Baseball Lifer

After Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris’ old record of 61 home runs, last night, Roger Maris Jr. said in a press conference following the Yankees’ game in Toronto that he viewed Judge as the true single-season home run king, and Giants fans are in a complete frenzy because of it.

You have to understand where Roger Maris Jr. is coming from. He saw the toll the grueling home run race of 1961, and the cruelty from fans and writers that year took on his father. That record meant the world to him. Maris wasn’t just saying this about Barry Bonds; he said this about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as well, the former of whom Maris had grown close to, and was in St. Louis to see break the record in 1998. It was a very special and bittersweet moment for Maris, who had greatly respected and appreciated McGwire for what he had done. He had an emotional connection with McGwire only to later find out that McGwire took steroids, and didn’t break the record fairly.

As for Bonds, he is the single-season and all-time home run king. There is no disputing that, but the guy suddenly and dramatically bulked up in the 1998-1999 off-season, and then proceeded to hit 73 home runs in his age-36-37 season in 2001. That doesn’t happen naturally, and while I still acknowledge Bonds as the home-run king, there should be an asterisk next to it, not to say he’s not the record holder, but that he most likely took steroids, which helped him hit 73 home runs at the age of 37.

This not an indictment on Bonds, whom I still greatly respect, admire, still even somewhat idolize and want to see in the Hall of Fame. Bonds was one of the few players—most likely a minority—in Baseball that was clean throughout the 1990s, when most of the super stars knowingly took steroids. When McGwire and Sosa had their great home run race in 1998, it was a known fact inside baseball circles that McGwire and Sosa were on—what was commonly referred to around the game as—”the shit.” Bonds was still putting up great numbers in his early 30s, but McGwire and Sosa, who he knew were on the shit, were getting all of the praise and accolades.

Bonds and the rest of Baseball knew that McGwire and Sosa weren’t clean; and despite the fact that he was clean and putting up great numbers with natural talent, Bonds had to watch the duo get all of the love and admiration, while he got very little of it. It was completely unfair, and the guy had every right to be angry about it. Bonds also turned 34, following a slow start in 1998. He knew he was nearing the end of his career, and that so many players in the game were on steroids. He saw it as a way to finally receive the love and admiration he had deserved, and a way to extend his career. He knew he was getting older, and felt that he needed to do so to be able to go head to head with the players who were on the shit.

I would like to believe that I wouldn’t have started juicing if I was in Bonds’ position at the time, but I can’t say for certain that I wouldn’t have. I would say that there is a 25% chance I would’ve started juicing if I was in Bonds’ position. I have very high morals, and that would’ve gotten in the way of me taking steroids, but I am also incredibly impulsive, and I have a tendency to make sudden and impulsive decisions based on my intense emotions.

There were many reasons for guys to do it, and I’m sure many of them have high morals like I do. However, for a lot of them, especially for guys in the minors, steroids were the only way to keep their careers going, and for them to have any shot of reaching the major leagues. A lot of guys that had major league talent and were clean were passed over for guys who weren’t, and basically had their careers taken from them. Playing in the minor leagues, especially for a long time, is a grind. Minor leaguers are paid horribly, and for those who had been in the minors for a long time, their futures were very uncertain. Guys who did steroids did so, not only because they were thinking about their careers, but because they were thinking of their future lives out of Baseball, and what their financial situations would be like. A lot of them did steroids, simply because they needed the money.

This is an indictment of the culture in Baseball of taking steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to gain an edge. It is also an indictment of Bud Selig and the owners’ collective refusal to do anything about this, and their amoral decision to cover it up, as attendance was finally climbing, following a huge drop after the 1994-1995 Strike. Mark McGwire clearly has remorse for doing so, and I am willing to bet that Bonds has some remorse, too. Both were—and for Bonds, still is—talented players without steroids, and they were only looking for an edge, which most competitors do.

Bonds and McGwire are both highly-intelligent human beings, who have a lot of knowledge to pass down the future generations of ballplayers. They deserve to be in this game, and Bonds especially deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. When Bonds was clean, he was still one of the best and most talented players to ever play this game. He had 411 home runs, and 445 stolen bases, when he was clean through 1998. I think it was good that he had to initially wait a few years, but it is well past time for the man to finally be enshrined in Cooperstown.

However, I do believe Bonds—while still being recognized as the official home run king—McGwire and Sosa should have asterisks next to their records, but to be honest, so should Aaron Judge. I have no idea whether Judge is clean or not, and I am not going to make any assumptions one way or another. While Judge’s season has been incredibly fun and emotional to watch, it is a known fact that the balls are lighter than they used to be, and there is a good chance that Judge would’ve hit 50 home runs, at most, if the pre-2015 balls were still used today.

As for Maris, it is understandable to have his opinion, and he had every right to voice an opinion that he has every right to have. We all love this great game, and we all have our rights to have and voice our opinions. For those of you saying this wasn’t the right time for Maris to say this, you have every right to believe that, but you need to understand the intense grind and emotions he went through, as his father chased and broke the home run record. You also need to understand his close friendship with Mark McGwire, and the bittersweet emotional roller coaster he went through as McGwire broke his father’s record, only to be betrayed and find out that McGwire did so unfairly. Maris has been through a lot over the last 61-plus years, so we need to understand that this is going to be very emotional for him.

I felt betrayed by Barry Bonds when I realized he took steroids, in October 2006. Bonds was my childhood hero, and it was only seven months prior that I had the incredibly-surreal experience of talking to him, as well as even somewhat sharing a field with him as a bat boy. I defended Bonds and denied he took steroids, the entire 2006 Season, as the controversy of his home run chase, and the criminal investigation into him took off. When my dad bought and read ‘Game of Shadows,’ I was outraged, but when I read it, I remember the deflating feeling of realizing that the biggest hero of my life at the time took steroids, and hadn’t been clean.

16 years later, here in September 2022, I carry both the great respect and admiration I had for him when I was a kid, as well as the sorrow and disappointment I have carried since 2006, when I realized he cheated. I still consider him somewhat of a hero, really an anti-hero, and anti-heroes can still be actual heroes. Barry Bonds has been, and always will be a part of my life, and I will always be grateful for the experiences I had watching him on tv and in person. I will always be tremendously grateful for the time he took to talk to me on Thursday, March 9, 2006, when I was the Giants’ bat boy in their game in Tempe against the Angels that afternoon, which also happened to be Bonds’ first spring training game that season, as well as his first game since the release of ‘Game of Shadows.’

I do believe both the single-season and all-time home run records can eventually be broken with normal baseballs by guys who aren’t on steroids. For the meantime, we should allow Roger Maris Jr. to voice his opinions, and appreciate the incredible careers Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire.

Stephen