I think that’s the dumbest sissy fight I ever saw on Hot Air.

cane_loader on January 10, 2013 at 8:07 AM

In case you come back and see this, I will explain something that applies to truecon as well: because you felt the need to make such a comment in the manner you did, I now associate the word “sissy” with you, but not in a way which is derogatory to myself nor complimentary toward you.

Freddy on January 10, 2013 at 10:43 AM

I would much rather have Alan Trammell as my SS than Visquel. Although I think both are worthy of the Hall.

I think that’s the dumbest sissy fight I ever saw on Hot Air.

cane_loader on January 10, 2013 at 8:07 AM

That’s ok – I enjoyed myself and didn’t consider my participation to be like you perceived it, which is what I care about. If you don’t agree, what should that matter to me?

I’m talking about baseball.

So, now it’s only about baseball? That’s not how our conversation began.

In baseball, Bonds was dominant, it’s difficult to compare apples and oranges here, so bringing up Chamberlain and Orr (Gretsky) isn’t applicable. That’s like saying that Chamberlain and Orr weren’t comparable to Eddy Merckx…

In **baseball** he was the best athlete of a generation, perhaps ever. Saying he wasn’t as impressive (which is what I was deeming “crazy”) means that there are [b]no[/b] impressive athletes in baseball. The guy is the only member of the 500/500 club, he holds records in most walks and intentional walks (meaning, everyone else thought he was a threat, just imagine if opposing teams could keep Wilt from ever having the ball), he has numerous accolades (Gold Gloves, Silver Bats, MVPs, All-Star, etc.), in fact, he has more than 2x as many MVPs as the next player on the list (several have 3 MVPs, and all of them are in the HoF except Rodriguez and Pujols, who are still active), and he had 3 MVPs before 2000.

Saying Bonds is not as impressive is still “crazy”. Find someone more impressive in baseball first.

Geministorm on January 10, 2013 at 10:22 AM

I was talking about pre-roids Bonds, if you remember. That guy was not a consensus all-time top-10 player before he started roiding up; none of his stats, save perhaps his rate of stolen bases combined with his power production, were radically superior to what had proceeded him like Orr’s or Chamberlain’s or Gretztky’s were – that is what is not debatable.

After he started roiding up? Well, some of his stats were insane, but they were superhuman, and deserve an asterisk next to them because they were achieved unethically and unnaturally.

Is his .265 career batting average that much of a hindrance in the face of all those other credentials?

Yes it is.

As for tough breaks, I would suggest that IF Omar Visquel had retired one year earlier he would have been the only player to enter the hall this year, and on the first ballot! That would have been a perfect break for MLB and Omar!

An 11 time gold glove winner is first ballot material!

“I’m talking about baseball. In baseball, Bonds was dominant, it’s difficult to compare apples and oranges here, so bringing up Chamberlain and Orr (Gretsky) isn’t applicable. That’s like saying that Chamberlain and Orr weren’t comparable to Eddy Merckx…” – Geministorm

Well Said, Sir. The reference to Eddy Merckx is particularly topical, eh?
Roger Clemens deserves it as much as anyone. “The Rocket” was feared.

One of my beefs is with Jack Morris not making it. The Tiger pitcher really was grrrrrrreat! I think he has only one more year to be voted in. Sadly, I suspect that he was overlooked so the the HoF could make a loud statement re: “supplements”.

If pristine off the-field-behavior is a requirement, why is Chamberlain in the B-Ball HoF? To prove that sex does not adversely affect athletic performance?
Just a Thawt
~(Ä)~

Is there really not a place in Cooperstown for Dale Murphy?

Did everybody already forget that he was the best, most feared, most complete player in the National League for most of the 80s?

398 career HR, 1266 RBI, 2 MVPs, 5 Gold Gloves, played 162 games FOUR YEARS IN A ROW, and since it’s the en vogue statistic to cite nowadays, he had an .815 OPS (Andre Dawson’s OPS was .811, and he’s in). And clean as a whistle. Not one thing about his personality or off-the-field behavior that could possibly hold him back.

