MLB Chief Might Reinstate Aaron as Home Run King

[SAhornfan]

This is getting serious!

Selig said he also is considering reinstating Hank Aaron as baseball's home run king in the record book. Barry Bonds (http://fantasybaseball.usatoday.com/content/player.asp?sport=MLB&id=1448) broke Aaron's record of 755 home runs in 2007 but is scheduled to stand trial March 2 on charges he lied to a federal grand jury about performance-enhancing drugs. USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2009-02-11-selig-rodriguez-suspension_N.htm)

[Bitterwhiteguy]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[SAhornfan]

I'll believe it when I see it.
BWG,
Do you think that would help or irreparably damage MLB? I honestly don't know.

[editionshield]

i think it has to be done.

[editionshield]

(i think, by the way, SA, you were correct in identifying that they buried what should've been the lead of this story in the last couple paragraphs.)

[SAhornfan]

(i think, by the way, SA, you were correct in identifying that they buried what should've been the lead of this story in the last couple paragraphs.)
I hate to tell you this but Foxnews.com had it as the lead. I cut and pasted their headline in the title. I took the story from USA Today so no one would question its validity.

[djbfootball]

I hate to tell you this but Foxnews.com had it as the lead. I cut and pasted their headline in the title. I took the story from USA Today so no one would question its validity.


Since when are you a MLB person?? It is very difficult for me to get excited about the MLB. TOO long and the games are not that stimulating.

[SAhornfan]

Since when are you a MLB person?? It is very difficult for me to get excited about the MLB. TOO long and the games are not that stimulating.
Normally I'm not but this is big news.

[RepOfTexas]

Edition, I agree with you. It has to be done.

[Bitterwhiteguy]

BWG,
Do you think that would help or irreparably damage MLB? I honestly don't know.

If Bonds is found guilty of steroid use & perjury, absolutely. If not, then it just looks like a witch hunt.

I'm a bit divided on the subject, personally. While I think it would be a good punishment for those found guilty of using steroids to have all of their records removed, another part of me thinks baseball deserves to have to live with those tainted records because it was anywhere from negligent to complicit in allowing roid raging freaks to tarnish the game's image.

[djbfootball]

If Bonds is found guilty of steroid use & perjury, absolutely. If not, then it just looks like a witch hunt.

I'm a bit divided on the subject, personally. While I think it would be a good punishment for those found guilty of using steroids to have all of their records removed, another part of me thinks baseball deserves to have to live with those tainted records because it was anywhere from negligent to complicit in allowing roid raging freaks to tarnish the game's image.


Then by removing the records or stats from when these guys played. Then where do they stop, if you take away Bonds HRs then you will end up changing the scores of those games. Where do they stop??

[editionshield]

If Bonds is found guilty of steroid use & perjury, absolutely. If not, then it just looks like a witch hunt.

I'm a bit divided on the subject, personally. While I think it would be a good punishment for those found guilty of using steroids to have all of their records removed, another part of me thinks baseball deserves to have to live with those tainted records because it was anywhere from negligent to complicit in allowing roid raging freaks to tarnish the game's image.


baseball having to live with it is one thing.... but aaron, and his legacy, should not have to live with it. he did nothing wrong and deserves to have his rightful record-status restored.

besides, baseball will have to live with it either way.

[Bitterwhiteguy]

Then by removing the records or stats from when these guys played. Then where do they stop, if you take away Bonds HRs then you will end up changing the scores of those games. Where do they stop??

That's a fair question. IMO simply stripping them from the all-time records is sufficient unless the MLB can prove that the team was complicit in the cheating. Otherwise we should stick to punishing the individual.

[AugustaHorn]

Do we also restore Roger Maris as the single season HR record holder?

Do we take away some or all of Clemens' Cy Young awards, and give them to the 2nd place finisher during each season?

Do we take-away the Rangers' World Series championship when A-Rod was "A-Roids?" Oh, never mind about that one. :-P

But seriously, where does this madness end? /:)

By the way, Hank Aaron said that Bonds can keep the record...he doesn't want it anymore:

“In all fairness to everybody, I just don’t see how you really can do a thing like that and just say somebody isn’t the record holder anymore, and let’s go back to the way that it was,” Aaron said Friday, referring to the controversy involving the legitimacy of sluggers Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and their artificially enhanced peers.

“If you did that, you’d have to go back and change all kinds of records, and the [home run] record was very important to me,” Aaron said. “It’s probably the most hallowed record out there, as far as I’m concerned, but it’s now in the hands of somebody else. It belongs to Barry. No matter how we look at it, it’s his record, and I held it for a long time. But my take on all of this has always been the same. I’m not going to say that Barry’s got it because of this or because of that, because I don’t know.”

[editionshield]

the process would be pretty cut-and-dried, as i see it: any player who admitted using steroids, or was found guilty in a court of law of doing so, is ineligible to be in the record books. simple as that.

you can limit it to the record books for individual records only -- that draws a very specific parameter. thus no need to get into team achievements, or the awards such as cy young and mvp.

i see no reason not to do it. and i see plenty of reason it would be good to do it.

[RepOfTexas]

Individual records is probably the only thing the league could get away with altering in this situation. As others posted above it becomes a very, slippery, unending slope otherwise. But having said that, I agree that MLB is complicit in the steroid situation, they just turned a blind eye for years because it was "good" for revenue that these guys could hit the ball 500 feet consistantly.

I have never understood how these guys don't get prosecuted for using illegal substances. When they're tested and fail the whole world is told about it but yet no legal action ever seems to be taken. They just get suspended a few games for violating the league's rules. What about the rule of law?

[SAhornfan]

What about the rule of law?
You post on the politics board, when has that mattered to anyone any more?

[RepOfTexas]

You post on the politics board, when has that mattered to anyone any more?
I suppose if it's good for baseball to overlook it then it's probably good for the government seeing as how it helps bring in more tax revenue. Cash is king.