Congrats Barry. Steroids or not, he's a great player.

He is a cheater and will not get congratulations from me, not that it matters to him. Hank Aaaron is still the home run king in my mind. The mans hat size went up 1.5 sizes and shoe size went up by 3 according to HBO sports after he turned 35. His personal trainer is in jail, because he refuses to tell the truth about Bonds. He has cheated the sport of baseball and the fans. A big asterick in the record books!

I think it is a shame he is allowed to play baseball taking steroids... he isn't even a good player, he just hits homeruns...

1st off.. I am in no way a Bonds fan.. however...

It does take some talent to hit a baseball thrown in excess of 90mph consistently for years like he has.. and no amount of steroids is gonna help your vision to do so.

Lots of people (obviously non of us) can hit the ball consistently at the right angle to get a HR. The problems the guys who dont get the steroids don't have enough umph to get it there as often becasue they aren't cheating.

There are a lot of things that cheaters can do well, but to cheat to be the best ever is cheating... even if you are good before you cheated. Talented(we all know he is talented) or not, cheating is cheating.

From what I understand, HGH (human growth hormone) improves eyesight and hand-eye coordination.

Well that's news to me.

While I don't support Bonds taking steroids if he indeed did and I do believe he did people place way too much emphasis on it. For example someone in this thread saying he isn't even a good player? All he does is hit home runs? Barry Bonds has 514 career stolen bases making him the ONLY person in baseball history to hit 500 home runs and steal 500 bases...heck he's the only one to even have 400 of each, he's also an 8 time gold glove winner he's done a hell of a lot more in his career than just hit home runs. Bonds allegedly started taking Steroids in 2000 or 2001 right? Well not including his stats from 2000 onward Bonds already had 445 Home Runs and 460 Steals...he was already a great player and was already a lock for the Hall of Fame. Would he have broken the record had he not taken them? Probably not, should there be an asterisk? That I just don't know about, here's my problem with the Steroid argument, it came about in the 90's with all these guys supposedly on Roids...but how do we know it started there? For all we know players could have been taking steroids for the last 50 years, they were certainly around for them to take...and back then they could have gotten away with it without anyone saying anything. Like it or not Steroids likely been a part of baseball for a very long time and if you were to take all players who took steroids out of the record books or the hall of fame your likely taking out a heck of a lot more than you realize and for all any of us know that could even include Aaron.

I said the not a good player... but what I ment was not a good defensive player.

The main thing is he didn't use steroids to be a good player or a great player. He is a great player that without steroids hit 30-some homeruns regularly. He probably would be very high on the list of Homeruns hit. But what he did do is cheat to be the best and get the most "coveted record in sports." Cheating is cheating no matter how great you are.

The issue with regards to his record and steroid use isn't just the power or the speed...its the recovery and sustainability of performance. Steroids could have easily added several years on to his career that would have ended well before he came close to hitting this record had he not used.

Not only that...you can chart out any athelete and all the top older HR hitters always faded in their careers or at least were consistent. Barry improved and improved dramatically. Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams all faded. Bonds got better and ridiculously better at that. 1st half of his career he was a 30 HR guy...the 2nd half he was a 40 hr guy. There is no way at the earlier pace he would have ever set the record.

I do have issues with Bonds. No player peaks after age 35 in any sport, just doens't happen. That tells me all I need to know.

From 86' to 00' he had one set of stats and then after 01' they look very different. He never hit 50 home runs, then he hits 73?

And don't give me the it takes skill BS line, look at his batting average that also jumped huge in 01', a career .290 hitter all of a sudden is putting up averages of .328, .370, .341, .362 - what a joke. After the big roid exposure his batting average has returned to earth at under .290 each season since. His on base % was only over .500 in each of the roid years as well.

The guy cheated the game, I will always look at Bonds as a cheater first. Rose was a great player as well who disgraced the game. Screw them both.

I hate Bonds. I look at him and see just another turd. Has he been a great player in his career? Yes, he's put up impressive stats, but I just can't stand the guy.

Is part of it the damn obsession ESPN has had for the past year about him approaching the record? Possibly.