Mike Schmidt sticking up for Bonds?

[foreverfree]

It seems that way, judging from this opinion piece Schmidt wrote for the AP. It appeared in the Allentown (PA) newspaper (he kisses Balco Barry's pinky ring towards the end) ...

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/all-schmidtbonds.593068 2jul07,0,4644140,print.story

From The Morning Call
July 7, 2007
Schmidt: I might have been tempted by steroids, too
This Barry Bonds thing has got me confused.

I can't make a decision. I get several interview requests each week and questions everywhere I go.

''What do you think about Barry Bonds?''

I'm sure all of the guys in the 500 Club are going through the same thing. Most of the older hard-liners believe he cheated, broke the law, is beating the system, and want nothing to do with him. Apparently Hank Aaron is in that group.

Those guys feel the same way about Pete Rose, too.

The current generation, however, seems to be a little more tolerant. They're willing to accept his achievements as a product of a commitment to fitness, unique hand-eye ability, and strength, longevity, and whatever is -- or was -- accepted as normal years ago.

The controversial issue is whether he added size and strength with illegal supplemental help, allowing him not only to do extraordinary things as a hitter, but allowing him to extend his years to the point of challenging the game's most coveted record.

I've gone on record saying if I had played in the 1990s I would have found it hard not to fall to the same temptation, especially when there was no testing and a lax attitude by those in charge. Back then, the game and its players were thriving on the power surge.

Knowing the repercussions as I know them now would have made that decision easy. But being a young player trying to make my mark, be the best I could be, make the most money I could make, get to the top, I'm not sure I would have said no. More power to those that did, and most think Barry was not one of them.

So fans, and some current and former major leaguers, find it hard to give Bonds the respect that should follow this achievement. It is directly related to the issue above, but there are other reasons.

There is the picture painted by the media, and supported through reading Bonds' quotes, that he has a surly ''I'm Barry Bonds'' attitude and has a different set of rules that those around him must accept.

Quite simply, he appears to have a very arrogant and self-centered existence and, as he approaches the record, he revels in his celebrity with little concern for his image. It seems there is little that would, or could, endear him to all of us in his actions.

Hey, who am I to talk? I was a little self-centered in my day as well.

In general, the perception that today's players have risen to a level of stardom where they have lost touch with the real world seems strong. Television does it. These guys see themselves as rock stars, as entertainers. Maybe they are.

I had a long paragraph written on the differences in today's game compared to Aaron's era, but I'll not push that issue. But I must ask: Do you think most fans believe the Home Run King should come from that era, when it was much tougher?

Not my era, mind you. Aaron's era. That's the hard thing to accept, that records set pre-1990 are falling like crazy. I was seventh on the all-time home run list just over 15 years ago, now I'm 12th.

Aaron played his entire career when men were fighting for their livelihood on the field.

Today's players understand there is a gigantic pie and plenty to go around. Before free agency started after the 1976 season, players were tied to organizations and forced to be loyal to towns and their fans.

Even through the '80s, many players played for only one organization, which bred a more natural competitive environment. Today's game is competitive, of course, but not nearly as tough as it was back then. Not so much when I played, but Aaron's era and before, when you earned your pay year to year. Every year was a free agent year for them.

It doesn't sound as if I respect today's guys after reading that, does it? Well, I do, but those are facts. Any current player, even Barry, would agree with me.

I don't blame the players. They play in the environment they are given, the environment that today's game has adopted over time.

Having said all of the above, the only issue is: Bonds or Aaron? Who deserves the throne until A-Rod or Ryan Howard arrives?When making the Bonds-Aaron comparison, one thing everyone can agree upon, and it is central to the discussion, is that it became much easier to hit a home run after 1990.

Harder balls, maple bats, small parks, small strike zones, fewer inside pitches, elbow pads, and yes, bigger biceps, all combined to increase home run totals and thus lessen the appreciation of Barry Bonds' achievements.

As pointed out in my book, ''Clearing the Bases,'' after the building of Camden Yards in Baltimore and the many new stadiums that followed, ending with Citizens Bank Park in Philly, the difference is close to 10 home runs a year per player.

