Ryan Howard should be made the Home Run record holder if he hits 62.?

Question

Ever Maris's son is backing Howard. Bonds, McGuire and Sosa soiled the sport with their steroids. Mcguire's trainer refused to testify against him. Bonds stopping steroid use is like watching a baloon deflate (plus the way he conducted himself in front of the grand jury). And Sosa was testified against.

Now, we finally have a legitimate "clean" contender and it is being largely ignored. Some peopl say Philly's park favors home runs, but he has hit just as many on the road as at home.

I think Selig and MLB need to step up and change the record book making notations of steroid use for the three mentioned. They had no problem putting an asterick by Maris for all those years.

Answer 1

Great answers, people! Good job!

FIrst of all, the only reason Maris ever had an 'asterisk' is because the then-Commissioner of Baseball was Ford Frick, a personal friend of Babe Ruth's. It was Frick himself who decided to put the 'asterisk' next to Maris' name in the record books to partially protect the record of his friend. That asterisk was subsequently removed, many years later.

The above posts are correct, we have no idea if Howard is truly clean or not. We all hope he is, but that's not the same as knowing with 100% certainty. There's certainly no way YOU could know, unless you are in fact Ryan Howard.

I've said this before, but ESPN doesn't own major league baseball, and doesn't get to decide which records should be recognized and which ones shouldn't be recognized. The Baseball Writers' Association doesn't own MLB either. They've voted Bonds as the MVP of the league SEVEN times, even though they knew he was taking steroids for much of that time... now they're all trying to say that his records should be wiped from the books... bunch of hypocrites, that's all the BBWAA is. And ESPN's just as bad, they couldn't get enough of Bonds' home runs all these years, now they want to pretend as though they were against him all along...

Gaylord Perry threw a spitter, which is illegal according to baseball rules... is baseball going to wipe out his 3,000+ strikeoutts from the books? Of course not... same with Bonds' HR records... baseball has no business going back and wiping out records just because some percentage of fans don't like the guy who set those records.

So fine, let the sportswriters be the self-appointed 'gods' of deciding who's clean and who isn't (like they know, anyway)... MLB either needs to get rid of guys that do steroids, or get off their backs and quit complaining about this supposed 'problem'.

And since when does ESPN actually care about the history of ANY sport? We all knew Big Mac and Sosa were juiced during their 'record-setting' season, yet MLB promoted these guys as heroes...and back then, the Maris family was nothing but respectful to Big Mac and Sosa, even showing up at the ball park on the night McGwire hit his 62nd.

For ESPN to all of a sudden pretend to care about the history of sports is an absolute joke... They proclaimed MJ as the greatest basketball player ever without so much as a debate on the topic (probably because Stuart Scott attended UNC, therefore he knows better than anyone else), even though there's much more evidence pointing to Wilt, Kareem, Russell, etc as being better than MJ... In football, according to ESPN, Brett Farve is the greatest QB of all time (except maybe John Elway)... they don't even know who Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw are over there any more... and they've never even heard of Johnny Unitas. And don't even ask ESPN anchors who Jim Brown was...they won't have a clue.

Answer 2

1.) Try spelling people's names correctly.
2.) Try getting your "facts" straight. McGwire's trainer???
3.) And how exactly do YOU know who is "legitimate" and who is not?
4.) THEIR steroids? What, did those three invent them?
5.) Are you aware that more PITCHERS have tested positive for steroids than position players?
6.) Change the record books? So, do the 1989 Giants become the World Series Winners? Do the hitters that had at bats against pitchers who used steroids get their batting averages raised? Do pitchers that faced Rapael Palmiero get extra strikeouts added to their career stats? (um... he in fact was "caught" as opposed to the three you named.)
7.) At what point do you stop "changing the record book"? 1999? 1998? 1972?
8.) I don't know what Giants games you have seen this year, but Barry looks the same to me as he did last year. Why don't you take a look at Ivan Rodriguez... who lost about 20 pounds of muscle between 2004-2005.
9.) Next time YOU speak to the Maris family, ask them how they feel about micro-surgical techniques, to visual improvement surgeries, ask them how they feel about the way big leaguers are pampered today as opposed to in Roger's day. The fact is each era is different than the one before it.

10.) and most important, the single season Home Run record stands at 73, and is held by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants. Whether YOU like it or not.

Answer 3

If you remember, his son also backed McGuire and Sosa also. He even thinks McGuire is still a great guy, although he tarnished one of the most sacred records in all of sports. Sadly, we still don't know whether Howard is clean, even with all the testing. Hopefully he is, because that would be a great thing. But as for right now, I'll be a little suspicious. I say throw out Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa's records off the books, the way the Olympic Committee threw out Gatlin's record. But don't give Howard the outright title just yet.......

Answer 4

First of all, please spell McGwires name right.

My question is, how do you know that Howard is clean? There are so many drugs guys can take now that can't be detected. How do you know that McGwire and Sosa weren't taking the same things? I think that they were taking steroids just because of their testimony to congress, but we may never truly know, and it would be such a mess to MLB to do anthing drastic like recognize Howard as the king, short of the three guys ahead of him admitting they took illegal steroids.

Answer 5

u have a very good point but the pictures they hit the home runs against were most likely "juiced" to it was all in all a bad day for baseball

Answer 6

Are you crying, there's no crying in baseball!!!
The home run record is 73 by Barry Bonds!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

It would be nice to have a new Home Run King... Someone that IS clean... Not like those other juice heads.

Answer 8

Why The Holder Is Barry Bonds Ohh Because Of Steroids Wat about Maris he hit 62

Answer 9

And what makes you think he is "legitimate(ly) clean"?

Answer 10

no way