And he’s done. Off the ballot. Like his career never even happened. What am I missing? Is his .265 career batting average that much of a hindrance in the face of all those other credentials?

Surely, there must be a French word for “verbally hitting someone with your purse”.

M240H on January 10, 2013 at 8:45 AM

Doesn’t every word in French mean that?

Bobby Orr and Wilt Chamberlain were more dominant over their peers at their peaks than Barry Bonds ever was, prior to his steroid’s usage – it’s craziness to say otherwise.

I’m talking about baseball. In baseball, Bonds was dominant, it’s difficult to compare apples and oranges here, so bringing up Chamberlain and Orr (Gretsky) isn’t applicable. That’s like saying that Chamberlain and Orr weren’t comparable to Eddy Merckx…

In **baseball** he was the best athlete of a generation, perhaps ever. Saying he wasn’t as impressive (which is what I was deeming “crazy”) means that there are [b]no[/b] impressive athletes in baseball. The guy is the only member of the 500/500 club, he holds records in most walks and intentional walks (meaning, everyone else thought he was a threat, just imagine if opposing teams could keep Wilt from ever having the ball), he has numerous accolades (Gold Gloves, Silver Bats, MVPs, All-Star, etc.), in fact, he has more than 2x as many MVPs as the next player on the list (several have 3 MVPs, and all of them are in the HoF except Rodriguez and Pujols, who are still active), and he had 3 MVPs before 2000.

Saying Bonds is not as impressive is still “crazy”. Find someone more impressive in baseball first.

“On the other hand, it seems like a breach of good faith to bestow baseball’s ultimate honor on cheats. That, at least, seems to be the sentiment of a number of Hall of Famers who have said they will boycott its ceremonies if Bonds, Clemens, or Sosa is admitted.” – Mirengoff

I call BS.
How about you go back and remove from every pro Hall of Fame those who used “performance-engancing drugs”? Then, we’ll talk.
In the meantime, Clemons and McGuire deserve to be installed.

People have NO idea what anabolic steroids are all about. You can inject yourself with a variety of steroids, or take them orally (personally, as a body-builder, I preferred to combine the two: inject Deca-Durabolin and take Anavar orally). What most people don’t know is that if you don’t train your äss off, they’ll do nothing but shrink yer yarballs and give you a bad attitude. You still have to do the work!

As for the hitters, anabolic steroids do absolutely nothing to enhance hand-eye coordination.
How do pros compete in various sports against those who are already using the drugs? You either use the drugs too, or find another way to make a living.
Pro athletes are independent contractors who have very short careers. I say:
Leave them alone. I want to watch the best of the best and the strongest of the strong, not self-righteous busy-bodies who whine when others out-perform them.
Get a grip, Mirengoff and Morrisey. Apparently, neither of you have competed in athletics at any level, especially not professionally.
/rant

~(Ä)~

I think that’s the dumbest sissy fight I ever saw on Hot Air.

cane_loader on January 10, 2013 at 8:07 AM

Surely, there must be a French word for “verbally hitting someone with your purse”.

oh, that is such a perfect final response from you in so many ways. i will definitely use that in my story.

i can only say i truly wish i could meet you in person to put a face and a history to the last few hours of my life. oh well, such is the internet…..

truecon on January 9, 2013 at 11:24 PM

I’ll have you know, I didn’t read any of your diatribe (why would I bother wasting my time like that? )

I just want to congratulate you for needlessly constructing all of those words – noticing that you are a stupid and pompous someone who leads with your chin, I knew I could elicit such a masturbatory, unengaging reaction from you! Bye now!

ok, so i need to work on my creativity. i will give it a go. tell me how i do? (i am supposed to tell you how it feels to be unsure about you, so i will just say it feels fine. maybe we’ll keep going, maybe someone will get bored, maybe not. i tell you what, i will work on a to do list in the meantime that may provide more meaningful life experiences for us both.)

where was i? ah, yes, creativity. is it creative to critique another? probably not, but i have never claimed to be creative, so that must be ok. so let me critique your use of italics and now bold (clever switch up!).

ex. #1 (one of your posts above using italics): “Do you believe your post here says anything interesting about me and/or the way I operate? Do you believe you are able to answer that coherently? Have you been chooming?”

ex. #2: (the same ideas without italics): “Do you believe your post here says anything interesting about me and/or the way I operate? Do you believe you are able to answer that coherently? Have you been chumming?”