Leave the steroid issue out of this. Maybe your eyes tell you one thing, but Barry has never failed a drug test. It's been guilt by association. He's had a long, amazingly productive career, a career that most likely will never be matched.

I say appreciate it for what it is, the greatest career that spans two highly different generations. I say he is the greatest left-handed hitter of all-time, maybe the greatest player -- surely of our generation.

As for Hammerin' Hank, he is the greatest right-handed hitter of all-time, and that's saying something.

Hank's reign will never really end. He's the old-school King and will, by my generation, have set the standard in baseball's golden era.

Let's just hope this one has a happy ending. Baseball needs one.

Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt wrote this article for the Associated Press.

John

 

[bigunreal]

This article, which certainly was not written by Schmidt but must bear his stamp of approval, epitomizes why I feel no compunction to defend white players. First of all, in my mind, Schmidt IS a modern-day player; the only reason there is any justification for his being a member of the Hall of Fame is the position he played. There haven't been many great hitting third baseman over the decades, I'll admit, so on that basis I am willing to ignore Schmidt's mediocre .267 lifetime average, and the fact he never had a single .300 season in his entire career except for a shortened one where he only had 354 at bats. Schmidt played during the most disastrous era, imho, for traditional baseball fans, the 70s-80s. He was a typically money-grubbing, deluded modern athlete, who wasn't fan friendly at all, and was caught up in his own imagined self-importance. The only difference between then and now was the fact that the jock-sniffers in the media in those days didn't discriminate as much against white players and were willing to fawn over Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, etc., just as they did over their black peers. Now we see, in this article, exactly how much "old school" players like Schmidt can be counted on to bolster the Caste system with their pathetic comments. So Bonds is the greatest left-handed hitter ever, in Schmidt's opinion? And Hank Aaron is the greatest right-handed hitter? Hmmm. I wonder if Bob Gibson or Ferguson Jenkins is the greatest right-handed pitcher, in his estimation? Who knows- maybe Vida Blue or Fernando Valuenzula is the greatest left-hander he ever saw.

I'm sorry, but these retired white players, regardless of what sport they played, really make me sick. Why does this clown feel the need to write an article about Barry Bonds? What connection is there between Schmidt and Bonds? Can't we understand that the only reason anyone would think of asking him his opinion about Bonds is because they were confident his answer would be what they wanted it to be? Really, if a quintessential jerk like Bonds cannot rouse the ire of an "old timer" like Schmidt, who could? Whether it's Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale making every effort to build all-black NBA teams or Merrill Hoge falling all over himself to heap more undeserved praise on every black afflete he can think of, it should be obvious that all of the high profile white players of the past 25-30 years or so approve of the anti-white Caste system which reigns in Don King's America. Where is the article from Schmidt regarding his old friend and teammate Pete Rose, and his ridiculous exclusion from the Hall of Fame? But then again, where has that article been from any of his old Big Red Machine teammates? How can we have any respect for any of these retired white athletes from any sport, when apparently none of them are willing to state the obvious? Merrill Hoge has commented on being discriminated against in his NFL career, but then goes on to lambaste every token white player in the league, fawns over the worst black thugs and even apes black mannerisms and speech. Tim Legler talks of being discriminated against in the NBA, but likewise harshly criticizes the handful of white players, worships the thugs and also mimics black mannerisms and speech in his "commentary." I could give other examples. Until a bunch of these gutless white ex- players start pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, the situation is not going to get better.

 

[Bart]

I'm sorry, but these retired white players, regardless of what sport they played, really make me sick. Why does this clown feel the need to write an article about Barry Bonds?

Good post. I can never look at Mike Schmidt without thinking of his absurd comments.And for what? What did he accomplish? He deflected criticism from that SOB Bonds, and says the best right and left handed hitters are Black. He just eliminated all the great White players of the past. Nice going Mike. You are making it so-o--o-o easy to justify the removal of Whites from Baseball and sports in general.