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Barry Bonds officially cleared of obstruction charges

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/U-S-prosecutors-call-quits-to-Barry-Bonds-case-6397312.php

Former San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds is officially clear of the criminal charges that connected the all-time home run leader to baseball’s infamous steroid era.

The U.S. Justice Department revealed Tuesday that it will not challenge an April federal appeals court ruling that overturned Bonds' 2011 conviction for obstruction of justice in a sweeping federal investigation of performing-enhancing drugs.

The decision was made by the solicitor general, who is responsible for deciding whether cases should be forwarded to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. The office did not immediately return phone calls requesting comment.

Bonds, 50, played for the Giants between 1993 and 2007, setting many Major League Baseball records, including most career home runs at 762. But his accomplishments were soiled when he became a central figure in a federal probe of steroid use and sales at BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame.

While Bonds was never convicted of using banned substances, he was accused in 2007 of lying under oath when asked about his steroid use and indicted. In 2011, jurors deadlocked on charges of perjury but convicted him of obstructing justice.

On April 22, however, the Ninth U.S Court of Appeals ruled that Bonds’ “rambling, nonresponsive answer” in grand jury testimony did not amount to obstruction of justice, and the conviction was tossed.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, whose office prosecuted Bonds, could have have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling
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entremet

entremet

Member
Bonds is one of the best even before he started juicing.

And yes, insofar as position players, Bonds is ridiculous.

Don't get me started on Babe Ruth and I'm a Yankees fan.
 
Z

ZeroRay

Member
Pete Rose was overrated anyways.

Bonds was an amazing player steroids or no. The shame the league and collective public has over the entire era will eventually dwindle.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
entrement said:
Bonds is one of the best even before he started juicing.

And yes, insofar as position players, Bonds is ridiculous.

Don't get me started on Babe Ruth and I'm a Yankees fan.
Click to expand...

Obligatory link to Deadspin's Barry Bonds Was An Alien God Who Destroyed Space-Time To Bring Us Joy article.

—Bonds drew 688 intentional walks in his career. There are 49 Hall of Fame position players who drew fewer walks of any kind in their entire careers.

—If Bonds had retired after the 1998 season, he would have done so with 99.6 career rWAR. This would rank him No. 32 all-time.

—If Bonds had retired after his age-27 season rather than signing with the San Francisco Giants, he would have done so with 50.1 career rWAR, more than 42 Hall of Fame position players.

—Bonds had a career line of .393/.967/1.054 on 3-0 counts.

—Bonds was once intentionally walked with the bases loaded.

—Bonds was intentionally walked with the bases empty 41 times.

—In the 2002 postseason, Bonds hit .356/.581/.978 with eight home runs in 17 games.

—Between 2002 and 2004, Bonds hit 136 home runs and struck out 146 times.

—If you turned every home run Bonds ever hit into an out, his career on base percentage would be .384, the same as Alex Rodriguez's.

—Between 1990 and 2004, Bonds was never lower than third in OPS, and he was third only three times.

—Bonds stole 340 bases through age 30; Derek Jeter has stolen 355 in his career.

—Bonds reached base just 330 fewer times than all-time leader Pete Rose, in 3,284 fewer plate appearances.

—Bonds opened the 2004 season with a stretch in which he reached base 45 times in 64 plate appearances, with nine home runs and four strikeouts.

—Bonds's slugging percentage in 2001 was .863. If that were his OPS, it would have ranked 27th in the National League, just behind teammate and defending MVP Jeff Kent's .877 mark.

—From 2002 to 2007, the only seasons for which data is available, Bonds made contact with 90.5 percent of strikes he swung at, varying from a seasonal low of 89.2 percent to a high of 93.7 percent.

—Bonds made 85 fewer outs than Ken Griffey Jr. did in 1,302 more plate appearances.

—Bonds had four sacrifice hits in his career. (Ted Williams had five; Hank Aaron had 21.)

—Through age 26, Bonds had 10.8 defensive WAR, more than any other outfielder in major league history other than Andruw Jones through that age.

—Bonds hit .333/.488/.576 against Pedro Martínez in 43 plate appearances; only Luis Gonzalez (of all people) hit him better.

