Thursday, July 19, 2007

Cory's question on Barry Bonds and performance enhancing drugs

Henry Aaron owns the career homerun record of 755, but his record is in jeopardy of being broken by Barry Bonds. Bonds is currently 4 homeruns shy of tying, and 5 homeruns shy of breaking Hank Aaron's record. However, Bonds was recently found guilty of using Human Growth Hormones, an illegal performance enhancing substance that helps athletes to gain muscle, strength, speed, and can basically reverse the eging process. Do you think that their should be a seperate record if/when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's record for career homeruns? If not, should there at least be an asterisk by Bonds' name in the record books to show that he used performance enhancing drugs? Should Bonds be banned from Major League Baseball? In your opinion, should professional athletes be able to legally use performance enhancing drugs?

Hammerin' Hank Aaron Bonds in 1998 Bonds today

15 comments:

English student said...

It is a shame that Barry Bonds is about ready to break Hank Aaron's home run record. Barry Bonds is nothing but a cheat to even think about breaking the home run record. He is using steriods to break a record set by a man who worked his ass off to get make the home run record and now we have athlette stars who we admire the most are taking these steriods to be better. I found out that earlier this week that Chris Benoit a famouse WWE superstar had steriods and other drugs in his body when he killed his family. There needs to be a mandated law that no one of any circumstances should take gorwth hormones or any steriods that needs to make them better in the sport that they do. If I was Bud Celic I would fire Barry Bonds and banned him from MLB for life and have his name taken out of the recors books becuase he took steriods to get the home runs.

Brian Siscoe

English student said...

In no way is it fair what Barry Bonds is doing. Hank Aaron's homerun record is all him. He did not take any hormones to enhance his ability and worked at his game with what he was given with. The MLB should not start a new list at all because that is just saying it is ok to take these Human Growth Hormones. When children and even college baseball players see this, they will think they can get away with it, and might be able to be just like Bonds. If Bonds breaks the record, I do not feel he should be recognized and I do not think its fair at all to put him in a record book of any type. He is cheating his way to the top, and that is wrong. The MLB should promote healthy eating and wieght training in order to gain muscle, and not by taking drugs. Professional athletes are professional because they are good at their specific sport. If any athlete were to be taking performance enhancing drugs, that would cheat all the other competitors. As an athlete myself, I feel that professional athletes should not be able to use these drugs and if they do, there should be harsh penalties. There is no way that it is fair saying Barry Bonds broke Hank Aarons homerun record. He is a cheater, and cheaters should be disqualified.

Meghan Lehr

English student said...

Barry Bonds got caught using performance enhancing drugs, that is unfare to hank aarons record. Barry Bonds should be takin out of baseball and taken from the record books. But, that also adds the question of what if performance drugs are being used in the case of someone needing them for medical reasons. Or what if they later are aloud then would Bonds be forgiven added back in to the record books? The fact of the matter is this is a rule and he broke it, if they alloy he to continue it is the same as saying it is ok to take performance enhancers

Jason Gordon

English student said...

I think Barry Bonds is cheater. I don't care if steroids were/are allowed or not. I personally think steroids should be banned and if a player gets caught they should be banned from the sport. What kind of message does that send to children who love sports? It's okay to take drugs everyday. Don't worry about developing skills, just take drugs. There are plenty of great athletes out there who play sports without drug enhancements. I think the commissioner and maybe a committee should get together to discuss this subject and make a firm decision-either you allow steroids or you don't. If they choose to allow steroids (which they shouldn't) and Barry Bonds breaks the home run record then he absolutely should have an asterisk by his name. They need to put an asterisk by anyone's name after that who breaks records (if they're a user of steroids). Not only should an asterisk be put by their names I think it should be mentioned on baseball cards, souvenirs, and anything else that their name will be associated with. Unfortunately, there are other people on the list who may have taken steroids, but we will never know for sure - Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa come to mind.
Angie

English student said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
English student said...

English Student said...
I think that it is horrible that the major league would allow Barry Bonds to even be in the record book. It was an illegal drug that he used to cheat at the sport, there is no way his home runs should be considered legitimate. I do not think that Barry Bonds should be allowed to play major league baseball at all. He should not be put in the same category as Hank Aaron who played fairly. It is not fair to him that Bonds be able to break his record. No profesional athletes should be able to use performance enhancing drugs because if they were allowed to they would all have to use them. Even if they didn't want to, they would have to in order to keep up with everybody else who was. And then we would have so many more people on drugs. They are drugs that have serious side effects that go with them.
Katie Moore
Thursday, July 19, 2007 8:25:00 PM

English student said...

Personally I think that if Bonds breaks the record he should not be recognized for it. In fact, he should be kicked out of the league for using the drugs against the MLB rules. Lets say that Bonds does break the homerun record, how will anyone know if he had the potential to do it unless he can do it without HGH.
I also feel that professional athletes should not be able to use performance inhancing drugs. These people are recognized as professional atheletes because of their talent. If they begin to use HGH then they are not really using their talent to play the game. It would be more of the drug playing rather than the player.
Tara Schlensker

Anonymous said...

