Barry's 756th HR ball: Bestow it, Brand it, or Banish it.

Send it to the Hall of Fame. It's a historic ball. Just because it isn't a pleasant piece of history doesn't mean the baseball establishment should ignore it. If they're so upset about steroids, they should have to have it around to remind them of the blind eye everybody turned to it when the longball meant big, big money for major league baseball. I mean, I was in Chicago when McGwire and Sosa were chasing the record, and the the Cubs were making money like they were in the playoffs every night. That's a hell of a lot of beer money at the park and ad revenue on the television. Jerseys, too.

People can look at Hank Aaron's 715 ball and think about what that meant, and then they can look at Bonds's 756 ball and think about what that meant. Hell, half the shit in the hall is probably from MLB when the operation was segregated, and the 'roid era isn't anywhere near as offensive as that.

You make some good points. I don't think putting a big asterisk on it would change any of that. I still say brand the thing and then send it to Cooperstown.

PD does make a valid point - whomever is without sin can cast the first ball.

I was going to say asterisk but Patiodog convinced me too actually. If you do that, where do you draw the line? How many other asterisks need to be branded, and if not them, why this one?

Only thing I'm sure of is NOT to banish it. Enough space junk out there already.

Because Barry Bonds is an assh*le.

I feel that this is another reason it should be asterisked and then sent. In fifty years, when people look back and see the asterisk, they will see that at least the FANS gave a shit whether the most coveted record in baseball was tainted by some horseheaded cheat.



And when they see that big asterisk on it, they'll be able to think about what THAT meant.



Segregation has nothing to do with the game itself. If you're going to make this argument then cheating in any form should not have any effect whatsoever on whether someone or something gets placed into the hall of fame. I'm sure Pete Rose will be happy to hear that.

Well, I probably shouldn't have any say, since I've got no plan to ever go to the Hall of Fame unless for some reason I find myself in Cooperstown with nothing to do for an afternoon. Not likely. So, you know, I just think of the Hall of Fame as a museum of professional baseball, not a shrine to it.

So I don't really care. It just bothers me that suddenly the baseball establishment gets the opportunity to be sanctimonious about cheating when they've capitalized on it to the tune of billions of dollars since, say, the home run explosion of 1987. (Wally Joyner was jacking 'em out, for the love of God.)










It may be relevant that I'm a huge fan of small ball. I don't care if the home runs are valid or not, I just want them to go away. Every park should be 440 to dead center like it is in Houston...

I opt for .....

Ignore it.

4,000.000 votes thus far, including mine (I went for the branding). I only participated because Bonds, as noted by Kicky, is a first-class jerk.

3,985,524 to banish it so far

Brand it won:

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_bAyXlQ8H-OBvrwnO0jwl1H25Bw

The plot thickens...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/09/28/arenas.bonds.ap/

Hank Aaron...Roger Maris...the true kings of swing.

So who is Arenas?

arenas is a basketball player for the wahington wizards...

Not a Bonds fan, however...
It seems we have taken a lynch mob approach to his situation. He has not been proven to have done anything yet, other than be durably abrasive. Until a ruling of some sort actually does more than accuse him, we are doing ourselves a disservice by convicting him with no proof. Our society usually tries to avoid this, other than with our sports and movie personalities. IF he comes out of all this, and is clean, (highly unlikely, I know) what then? Can we unbrand the asterisk ball? The history of the game is more important than rabid fan backlash to an unsavory personality.