September 3, 2004

Selig’s Expos And Barry’s Records

Once again, Bud Selig and his masterminds have made complete fools of themselves.  As promised last year, the decision of the relocation of the Expos was to be made by this year’s All-Star Game.  Well, we all know that game has come and gone… and so has baseball’s decision to relocate the Montreal Expos. Once again, Commissioner Bud Selig has postponed settling the matter again, this time until the next owners meeting in November.

Instead of getting off their rear ends, and making a decision, they continue to ponder the situation… more or less making asses of themselves as the relocation committee (masterminds) can’t come a decision based on the given facts.  Instead, the decision they’ll make will be based on the fact that Bud Selig doesn’t want to hurt the feelings of Peter Angelos – the stuck-up owner of the Baltimore Orioles, who is worried that having a team based in his “area” would cut into his revenues…  By golly, his revenues will not decrease because of the Expos relocating to the Washington/Baltimore area, but because his team stinks. Last in attendance again the Expos have been the major leagues' worst draw every season since 1998 with the 2004 club averaging 9,504 fans per night. They will fail to draw 1 million, after pulling in 1.025 million last year only because of their 22 “home” games played in Puerto Rico.

Although Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer has stated that “The relocation committee has not eliminated any of the bidders, which include Las Vegas; Monterrey, Mexico; Norfolk, Va.; and Portland, Ore,” but baseball officials have said that Washington and Northern Virginia are the leading contenders…       adding that Washington and Northern Virginia are the leading contenders, the Commissioner’s office released a draft of the 2005 schedule to the players association and the Expos are slated to remain in the NL East.

There is small talk that the Expos could move to the AL East, with the Devil Rays moving to the NL East… which theoretically makes more sense.  Either way though, keeping the Expos in the East makes scheduling much easier, though there is still time to alter the schedule should the baseball minds decide to something else… whatever that could be.

It stinks that Selig has yet to make a decision – I’m no Expos fan, but it makes me wonder how much of an impact Peter Angelos is to Selig’s pocket.  What’s in it for Bud?  Why, other than he doesn’t want to create problems for Angelos and the Orioles is he waiting to make the decision?  Everyone knows that the leading contenders are Washington and Northern Virginia, and both parties are ready and set for the move.  So why the holdup?

I can remember sitting at a local watering hole in my hometown of Long Beach, New York celebrating my 19^th birthday… it was April 8^th, 1974.  This day though will always be remembered – not necessarily for my birthday, but for the day that Hank Aaron became the All-Time homerun leader. I can see the television, with the Braves – Dodgers game on, as though it was yesterday.  And there comes Hank Aaron up to the plate, in Atlanta’s first home game of the season to face Al Downing.  Lo and behold, Aaron connects on a pitch driving the ball into the Braves’ bullpen in leftfield, where it was caught by pitcher Tom House.

By the time “Hammer’in” Hank retired, he posted 755 homeruns… a record that I personally thought would stand for many, many years.  As players came and went, especially the homerun hitters, I never expected Barry Bonds to be where he is today… I actually thought that Ken Griffey Jr. would be the one to supplant Aaron, but injuries of course changed that scenario and then Bonds just seemed to erupt in 2000 with his 49 homers…

From 2000 on, Bonds has been unstoppable, and sometime this month he’ll match Aaron, and very possibly reach Babe Ruth’s record of 714 this season… if not then certainly next.  Baseball statisticians project Bonds to hammer Hank Aaron’s 755 in April of 2006, of course provided he remains healthy and stays away from the DL. 

Bonds isn’t my favorite baseball player, has never been or will ever be.  He’s a different bred and his attitude is much to be desired.  But, putting that behind him, he truly is one hellava baseball player and when the record is broken, I doubt anyone will ever come close to reaching those homerun numbers again… and speaking of numbers how about the walks he’s received this year. 

Bonds has already surpassed last year’s walks by 41, coming into the weekend with 189.  When looking at the walk record, which isn’t mentioned in the same vein as his homeruns, Bonds has already passed Rickey Henderson (2,190), and is on his way to surpassing his own single-season record of 198 set in 2002… Heading into Friday’s game against the D-Backs, Bonds enters with 98 intentional walks, which is 30 more than he had in 2002… With two more intentional passes he’ll become the first player with 100 intentional walks in a season…

Amongst all his records though is the ongoing controversy as to whether he was taking steroids.  When Bonds entered the league in 1986, he was listed at 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. In the 2001 season, he was 6-2 and pushing 230… on Oct. 5^th, 2001, Bonds broke the season home run record set just three years earlier by Mark McGwire.

When McGwire broke the home run record that had stood for nearly 40 years, there were news reports about his use of androstenedione (Andro), an over-the-counter supplement that acted like a steroid and was banned in some sports. By the start of the 2002 season, there were growing questions about what Bonds might be doing to enhance his performance.

The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, (BALCO) medical lab that specialized in testing athletes for nutritional levels and then providing them supplements through its subsidiary, SNAC, or Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning. BALCO and SNAC boasted a client list that included scores of elite athletes from track and field, professional football and Major League Baseball. Giants slugger Barry Bonds was its premier client.  From this point on, Bonds came under scrutiny.

Whether or not Bonds has ever taken steroids still remains a question in everyone's eyes... And if one day we find out that he was involved with using steroids, should the records he's attained receive an asterisk because of that? Unequivocally no.  Who are we to judge what player should or shouldn't keep a record?  Who knows, maybe Babe Ruth or Walter Johnson took some sort of drug during their playing days...

If you'd like to comment on this column, or just share your thoughts and opinions, drop Althea an email at aip@nutzworld.com

If you like this column, Althea also writes The Rays Corner baseball column; Lightning Nuts and Bolts and NHL Roundup hockey columns while also serving as the VP of Sports for NutzWorld.