re: Barry Bonds about to be on ESPN2 chatting with ARod and Clemens

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Then why wasn't he considered the best player before he took injected a chemical factory into himself?

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Best player ever? Because his career wasn’t over yet. Best player in baseball at the time? He was.

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He was a very, very very very good player, yes,

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Not sure if it’s just semantics or you’re suggesting he wasn’t “great.” He was and had been for a long time. Was on his way to the inner circle of the HOF before the juice.

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Griffey was always considered the better player in the early - mid 90s.

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Not by people who really knew what they were watching. Griffey much more likable—and marketable—and certainly had the more aesthetically pleasing game at the time, if not all time. But he wasn’t as good as Bonds in the early to mid 90s. Not sure it was particularly close, really. Though I will concede that a lot of people “considered” him to be, untrue as that was.

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Bonds was close, but probably thought of as the 2nd or 3rd best position player in the game at that point, not the unequivocal #1.

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A lot of people watched highlights and thought Griffey was better than Bonds. And understandably so—he was incredible and without question one of the most exciting players to watch in my lifetime, maybe ever. But the numbers clearly point to Bonds being the better player, even before his juicing period (whether you want to start that in ‘00 or ‘01).

However, don’t really care what average Joe fan “thought” back then when we’re having this discussion now. And 3rd best position player in the game? Barry Bonds? In the mid 1990s? Who, pray tell, was thought the 2nd?

Bonds was already a HoF level guy with a laundry list of accolades, including multiple MVPs, long before juicing. I personally thought Griffey was better at the time bc he was my favorite, but it’s splitting hairs. To say Bonds wasn’t already anything other than a really great all-around player is being revisionist.

Regardless, to me his legacy will always be just like McGuire and Sosa in 98, can’t miss tv. It was a fun time to be a fan and I really don’t hold steroids against him when it was the norm in this era. Taking steroids alone doesn’t make you the HR king, or else everyone would be breaking the record. You still have to be a patient and great hitter, particularly when facing pitchers who are… you guessed, also juicing! How many of those did Babe face?