(the italics didn’t copy and paste, so i had to try to re-create them, i hope i did it correctly)

so the first, as you posted it, with italics, makes sure i understand that i have said nothing, and it was nothing about you (twice – for EMPHASIS!*!*!*!*!*!*! ), and i should definitely answer about coherently.

whereas the second one really is unclear what you are talking about at all. thank you very much for those italics, without them i am totally lost. are you talking about me or you and is it important to think about the post in general or its being interesting and what about whether it is coherent. oh boy oh boy, what does that even mean? hard to tell without those italics. or better yet, BOLD!

ayayayay, ok, the amusement level is fading away (although, apparently not for you!). i don’t really want to say the obvious, but i think you are probably not all that bright, and i think your posts reflect as much in stark terms. you probably have other positive attributes, so please let me admit, that this is just an OPINION (a biblically righteous gospel type one that i will cling to until my dying day – i will be telling my grandkids about “anti-control” and my rabidly un-wavering opinions about him!), and i am sure you are a swell guy (or gal) in real life. i just wish i had the facts to back it all up! i need proof, dammit! proof is what i need to sway the masses. fiddlesticks!!!

so let me offer some thoughts on what both of us can do the rest of the evening instead of continuing with this nonsense;

1) make love to our wife/girflriend
2) masturbate (mentally or otherwise)
3) take up an exercise program by either, a) doing pushups and sit-ups, or b) going for a 30 minute run or hour walk
4) write a short story (i know i am not creative, but it will be for personal improvement, so i will do my best!)
5) play a video game (i am thinking this one and #2 are the best bets at this point)
6) call a friend (hmmmmmm)
7) write a friend! (just think of how entertained they would be with this story itself! )
8) do some housework. (you can’t tell me your home/apartment is perfectly clean)
9) go to a bar or coffee shop and meet someone new. (i have faith in you, you can do it!)
10) rent a movie on netflix/itunes (surely in the top three)

ok, i think that is a good list to start. feel free to add to it. i will now sit on pins and needles wondering, will he respond? won’t he? oh, why won’t he? oh, he did! he did! thank jesus, he did!

man, i might just use this as my short story. ok, it looks like i am going with #4, wish me luck!

cheers,
a broken man

i think you are a joke. i said something that upset you and you pouted like a little child who can’t even handle seeing something they disagree with in print so you called it out as an opinion and emphasized it with italics as if that meant anything. i amused myself by pointing that out, and now we are in a pointless back and forth because apparently neither of us has anything better to do.

but to answer your question, i absolutely think it reflects on your insecurity, as i mentioned.

but that is just my opinion.

truecon on January 9, 2013 at 10:34 PM

Since none of your opinion about me here is provable on a rational level, yet you hold onto this opinion like it’s gospel truth, it stands to reason, irrelevant of anyone’s belief to the contrary, that you are an unintentional joke, a severely uncreative passive-aggressive who’s essentially mentally masturbating at an imaginary figure.

Think you can offer a factual argument that my inference about you is wrong? Why don’t you tell me it feels like to be unsure whether or not I’ll bother responding to your next post to me? Once again, thank you for the entertainment you provide me – LOL@you!

but to answer your question, i absolutely think it reflects on your insecurity, as i mentioned.

but that is just my opinion.

that’s just an opinion!!!!!! just because you say it doesn’t make it true!!! that’s is just your opinion!

hahahahahahahahahahaha

truecon on January 9, 2013 at 10:20 PM

Do you believe your post here says anything interesting about me and/or the way I operate? Do you believe you are able to answer that coherently? Have you been chooming?