—Bonds hit Randy Johnson for a 1.003 OPS in 62 plate appearances; no other left-handed hitter with 50 PAs did better than .888, and left-handers overall hit .199/.278/.294.

—After the San Francisco Giants moved to what is now known as AT&T Park, Bonds slugged .753 there in 1996 plate appearances, which is what Mark McGwire did in 1998, the year he hit 70 home runs.

—From 2001 to 2004, Bonds's on base percentage was .559; that would have been the 11th-highest slugging average in the National League during this period.

—Bonds's career rWAR of 162.4 is higher than those of Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan combined.

—Bonds took the extra base—advancing more than one base on a single, or more than two on a double—43 percent of the time, more often than Ichiro Suzuki.

—In his career, after going to a 3-0 count Bonds hit 30 home runs and struck out 25 times.

—In his 16 recorded bunt attempts, Bonds laid down two for sacrifices and picked up eight hits on the others, for a .571 batting average.

—Bonds hit 227 career home runs just off left-handers—more than 91 Hall of Fame position players hit in total.

—If Bonds were to return to the major leagues tomorrow, he would have to make 1,412 straight outs to drop his on base percentage below .400.
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C

chuckddd

Fear of a GAF Planet
Surely there aren't any cheaters of any sort in Cooperstown. Good job, professional baseball writers.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
META said:
Terrible first post.

No Cooperstown for him, anyway.
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I'm sure he's crying himself to sleep that he won't be involved in the old, decrepit sports writer circle jerk known as the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bonds is the greatest to ever do it. I don't care what he did. You could shoot up any player today with horse semen and bull testosterone and they wouldn't be doing the shit he did. And if PEDs helped him do it then I'm glad he took them. Made it far more entertaining, which, for the fans, is sort of the point.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Junior Member
This here is a scary stat.

Bonds reached base just 330 fewer times than all-time leader Pete Rose, in 3,284 fewer plate appearances.
 
T

TomShoe

Banned
Here comes the outrage from the baseball traditionalists. He made baseball more fun to watch, no wonder no one cares about it aside from the locals.But that's fine, just keep holding that L.
 
I

IceBringer

Banned
Good. Now put him in the Hall of Fame. Rose too. Not having the all time leaders in hits and home runs in the Hall is a disgrace.
 
T

theWB27

Member
Good. Honestly baseball and it's circle jerk of fame voters are the worst thing in sports.

Steroids don't help you hit the way this man did. All of my casual like of baseball left after they wanted to "cleanse" the sport of "cheaters."
 
G

gosox333

Member
He'll probably get in within 15 years

5 years ago people posting in threads like this would have all been in the no crowd, now it's pretty much unanimous that he deserves it.

It'll take longer for that to happen to the coots in Coopertown but it'll happen nonetheless.
 
F

FrenchToastDisciple

Member
It's pretty obvious when he started using steroids, and he would have been a hall of famer if he'd have retired before that, so I'm not sure what the HoF controversy is with this guy. He's clearly a top five outfielder of all time, even if you jump through a bunch of "those steroids numbers don't count" hoops, so those out of touch writers who vote for the hall of fame should just get it over with already.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
FrenchToastDisciple said:
It's pretty obvious when he started using steroids, and he would have been a hall of famer if he'd have retired before that, so I'm not sure what the HoF controversy is with this guy. He's clearly a top five outfielder of all time, even if you jump through a bunch of "those steroids numbers don't count" hoops, so those out of touch writers who vote for the hall of fame should just get it over with already.
Click to expand...

If there is one thing we've learned with baseball players in the last 20 years it's that pretending to know who is and isn't using based solely on how they look is foolish. Unless you want to tell me when Bartolo "Beach Body" Colon started juicing.
 
F

FrenchToastDisciple

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
If there is one thing we've learned with baseball players in the last 20 years it's that pretending to know who is and isn't using based solely on how they look is foolish. Unless you want to tell me when Bartolo "Beach Body" Colon started juicing.
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I suppose you're right, but that head he started growing around 1999, 2000 is almost laughable. But, yeah, I suppose everyone's body is going to react differently to that stuff.

Regardless, unless they don't want anyone from 1987ish to 2005ish (which they've already shown that they will let people in from that era), it's ridiculously stupid to not let Bonds in. I guess his biggest failing is that he was so talented that he would have been a hall of famer without steroids in a steroid era, and that, by taking them, he produced laughably high numbers that no one could ignore as probably being fueled by the juice. He wasn't merely consistently great like a Frank Thomas, who I can't imagine wasn't on the juice.
 
