- 5,247
- 4,069
No more yapping about 90s baseball players and Wins Above Replacement in the NBA jersey thread.
The last thing I'll say on it is that I think Bonds is a tragedy - in the classic Greek sense of the word. In classic Greek tragedies (as opposed to comedies), the characteristic that makes the subject excel is the same that ultimately leads to his undoing. In the case of Bonds, it was his ego that compelled him to greatness - he was never liked by his teammates (he was voted off his own No. 1 ranked college team). His could not deal with not being the best, and that's part of what made him have to be the best. So, I think when he saw guys like Mac and Sosa re-writing the record books, his ego couldn't take it. He didn't have the patience to let history vindicate him and prove him the best of his era. He said to himself, geez, if these dudes can do what they are doing, I could rewrite every record in the book if I did it, so let's "even the playing field." And, he did - he rewrote all kinds of records. And, that decision led to one of the most difficult careers to make sense of in all of professional sports history.
The one thing I do think is underappreciated about Bonds in his steroid era was his commitment to the strike zone. He always had an amazing eye and he maintained that. Despite getting fewer and fewer chances to hit, he knew that a walk was a great outcome of an at bat - anything that's not an out is a success. A lot of other guys would have just expanded the zone and hit more homers but reduced their overall value in the process...Also, the intentional walk totals were part of product of his eye too. Pitchers often just abandoned the idea of "pitching around" him because he wasn't going to bite on a "pitcher's pitch" and if they made a mistake in doing it, it was going 400+ feet. So, pitchers decided if they weren't going to actually go after him, it wasn't even a good value proposition to try.
Happy to talk sports all day, but this isn't the thread for it.
Here are some pics -
The last thing I'll say on it is that I think Bonds is a tragedy - in the classic Greek sense of the word. In classic Greek tragedies (as opposed to comedies), the characteristic that makes the subject excel is the same that ultimately leads to his undoing. In the case of Bonds, it was his ego that compelled him to greatness - he was never liked by his teammates (he was voted off his own No. 1 ranked college team). His could not deal with not being the best, and that's part of what made him have to be the best. So, I think when he saw guys like Mac and Sosa re-writing the record books, his ego couldn't take it. He didn't have the patience to let history vindicate him and prove him the best of his era. He said to himself, geez, if these dudes can do what they are doing, I could rewrite every record in the book if I did it, so let's "even the playing field." And, he did - he rewrote all kinds of records. And, that decision led to one of the most difficult careers to make sense of in all of professional sports history.
The one thing I do think is underappreciated about Bonds in his steroid era was his commitment to the strike zone. He always had an amazing eye and he maintained that. Despite getting fewer and fewer chances to hit, he knew that a walk was a great outcome of an at bat - anything that's not an out is a success. A lot of other guys would have just expanded the zone and hit more homers but reduced their overall value in the process...Also, the intentional walk totals were part of product of his eye too. Pitchers often just abandoned the idea of "pitching around" him because he wasn't going to bite on a "pitcher's pitch" and if they made a mistake in doing it, it was going 400+ feet. So, pitchers decided if they weren't going to actually go after him, it wasn't even a good value proposition to try.
Happy to talk sports all day, but this isn't the thread for it.
Here are some pics -
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You are right, all of his jerseys are a bit overpriced but he has some nice stuff though. 
With all the accompanying labels and markings?