Once again, thank you for the entertainment you are providing me!

Anti-Control on January 9, 2013 at 10:11 PM

that’s just an opinion!!!!!! just because you say it doesn’t make it true!!! that’s is just your opinion!

hahahahahahahahahahaha

ha ha ha. you think? people’s insecurities never cease to amaze. brilliant.

truecon on January 9, 2013 at 9:33 PM

Do you know what “projection” is? Right back at you – thank you for the entertainment you’ve provided me!

That’s an opinion

Anti-Control on January 9, 2013 at 6:35 PM

ha ha ha. you think? people’s insecurities never cease to amaze. brilliant.

That’s crazy. Pre-steroid use, he was already considered the best athlete baseball had ever seen, and this was during Griffey Jr’s heyday as well. Old timers thought so, sports analysts thought so, the guy just had every tool in his bag and it was the best. Other athletes may have been specialists, Rickey Henderson comes to mind, but look at what Bonds did, only Willie Mays and Barry’s dad (Bobby) were close to the 500/500 club.

Look at just the 10 years prior to Bonds meeting his trainer from BALCO.

8 Gold Gloves
8 All-Star appearances
7 Silver Sluggers
3 NL MVP

That right there is enough for the HoF.

Geministorm on January 9, 2013 at 8:49 PM

Bobby Orr and Wilt Chamberlain were more dominant over their peers at their peaks than Barry Bonds ever was, prior to his steroid’s usage – it’s craziness to say otherwise.

In my wasted youth (i.e., up until the age of 45), I used to spend hours pouring over baseball statistics trying to determine, say, the top 20 second basemen of all time.

Loser.

The 1994 World Series that never was was the Separation.

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds forever soiling Roger Maris’ and Hank Aaron’s marks were the divorce.

I never watch baseball anymore and I don’t care.

Baseball is dead to me. if it’s on TV, I change the channel, including the World Series.

Pre-steroids Bonds was not nearly as impressive of an athlete as either Wilt Chamberlain or Bobby Orr were at their respective peaks.

Anti-Control on January 9, 2013 at 6:35 PM

That’s crazy. Pre-steroid use, he was already considered the best athlete baseball had ever seen, and this was during Griffey Jr’s heyday as well. Old timers thought so, sports analysts thought so, the guy just had every tool in his bag and it was the best. Other athletes may have been specialists, Rickey Henderson comes to mind, but look at what Bonds did, only Willie Mays and Barry’s dad (Bobby) were close to the 500/500 club.

Look at just the 10 years prior to Bonds meeting his trainer from BALCO.

8 Gold Gloves
8 All-Star appearances
7 Silver Sluggers
3 NL MVP

That right there is enough for the HoF.

Listen, just like with Armstrong, when everyone is using, the elites will look around and see that if the violators aren’t being punished, then in order to maintain their livelihood they will start using as well to keep up. The best athletes aren’t going to stand being 2nd rate compared to others that they *know* are less talented, it isn’t fair and they have no way of remedying the problem short of sounding like a bunch of crybabies. Their window of money making is very limited and by no means guaranteed, so in essence their jobs are on the line if they can’t perform at the level of the enhanced athletes.

This is MLB’s fault for not enacting rules and being diligent in enforcing them.

Bonds and Clemens should be in the HoF, with no *.

love baseball. love the giants. love bonds.

steroids or no, that man was the most amazing athlete i have ever seen. better than jordan, better than jackson, better than woods. he got maybe one tow two pitches to hit, almost surely by accident, a GAME. they never pitched to him in any situation of importance at all. EVER.

i watched a game where Pujols was in his prime, in the 4th inning with the game close and a runner in scoring position, he was pitched to. this never ever ever happened for bonds. in that case, automatic 4 balls to first base.

over a .600 OBP!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! if you have any understanding of baseball, that alone is enough, no matter how hard he was ‘cheating’.

most amazing athlete ever, and it isn’t even close.

truecon on January 9, 2013 at 11:31 AM

That’s an opinion, and, considering that he had to cheat in order to achieve what was an essentially superhuman level of performance, the athleticism he displayed after he began taking steroids and whatnot deserves an asterisk next to it.