C

clemenx

Banned
Who the fuck cares if he used. I'm on the camp that's certain that everyone and their mom was using in that era and some of the free passes people give to feel good about their childhood are stupid.

No one else was slugging .800 and having OBPs of .600 end of the story. GOAT. He literally broke the game.
 
3

3N16MA

Banned
clemenx said:
Who the fuck cares if he used. I'm on the camp that's certain that everyone and their mom was using in that era and some of the free passes people give to feel good about their childhood are stupid.

No one else was slugging .800 and having OBPs of .600 end of the story. GOAT. He literally broke the game.
Click to expand...

Long before Bonds was doing it Ruth was putting up .376/.532/.847 while no one else was touching that.
 
C

clemenx

Banned
3N16MA said:
Long before Bonds was doing it Ruth was putting up .376/.532/.847 while no one else was touching that.
Click to expand...

And he's one of the GOATs. Though I prefer Ted Williams personally.

My point is that even in that era of stupid ridiculous numbers no one was even close to him.
 
3

3N16MA

Banned
Ninja Scooter said:
Bonds was doing it against the best competition the world had to offer though.
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It is too difficult to compare players from eras that are that far apart. The best you can do is compare them to their peers from the same time period. Ruth hit like no one else at the time and was the best player of his era. If 15-20 players were slugging .800+ during Ruth's time then his numbers would not be as great. However no one was doing it.

Who knows how well Ruth plays in Bonds's era if he was born in the 60s and had the equipment and training that Bonds had. Who knows how well Bonds would do in Ruth's era (this is changing history and assuming Bonds was allowed to play) if he was born in the late 1800s and had the equipment and training Ruth had.
 
Flakster99

Flakster99

Member
/FOR

Like Ninja Scooter I don't really give two fucks about what he did or didn't do. He was a lot of fun to watch, did wonders for the game and was a HOF before and "after" he juiced. And personally I feel most of the games best hitters during that time were doing something to gain an advantage, with his skill and determination he was the simply the best at it.

/FOR
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
As Woody said, Bonds can get in line behind pete rose.

The thing is, while Rose's gambling habits may have resulted in lack of effort at times, or reckless managing at others, PEDs will always give your performance a boost. When you're using PEDs, you can't flip a switch that says "okay, now I am/am-not in PED performance mode." Every swing is tainted. Unless Rose's gambling habits were seeping into every single at bat he took, every fielding play, every individual managerial decision, then we can't say his achievements were completely tainted. Which is why PED use is so much worse than gambling in my opinion. The black sox world series scandal is arguably the biggest sports scandal in history, though, so gambling will be viewed and treated worse.

The stupid thing about Bonds is he had no need for PEDs. He was a freak without them, and all he ended up doing was tainting his entire legacy for elevating his already-HOF caliber numbers illegally.
 
V

vern

Member
So lucky to have been a baseball fan growing up in the Bay Area.

Every time we went to the ballpark something special had the chance to happen, and it usually did. I got to see the best player of all time play through his prime. I wish I appreciated it more at the time, looking back on it now it really was amazing what he could do on a baseball field. There was a period of a few years where he would get maybe at best one good pitch to hit per game, and he would hit it more often than he would miss it. No one else could do that, even during the steroid era. Steroids didn't make Bonds eyesight and timing better, and they make him greatest player of all time, he was already trending in that direction before he took them.

He should be in the Hall and haters should go back and watch highlights and read some of the stats (posted here already) and then appreciate the kind of baseball player that he was. I'm glad he was cleared of these bullshit charges once and for all.
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Barry Bonds is the greatest athlete I will ever see in my lifetime. He was truly fucking insane. People like to say guys have video game stats but the shit he was doing is the kind of stuff you couldn't even do in a game. In the end he even beat the feds, doing what he did best. Walking.

It was sad to see him get completely blacklisted out of the game too. Kind of unreal how his career ended. No one ever wants to mention the fact this happened too. He had a 169 OPS+ season at the age of 42. Mike Trout's career OPS+ is 169. Bonds could have been Julio Franco but actually still good.
 
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