Four Days Until the Move

Well, I have been packing for about a week now. I move on Friday and I am pretty excited. Not much baseball news going on. DeRosa signed with the Indians which was an interesting and intelligent move on the part of Shapiro. He will be a good hot corner/utility player. There is talk the Mann-Ram is heading for San Francisco, but I don't know about that. Barry Bonds in preparing for Spring Training this season. I think that Bonds deserves a shot to get back on the field. It has not been proven whether he used steroids or not. It just seems like he is being forced out of the game of baseball because of dubious information. He is the best pure hitter of all-time. Some may dispute that fact, but I will argue that until I am blue in the face. Some will say that the "juice" helped him hit all the homers and that he is a product of not only the "live ball" era, but also the steroid era. Bonds OBP from the 2001 season until the 2004 season was amazing (.515, .582, .529, .609). He drew more walks than Ruth or Aaron (2062 and 1402). Bonds drew 2558 walks during his 22 seasons (longevity anyone?) and has a career batting average of .298, on top of his record breaking 762 HR. The Babe played 22 seasons of major league ball, some of which he pitched and though he may have better career numbers in batting average, OBP and OBPS. Bonds still has more TB, HR, BB and H. A hitter should always be measured by his ability to contribute to producing runs (ie BB or H) or driving in runs (RBI and HR). Barry Bonds should be in Cooperstown. Why? Because he is the BEST PURE HITTER in baseball history. Baseball has continually watered down the list of Cooperstown hopefuls. This year Andre Dawson and Mo Vaughn were on the list. Vaughn being the better of the two. Why Cooperstown hopes to deny one of the best players of all-time and the best pure hitter of all-time is beyond me. Sometimes it isn't about what will give you the best headlines, but rather what is good for the sport. No Pete Rose. No Barry Bonds. So this year when all of the talking heads discuss what a curse Bonds is on the baseball world, remember this. Baseball and the media had no problems sucking the life essence out of his career and milking him for everything he was worth and then making him the whipping boy for a dark era of baseball. Why can't the media and baseball just accept him for what he is. Not the best person in the world. Not the best baseball player. Not the best spokesman. But the best pure hitter of all time and deserving of a spot in Cooperstown.