Pre-steroids Bonds was not nearly as impressive of an athlete as either Wilt Chamberlain or Bobby Orr were at their respective peaks.

Pete Rose never cheated at the game.

Yes he did, too, and in a much worst way than even Barry Bionic Bonds. When players bet on baseball, they threaten the honesty of the game. It turns it into ‘pro wrestling’, a play, not a game, no matter how athletic the participants are. At least the steroid stooges weren’t a threat to throw the game.

I suggest a compromise. Since steroids, etc., weren’t even against MLB rules for at least part of the era in question, how about if we tell these guys they can have either their name on any records they set or membership in the HOF, but not both? (Subject to them admitting steroid, etc., use, naturally)

My husband and I went to the Hall of Fame for the first time last summer. It was a great experience. But I will lose my enthusiasm for Cooperstown if they induct the likes of Bonds, Sosa and Clemens. And that goes for Mark McGwire as well should his name come up again.

After baseball cracked down on steroids, no one has hit more than 57 homers in a season.

Clemens, Bonds, and Sosa do not have a place in the Hall of Fame. Their records were achieved through cheating.

Lol. Or even Whitaker. Admission should be judged by performance at a player’s respective position played. Whitaker’s stats as a second baseman compare well to other second basemen’s stats in history.

NotCoach on January 9, 2013 at 3:34 PM

I think all those Tigers are in a tough spot. I am a Brewers fan and it always seemed like Trammell and Whitaker were overshadowed by Robin Yount and Paul Molitor; they played against each other hundreds of times and in the overall stats, Yount and Molitor have the better argument, since they both ended up with well over 3000 hits.

Having said that, Alan Trammell was a tremendous player — one of the smartest guys I ever saw on a baseball diamond and an outstanding fielder and hitter. Clutch as hell, too. And Whitaker was a really fine second baseman with sneaky power. The only second baseman of that era who was better was Ryne Sandberg. I’ve never understood why Whitaker got thrown under the bus. I don’t think Whitaker is better than Roberto Alomar or Craig Biggio, but he’s close.

Conservative4Ever on January 9, 2013 at 3:51 PM

I was a child of the 80′s myself. I grew up with these guys. One of my all time favorite Tigers was Tommy Brookens.

Lol. Or even Whitaker. Admission should be judged by performance at a player’s respective position played. Whitaker’s stats as a second baseman compare well to other second basemen’s stats in history.

These reminders by you of Tigers being ignored by HoF!! Are you trying to get me to stroke out?!?!

I can’t tell you how many of these conversations I had with family & friends. If my grandmother was still alive she would be fuming

If the Hall of Fame inducts them but not Rose it loses any shred of integrity or legitimacy. I blame Bud Selig who is about as good a commissioner as Weepy Boner is House Speaker that these cheats are even on the ballot and that their existence hasn’t been WIPED OUT of the record books.

As far as I am concerned the Home Run King is still Hank Aaron. The single season record holder is still Roger Maris.

If the commissioner had the power to ban the Black Sox from baseball for life despite their acquittals for fixing the 1919 World Series (won by my Reds, incidentally) for the good of the game he can ban the steroid cheaters from the game and wipe out their statistics.

Each year that goes by saddens me…..Now let’s talk Trammell!

Conservative4Ever on January 9, 2013 at 3:30 PM

Lol. Or even Whitaker. Admission should be judged by performance at a player’s respective position played. Whitaker’s stats as a second baseman compare well to other second basemen’s stats in history.

I lost my enthusiasm for baseball in the Steroid Era. I’m pretty sure that was not a limited phenomenon.

Was it the ‘Roids or the strike/lockout that immediately preceeded the ‘Roids?