Collusion

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  • RandyMoss84
    MVP
    • May 2003
    • 1457

    #1

    Collusion

    if Bonds isn't signed by early May then there has to be some kind of collusion and the MLBPA with have to step in. Bonds is getting blackballed by baseball and its pathetic. What he did for the sport is unmeasurable. The Home Run King says hes in playing condition and still not on a team, its a joke frankly.

    Edit: Take a look at this article, explains exactly why this is collusion

    Those who do not learn from history…
    by John Brattain
    April 02, 2008

    Well, Opening Day has come and gone for the majority of major league baseball with one conspicuous absence.

    Barry Bonds.

    Before we proceed further, what is to follow is not meant to be a defense of Barry Bonds or those in the game who have used performance-enhancing drugs either over the short or long term. It is about my belief that the sport is again making a colossal, Viagra-enhanced boner which consequences will be felt for a long, long time. It is about a short term, poorly thought out strategy where looking ahead is out of the question.

    Here is the thing—it may be tempting to think that collusion in this instance is justified to protect the integrity of the game and its records. However, what will happen is exactly the opposite—it will permanently mar some records. If baseball is indeed colluding against Bonds, it will eventually become known. If/when this happens, let’s fast forward to when Alex Rodriguez hit his expected 763rd long ball.

    Finally—a no-questions-asked home run king.

    Hmmm … ever wonder how many home runs Bonds might have hit had he been allowed to pay an extra season or two?

    Uh oh … looks like there may be a question after all. The home run record was deliberately restrained by MLB by colluding against Bonds. The commissioner subsidized Rodriguez’s record by getting Bonds out of the game before he could set the bar any higher.

    Just as we love to project Ted Williams’ career absent military service, Joe Jackson’s totals if not for the Black Sox scandal, or how many wins Satchel Paige may have garnered had there been no color barrier—future fans will wonder how many home runs Barry Bonds may have hit had he not been illegally blackballed from the game.

    If A-Rod, or Albert Pujols or someone else sets the all-time record within reaching distance of Bonds (had he been allowed to play), then the validity of the new king’s crown will become questionable in the eyes of some.

    Therefore, instead of protecting the cherished record book, MLB gets an asterisk for deliberately rigging the home run record by unofficially banning Barry Bonds. If folks wish to be outraged by Bonds’ besmirching the record book with steroids then why isn’t there equal outrage towards MLB for muddying the record books with an illegal collusion against Bonds?

    Further, Selig and Co. weak-kneed ignoring of the PED issue was what caused the record book to be rewritten in the first place. The final part of Barry Bonds’ career is the bastard child of MLB of which Selig refuses to acknowledge paternity—one by possible collusion and two by the Giants trying to hypocritically distance themselves from Bonds now that his utility to them is at an end.

    This isn’t about steroids, or the home run record, or that Barry Bonds' personality can resemble the avenue where a feedbag’s contents are ultimately discharged. It’s about baseball again taking the easy way out in a dishonorable fashion.

    Why do I suspect collusion? Well, there are too many data points that do not add up to where all 30 major league clubs feel Barry Lamar Bonds is of absolutely no value to them. The media inform us why Bonds is unemployed due to his own baggage yet…

    We’re told about Bonds' age, health and concerns about how much time off he will need, yet Moises Alou is soon 42 years old and the Mets picked up a $7.5 million option for him to be their left fielder. Alou has played in more games in a season than Bonds just thrice since the millennium dawned—and Alou played in 185 games the last two seasons to Bonds' 256 (games). Everybody assumed that Bonds would be limited to DH duty (hence confined to the AL), yet no NL club thought of offering a non-roster invite to Bonds to see if he could handle left field in Alou-type fashion?