If you give Barry Bonds credit for breaking the homerun record, then there should be an asterisk (with explanation of the HGH use). If the MLB does decide to kick Bonds out then they need to have proof that he knew that he was taking HGH (since he claims he didn't know) and should be monitored weekly or monthly for the rest of his career. I do not think that these enhancement drugs should be legalized. Hank Aaron worked hard to get that homerun record, and used his raw talent to do it. He used no steroids, or performance enhancing drugs. Today, we know more about proper health and training, better equipment, more scouting of pitchers, etc. than the athletes of the past. If the athletes today can't break that homerun reord that was set 30 years ago without using a performance enhancing drug, then that person does not deserve to hold that record. Hank Aaron should hold his record to himself forever.

Anonymous said...

Baseball, or any other sport for that matter, started out being a past time hobby for people--simply for fun. It is rediculous that people think they need to menipulate the system, turning a good, clean game into something very different. Not only is Barry Bonds hurting himself, he is also hurting the team and the game itself. How selfish he must have been to believe that in order to win, he couldn't have done it on his own, but that he needed to take enhancement drugs to make his game better. He should deffinatly be banned from the League, making him realze the mistake that he has committed. He should not be allowed to attempt to break Hank's record--as Hank performed this feat on his own, whithout the use of drugs. Allowing Bonds to continue playing would be disrepectful to Aaron. No one should be allowed to use steriods unless they have a serious medical condition which requires them.

Emily Bown

English student said...

If Barry Bonds does brake the record for the most homeruns, I don't think he should be recongnized for it. I do not think it is far in any sense. I think he should be kicked out of major league baseball he is supposed to be a role model for kids and if they let him stay in, it is pretty much saying its ok do do drugs and play a sport. This isn't teaching people the right thing. I do not think that MLB should let athletes use enhancing for the same reason as i mention above about role models. They are in the MLB because of their great althelic ability and if they are using drugs then theirs no point in this, because everyone would beable to be in the MLB then. It would be the drug doing the work and not the players so their would be not point in the sport at all.

Jenna Kirts

English student said...

The HGH is a problem for me. I think that if you need to drugs to play baseball and you are getting paid alot then you should be baned from the league all to get together. The fans are there to watch talent. Not a wanna be that has to take drugs to get a paycheck. The owners on the other hand just wants wins. They don't care how. They just want wins.
So it not all bonds fault it's mostly the owners. I don't blame the owners niether. Who would want to be known as the all time losers team.
I think that he should have to have an asterisk by his name.

Simon Auth

English student said...

I think if the player uses growth hormones to help his performance it should be on the records stateing that. That should be a different standard that player without help. I think profesionals should not be able to use drugs cause of the side effects it can have on there bodies and the person angrue also. should he be band i am not sure on that.
jennifer chounard

English student said...

I dont think they should keep Bonds in the record book. By taking the performance enhancing he cheated and did not perform to his actual abilty. He probably would not even achieve this record with out the drugs and it is not fair to the other players who are really trying to be the best they can with out any enhancing drugs. Knowing he takes these drugs you can't really know weather he is a good player or if he has to take these drugs in order to keep up with the players that are actually talented. The professional athletes should not be allowed to take these drugs because then it is not the talent that makes them as good as they are, it is the drugs, and knowing that a player is not naturally talented makes the game not as intresting.
Lena Fatheree

Anonymous said...

Man, what's with all the Barry bashing on this blog? I'm here to give the guy some love. First of all, he HAS NOT been convicted of anything. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

An investigation is underway, but one reason it's dragging on so long is that different people are saying different things. Some say Barry used; some say he didn't necessarily. Some say he didn't use nearly as much as many users have used. We're still waiting to find out. Until we find out the truth, I don't think it's fair to bash Barry just because he's reclusive, maybe arrogant, and so damn GOOD that he makes others jealous.

Um, Human Growth Hormone was NOT an illegal substance when Barry (or McGuire) used it. IF he used it. I think there's still some debate on that. It became illegal later.

I think that Aaron and Selig should take the high road on this one and give Barry credit for his achievements. Are you telling me that Aaron never cheated in his life? How can we know this? He didn't undergo anything close to the scrutiny that players do now. He might have been taking a substance that would be banned today. If he wasn't, maybe it's because the substance wasn't invented yet. Maybe players of old would have cheated a bunch more if they had had the chance (and if they were rewarded for it the way modern players are).

Al Downing, the guy who gave up 755 to Aaron, is one of the guys who says Aaron ought to be there to see Barry nreak the record. Why? Because, according to Downing, "Bonds is just better than Aaron was. He's a better hitter than even Wille Mays. There's no question about it. He's the best hitter baseball has ever seen. It's a shame people can't see that outside of San Francisco and give him the credit he deserves. For Hank not to be there and congratulate him isn't right-it makes him look worse than people say Bonds is. It makes him look like he thinks hes so good that no one should ever be able to break his record. If he thinks that he's kidding himself. I think ARod is going to hit over 800 homers before he's through. Now will Hank prefer seeing ARod with the record instead of Bonds? What, you telling me ARod never cheats!?"

That's a baseball guy talking. He knows how rampant the illegal stuff is in the game, or WAS until recently. Bottom line is Barry's better than the other cheaters, and he's better than Hank Aaron, and he deserves to be recognized for it.

No asterisk.

Nick Wiggins

English student said...

my opinion on this is simple. the boys back in the day did not need performance drugs. Barry Bonds needs to be a man, start all over again and then break the record. then we will see what kind of a man he really is.
Caleb