Comparing Bonds with the Bambino

[Crazy Canuck]

It's not even close:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/gennaro_filice/05/05/bondsruth.714/index.html

 

[Russ Smith]

It's impossible to compare across eras though especially when the eras are that far apart. Babe clearly dominated his era moreso than Bonds has his, when you hit more HR's than many teams during the dead ball era that's complete domination.

I would argue Bonds was a better overall player, and Ruth was in an era where there were no setup men or closers, complete games were the norm and you frequently got to hit against tired pitchers, but there's no question straight stats adjusting for era, Bonds is not as good as Ruth. When you add in the steroids part the gap probably widens.

 

[NEZCardsfan]

Bonds would best be compared to Willie Mays.

Bonds was a great 5 tool player pre 1999. At that point, that is when he decided he'd take advantage of the oppurtunity MLB left open for him. MLB created the Roided out Bonds....now they can deal with him being the all time HR king.

Way to look the other way in search of the Bandwagon fan.

 

[Evil Ash]

now they can deal with him being the all time HR king.

Way to look the other way in search of the Bandwagon fan.

They won't have to because Bonds will not get close to Hank Aaron. He's going to be stuck at number 2 with questions of cream and clear making historians wonder how good he actually was.

 

[NEZCardsfan]

First of all, I detest Barry Bonds. But even I can't argue that he isn't the greatest player of the last 20 years.....and Top 5 all time.

If you discount everything he's done since 1999 (the year he supposedly did steroids,) you still have an absolute first ballot HOFer.

3 MVPs
8 Golden Gloves
7 Silver Sluggers
led the league in OPS 5 times
Top 10 stolen bases every year
Top 5 Runs Created every year

Hate the guy for being a jerk. Hate the guy for dissappearing in the postseason. Hate him for growing his head 3 sizes.

But hate MLB for making a mockery of the HR records. This is a league that turned a blind eye while Brady Anderson, friggin' Brady Anderson, launched 50 HRs in 1996.

 

[Evil Ash]

First of all, I detest Barry Bonds. But even I can't argue that he isn't the greatest player of the last 20 years.....and Top 5 all time.

If you discount everything he's done since 1999 (the year he supposedly did steroids,) you still have an absolute first ballot HOFer.

3 MVPs
8 Golden Gloves
7 Silver Sluggers
led the league in OPS 5 times
Top 10 stolen bases every year
Top 5 Runs Created every year

Hate the guy for being a jerk. Hate the guy for dissappearing in the postseason. Hate him for growing his head 3 sizes.

But hate MLB for making a mockery of the HR records. This is a league that turned a blind eye while Brady Anderson, friggin' Brady Anderson, launched 50 HRs in 1996.

I'm not disagreeing that Bonds was a hell of a player before hand and worthy of going into the HOF. That to me isn't even debateable.

However the question of whether he was the best player of all time will be shot out of the window due to the admitted (well under oath anyways) steroid use.

 

[ajcardfan]

What Babe Ruth did, no one, in any sport, has ever come close to matching. What he did had not only never been done before, no one had ever even imagined it. The leap in performance for guys like Jordan and Gretzky was miniscule compared to how Ruth raised the bar in baseball. Throw in the fact that he was a darn good pitcher too and he is even more amazing.

Bonds is a great, great player. But his career is nowhere near as groundbreaking.

 

[Russ Smith]

What Babe Ruth did, no one, in any sport, has ever come close to matching. What he did had not only never been done before, no one had ever even imagined it. The leap in performance for guys like Jordan and Gretzky was miniscule compared to how Ruth raised the bar in baseball. Throw in the fact that he was a darn good pitcher too and he is even more amazing.

Bonds is a great, great player. But his career is nowhere near as groundbreaking.

Gibson had a somewhat similar effect although not nearly as big. Ruth started hitting HR's and baseball changed the ball to take advantage of it. The dead ball era ended intentionally when baseball realized fans loved the HR, Ruth was the guy who showed them that, and they changed the ball so it would carry further and the dead ball era ended.

Gibson and Denny McClain(for one year) were so dominant that baseball lowered the pitching mound and rubber thinking that it was giving pitchers too much of an advantage. Like Ruth their dominance pushed baseball to change the rules to limit their success.

Sort of like college hoops banning the dunk to limit players like Wilt and Lew Alcindor in their primes.

But yeah no question Ruth's dominance was beyond that of anybody else in baseball, nobody in his era even came close to what he was doing.

 

[HooverDam]

^The Babe also made the sport bigger than it ever was before, I think much of what he did was off the field. He made the game Americas game, popular everywhere. Lots of players in lots of different sports have had rules changed because of them (The NBA allowing zone defense to slow down Shaw & the Lakers).