    Speaking of left fielders … it makes perfect sense for the San Diego Padres to employ Jody Gerut as their starting left fielder. Gerut hasn’t seen the majors since 2005 and batted .253/.330/.347 (in 170 at-bats) that year, yet it’s illogical for a club to see if a guy who hit .276/.480/.565 in twice as many at-bats in 2007 to see if he can help? Especially when one takes into account that the Padres were tied next-to-last in OBP last season in the NL—an area where Bonds could be of immense assistance.

    Others claim Bonds’ toxic personality is keeping him unemployed.

    After the 1999 season, the Mets were so desperate to be rid of clubhouse cancer Bobby Bonilla that they paid out a lot of money to get him to disappear. Of course, his hitting .160/.277/.303 was also a part of that. Despite having two strikes against him (personality and performance) the Braves took a flyer on him in 2000 and the Cardinals did likewise in 2001.

    Further, a repeat DUI offender and a felon who posted an ERA above 6.00 the last three seasons drew a NRI (Sidney Ponson) but not Bonds. Whatever you think of Barry Bonds, Ponson’s behavior (and performance) is far more reprehensible, yet the media think that teams are ignoring Bonds for purely legitimate and honorable reasons. Albert Belle’s hip took him out of the game, Kevin Mitchell’s weight and back-to-back 66 and 65 OPS+ seasons did him in, Elijah Dukes is still a coveted prospect, etc.

    Regardless of how sociopathic the player, no matter how toxic the personality, a player of note has had to play his way out of the major leagues. The only counter-example is Dave Kingman who finished second in the AL in home runs (35 with 96 RBIs) and was gone. (Bear in mind his numbers looked more impressive back in those statistically primitive times before Zefram Sheehan perfected the VORP-drive.)

    Moreover, that occurred during collusion.

    Others state that he wants too much money for a team to gamble—a number bandied about is $10 million. This begs two questions: 1) has Bonds said this himself or is this a number somebody tossed to the media to demonstrate how unreasonable Bonds is? and 2) Were you aware a small market club gave a one-year $10 million contract to a 32-year-old surgically repaired steroid-dabbling relief pitcher who folded in a pennant race after being acquired by the Red Sox last season?

    You could look it up—Eric Gagne inked just such a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.

    However, somebody who posted an OPS+ of 170 last season isn’t worth a look at any price?

    Is Alex Rodriguez any less a media distraction in the clubhouse than Barry Bonds (albeit for different reasons)? Was home run 762 any less controversial than 252?

    Every example given why a team shouldn’t sign Barry Bonds has a counter-example that debunks that clubs feel that way. The thing is, Bud Selig does not like Barry Bonds; anyone who watched Selig beat himself in lamentation (he was playing pocket-pool) after Bonds hit home run No. 755 could discern that. In addition, Bonds is a larger-than-life reminder of his massive failure that led to the steroid era. As I mentioned over at Baseball Digest Daily, Selig has the three elements you look for in a crime: means, motive and opportunity.

    Means: he’s commissioner with a lot of clout with ownership. Motive: getting back at Bonds for breaking his friend Hank Aaron’s record and being a visible reminder of his own failure in addressing performance-enhancing drugs. Opportunity: Bonds being a free agent, 43 years old and with both legal (although there’s almost zero chance he’ll stand trial this season) and possibly health issues. These provide a smokescreen giving Selig and the clubs plausible deniability. During the original collusion under Peter Ueberroth, it was baseball’s alleged poverty and threats of bankruptcy (coupled with cooked books) that provided cover back in the 1980s edition of collusion.

    Let’s look at other similarities…

    Code words: during the 1980s many innocuous high-sounding honorable phrases were used to describe what was happening such as “fiscal responsibility” and “financial restraint.” (Oddly enough, Selig was described as a “leading proselytizer” of Ueberrothian collusion.) Today, could the following be code for ignoring Bonds? “Learn from the past and move on,” “put this period into the past” and “it’s time to move on?"

