Who is the home run king? Maris or Bonds?

RogerMarisCollector61 · Jul 18, 2013

Chris Davis believes Maris' 61 is the record, but surprisingly I read that 14 of 15 players asked in some poll said 73 was the record. I'm with Davis and assumed most people agreed, but maybe I'm in the minority here. What do you guys think?

wolfmanalfredo · Jul 18, 2013

Like it or not, 73 IS the record

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moxacaine · Jul 18, 2013

wolfmanalfredo said:
Like it or not, 73 IS the record

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Freedom Card Board mobile app

Yep

Super Mario · Jul 18, 2013

As much as I hate him, it's Barry Bonds.

Don't be butthurt.

fordman · Jul 18, 2013

Bonds it is!

Austin · Jul 18, 2013

RyanHowardCollector6 said:
Chris Davis believes Maris' 61 is the record, but surprisingly I read that 14 of 15 players asked in some poll said 73 was the record.

Several of those players were/are probably using PEDs too.
I'm with Chris Davis; I still consider Maris the home run king.
I understand Bonds, McGwire and Sosa hit more homers, but that doesn't mean I have to acknowledge cheaters.
I wish MLB would put an asterisk by their names like Maris once had because he played a couple of more games than Ruth.

uniquebaseballcards · Jul 18, 2013

While I prefer 61, 73 is the record -- but people need to understand why. It's not much different than Maris breaking Ruth's record because Maris played in more games.

* is the record.

elmalo · Jul 18, 2013

Bonds

All In Cards · Jul 18, 2013

my thing is , MLB and the owners knew guys were all juicing. Even the pitchers were juicing during the time the records got broken. Doesnt bother me or affect me at all, they were messing up their own bodies with the drugs.

In the long run it still takes an athlete (juice or no juice) to hit a homerun.

Austin · Jul 18, 2013

uniquebaseballcards said:
While I prefer 61, 73 is the record -- but people need to understand why. It's not much different than Maris breaking Ruth's record because Maris played in more games.

You're saying that steroids/HGH and cheating is not much different than having an official AL schedule with 8 more games on it? Seriously?
And Ruth didn't have to hit against any black and most latino pitchers.
There's a reason why there were so many .380-.400 hitters and 30-win pitchers back in the day.
The talent was severely diluted because of the lack of great minority players.

RogerMarisCollector61 · Jul 18, 2013

uniquebaseballcards said:
While I prefer 61, 73 is the record -- but people need to understand why. It's not much different than Maris breaking Ruth's record because Maris played in more games.

* is the record.

What? Maybe if Roger Maris hacked into the mlb mainframe and adjusted the schedule to give himself 8 more games... but he didn't... Barry Bonds cheated and Roger Maris just played the game like everybody else.

To those who say steroids don't make you a better hitter: Do you think it's a coincidence that the only people to surpass 61 home runs have all taken steroids. Why would these players risk their career and reputation for no benefits? PEDs won't help your hand-eye coordination but they will lead to you hitting the ball further.

Huffamaniac · Jul 18, 2013

73 > 61 thus Bonds is the champ

uniquebaseballcards · Jul 18, 2013

Austin said:
You're saying that steroids/HGH and cheating is not much different than having an official AL schedule with 8 more games on it? Seriously?
And Ruth didn't have to hit against any black and most latino pitchers.
There's a reason why there were so many .380-.400 hitters and 30-win pitchers back in the day.
The talent was severely diluted because of the lack of great minority players.

Surely more games equals a greater likelihood of breaking a record. PEDs also equals a greater likelihood of breaking a record. This isn't to say one's acceptable and one is not.

Saying Ruth didn't hit against black and latino players is either racism or reverse-racism. The fact is that baseball wasn't world-wide back then and it isn't really world-wide now. Its just that more people have the opportunity to play currently thankfully.

uniquebaseballcards · Jul 18, 2013

RyanHowardCollector6 said:
What? Maybe if Roger Maris hacked into the mlb mainframe and adjusted the schedule to give himself 8 more games... but he didn't... Barry Bonds cheated and Roger Maris just played the game like everybody else.

To those who say steroids don't make you a better hitter: Do you think it's a coincidence that the only people to surpass 61 home runs have all taken steroids. Why would these players risk their career and reputation for no benefits? PEDs won't help your hand-eye coordination but they will lead to you hitting the ball further.

You're passing judgment - which makes no sense. The idea is just to understand WHY the record was broken... so, would Maris have beaten Ruth in a 154 game schedule?

200lbhockeyplayer · Jul 18, 2013

It's all about eras.

Ruth - HR King of his era.
Maris/Aaron - HR Kings of their era.
Bonds - HR King of this era.

End of story.

Baseball is a totally different game today than it was 30 years ago, 50 years ago and 70 years ago. Integration, absolute reliance on relievers, lower mound, weight training/steroids, park size, number of teams, methods of travel, number of night games, etc.

If baseball as a game had a fault, it's the numbers and the blind notion that different eras hold the numbers of a certain era as equal to others. This is not the case. This has never been the case.

As for Chris Davis...he holds Maris' number as the record because he's on pace for it...but if he wants to break the record...he's looking for #74 . This era isn't "clean" (not implying he's using, used or never has) so let's not get too ahead of ourselves. How many drug tests did Lance Armstrong pass? Hundreds. With blood and urine tests, cycling has far more stringent testing than MLB - no matter what the Crypt Keeper says.

MansGame · Jul 18, 2013

wolfmanalfredo said:
Like it or not, 73 IS the record

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Freedom Card Board mobile app

This.

Sucks to say and admit... hope it gets beat soon.

MansGame · Jul 18, 2013

200lbhockeyplayer said:
It's all about eras.

Ruth - HR King of his era.
Maris/Aaron - HR Kings of their era.
Bonds - HR King of this era.

End of story.

Baseball is a totally different game today than it was 30 years ago, 50 years ago and 70 years ago. Integration, absolute reliance on relievers, lower mound, weight training/steroids, park size, number of teams, methods of travel, number of night games, etc.

If baseball as a game had a fault, it's the numbers and the blind notion that different eras hold the numbers of a certain era as equal to others. This is not the case. This has never been the case.

As for Chris Davis...he holds Maris' number as the record because he's on pace for it...but if he wants to break the record...he's looking for #74 . This era isn't "clean" (not implying he's using, used or never has) so let's not get too ahead of ourselves. How many drug tests did Lance Armstrong pass? Hundreds. With blood and urine tests, cycling has far more stringent testing than MLB - no matter what the Crypt Keeper says.

This is a great post.

As for your Chris Davis comment... he is on pace to break Bond's record correct, not just Maris' number right? Anyways, if he hits more than 60, that'll be an accomplishment in itself but he needs to top Bonds to break the record.

200lbhockeyplayer · Jul 18, 2013

MansGame said:
This is a great post.

As for your Chris Davis comment... he is on pace to break Bond's record correct, not just Maris' number right? Anyways, if he hits more than 60, that'll be an accomplishment in itself but he needs to top Bonds to break the record.

Davis is on pace for #62 as 95 games have been played. If he he doesn't hit another home run, it's still an accomplishment, but getting to 60 would be great.

HPC · Jul 18, 2013

People who want to pretend Bonds didn't hit 73 homeruns because of steroids can do that all they want.

Fact is, he did and is the single season record holder.

Topnotchsy · Jul 18, 2013

As someone else mentioned Davis wants the record to be 61 so he has a shot at it. Also with the speculation about any guy who sees a great increase in power, he wants to do everything he can to distance himself from 'roids. How would it look if he said, "I think 73 is perfectly legit."

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