I just wrote about Bonds and Clemens...feel free to comment.
If you were to measure greatness by using longevity, both Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds would attain legend status. If you were to measure greatness by using stats, both Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds would be headed to the Hall of Fame. In fact they are indeed head to the Hall of Fame, and no one on this earth would be bone headed enough to dispute that fact. Both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are nearing the twilight of their careers. One has retired once only to be drawn back by his hometown team, and the other is talking about retiring after the 2005 season. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are two of a kind, but that two of a kind hits more than just stats and longevity, but also hits at the heart of a most important trait, character.
At the beginning of this season we all, or maybe just a few of us, sat in front of our television screens and waited for Barry Bonds to hit that over-hyped and overblown homerun number of 660. When he did reach that number we watched Willie Mays carry an Olympic torch onto the field and pass it onto his godson. This could have been at least a halfway genuine scene, but of course there is that great S word that has embedded itself into the record books and the veins of almost all baseball players. The homerun record means very little anymore. 660 has become not a benchmark of greatness, but a symbol of corruption. Not because of the factuality of Barry Bonds using steroids, but because of the public perception that he did indeed boost his performance by using performance enhancing drugs.
In any other era the people would consider Barry Bonds as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Even in this era loyal fans hand him that famed distinction. Babe Ruth move over, Barry can out hit, out run and out field you. But the difference between the Babe and Barry is that the Babe had the public on his side. Barry is lucky if the public even wants to look at his side. Barry is booed everyplace he goes that isnt named Pac I mean SBC Park. Barry is a victim of being born in the wrong era. The era of juiced balls, juiced players, and smaller parks. He is a victim of public criticism, but he deservers every critical comment he has ever gotten, and until the steroid controversy is solved he will continue to put up records that will be deemed as tainted.
Roger Clemens is trying his best to imitate the man for whose award he has won so many times. Cy Young would be proud of Rogers longevity. Cy Young would be proud of the fact that Clemens, at age 41, can still throw a ball in the mid nineties. Cy Young would probably even approve of Clemens tenacity and fearlessness. We all know Bob Gibson certainly approves. The public, and Mike Piazza however, dont necessarily think that fearlessness is a good thing. They prefer that pitchers actually throw the ball over the plate, and not at batters heads. People just keep getting pickier and pickier these days.
Clemens should be remembered for his 4,000 plus strikeouts and his 300 plus wins, but instead the average person on the street recognizes him most for his bean ball against Mike Piazza. Oh, and lets not forget about the bat throwing incident. Both were horrendous scenes, but scenes that should not tarnish a career. Clemens is the greatest pitcher of our era, and possibly the greatest pitcher of any era. His tenacity and fearlessness are what makes him great, not what should make him hated. When the Rocket glares, batters hearts tend to explode. That is the legacy that he should leave.
The greatest hitter and greatest pitcher of our era are soon to be no longer of our era. Soon they will be only a memory to tell our children and grandchildren about. What memory will be left behind? Will the memory of steroids and juiced balls overshadow possibly 700 homeruns? Will the memory of one bad pitch overshadow the possibility of 325 wins? Will the fans ever forgive what the media has told them? Will the fans ever remember the good instead of the bad? For the sake of the history of baseball I hope so. The Rocket and Barry are two greats, but no one quite knows what the content will be of the legacy they leave behind.
If you were to measure greatness by using longevity, both Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds would attain legend status. If you were to measure greatness by using stats, both Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds would be headed to the Hall of Fame. In fact they are indeed head to the Hall of Fame, and no one on this earth would be bone headed enough to dispute that fact. Both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are nearing the twilight of their careers. One has retired once only to be drawn back by his hometown team, and the other is talking about retiring after the 2005 season. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are two of a kind, but that two of a kind hits more than just stats and longevity, but also hits at the heart of a most important trait, character.
At the beginning of this season we all, or maybe just a few of us, sat in front of our television screens and waited for Barry Bonds to hit that over-hyped and overblown homerun number of 660. When he did reach that number we watched Willie Mays carry an Olympic torch onto the field and pass it onto his godson. This could have been at least a halfway genuine scene, but of course there is that great S word that has embedded itself into the record books and the veins of almost all baseball players. The homerun record means very little anymore. 660 has become not a benchmark of greatness, but a symbol of corruption. Not because of the factuality of Barry Bonds using steroids, but because of the public perception that he did indeed boost his performance by using performance enhancing drugs.
In any other era the people would consider Barry Bonds as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Even in this era loyal fans hand him that famed distinction. Babe Ruth move over, Barry can out hit, out run and out field you. But the difference between the Babe and Barry is that the Babe had the public on his side. Barry is lucky if the public even wants to look at his side. Barry is booed everyplace he goes that isnt named Pac I mean SBC Park. Barry is a victim of being born in the wrong era. The era of juiced balls, juiced players, and smaller parks. He is a victim of public criticism, but he deservers every critical comment he has ever gotten, and until the steroid controversy is solved he will continue to put up records that will be deemed as tainted.
Roger Clemens is trying his best to imitate the man for whose award he has won so many times. Cy Young would be proud of Rogers longevity. Cy Young would be proud of the fact that Clemens, at age 41, can still throw a ball in the mid nineties. Cy Young would probably even approve of Clemens tenacity and fearlessness. We all know Bob Gibson certainly approves. The public, and Mike Piazza however, dont necessarily think that fearlessness is a good thing. They prefer that pitchers actually throw the ball over the plate, and not at batters heads. People just keep getting pickier and pickier these days.
Clemens should be remembered for his 4,000 plus strikeouts and his 300 plus wins, but instead the average person on the street recognizes him most for his bean ball against Mike Piazza. Oh, and lets not forget about the bat throwing incident. Both were horrendous scenes, but scenes that should not tarnish a career. Clemens is the greatest pitcher of our era, and possibly the greatest pitcher of any era. His tenacity and fearlessness are what makes him great, not what should make him hated. When the Rocket glares, batters hearts tend to explode. That is the legacy that he should leave.
The greatest hitter and greatest pitcher of our era are soon to be no longer of our era. Soon they will be only a memory to tell our children and grandchildren about. What memory will be left behind? Will the memory of steroids and juiced balls overshadow possibly 700 homeruns? Will the memory of one bad pitch overshadow the possibility of 325 wins? Will the fans ever forgive what the media has told them? Will the fans ever remember the good instead of the bad? For the sake of the history of baseball I hope so. The Rocket and Barry are two greats, but no one quite knows what the content will be of the legacy they leave behind.