    Media complicity: back in the 1980s the press were generally supportive of management’s efforts to ‘save the game from bankruptcy’ from the ‘greedy players’ and ‘the ridiculous demands of free agents.’ When the union started to holler, the media backed management saying in effect that the game had come to its senses and the only conspiracies that were occurring were ones of common sense and smart business.

    Now, we’re reading comments such as “And not because of collusion, as Donald Fehr and the Major League Baseball Players Association might have you think. It's because of common sense.” (Neil Tarpey of The Times-Standard) “And I'd call it a conspiracy of common sense.” (Bill Ordline of the Baltimore Sun) “Collusion? Hardly. Common sense is more like it.” (Tim Dahlberg of AP). You could find similar sentiments in the press clippings of the Ueberroth screwardship of the sport.

    Back in the 1980s the pundits stated that baseball had to be saved from bankruptcy due to player greed. In the era of Selig it is the specter of a sport needing saving from becoming morally bankrupt due to player PED use.

    Other examples of this phenomenon: during the Ueberroth collusion, clubs were making arguments why All Star-caliber players were a bad idea for their team. For three straight years teams deliberately declined to upgrade their rosters; for three straight years they deliberately decided that boycotting players was more beneficial than the potential rewards of a playoff-bound club; for three straight years they vindictively turned their backs on players—the very ones that people line their pockets with gold to watch.

    Bud Selig, Jerry Reinsdorf, George Steinbrenner, Fred Wilpon, The Tribune Company, Carl Pohlad and David Montgomery were all part of collusion under Ueberroth and most are among the sport’s power brokers. The ghosts remain.

    Surely, they learned their lesson, right? They learned it so well that when the last collective bargaining agreement was ratified, they paid the players' union a modest collusion settlement. The simple fact is that ownership colludes whenever they feel they can get away with it. They felt that they could get away with it during the Jim Crow era and boycott non-Caucasians from the field. They did likewise in the 1980s since the game was ‘on the verge of bankruptcy.’ It reared its ugly head again in 2002 since the union had become complacent. With an aging Barry Bonds without a contract and a desire to ‘move on’ from the steroid era it seems they’re trying again.

    Just as all 26 teams came to the simultaneous conclusion that players like Kirk Gibson, Tim Raines, Jack Morris, Ron Guidry, Andre Dawson etc. couldn’t help their clubs, all 30 have decided that a big left-handed bat who isn’t even the biggest south end of a northbound mule in the game cannot help their clubs compete in 2008.

    The worst part of it is this—back in the 1980s ownership had to repay the players $280 million settlement in lost wages and some players were again granted free agency. If baseball is indeed colluding against Barry Bonds, he is too old for a make-good. The home run record may always be in dispute since Bonds’ career was illegally cut short.

    It just goes to show once again where the greatest threat to the game’s integrity truly lay. Alex Rodriguez (or someone else) can hit a non-steroid-aided 763rd home run, but no one can undo the “what might have been” record from blackballing Barry Bonds.
    Last edited by RandyMoss84; 04-02-2008, 08:15 PM.
    "They call me the freak, cause i'm a freak of nature" - Randy Moss
    "I'm not afraid to be lonely at the top" - Barry Bonds
    "Just throw the ball above their heads!! They can't jump with me, Golly !! " - Randy Moss
  • Brandon13
    All Star
    • Oct 2005
    • 8915

    #2
    Re: Collusion

    Lol, I really doubt there's conspiracy here. It's just no one wants the negative publicity that comes with Bonds.

    Comment

    • Psyblast
      2023 National Champions
      • Jun 2003
      • 42584

      #3
      Re: Collusion

      LMAO.

      Once again, what is the MLBPA going to do, force some team to sign him?

      Who wants a 43 year old that can't play the field anymore and would bring nothing but negative publicity to the team?

      Comment

      • SlimKibbles
        Supporter
        • Apr 2004
        • 7276

        #4
        Re: Collusion

        Conspiracy? Yeah, okay...
        MLB: Cincinnati Reds
        NFL: Cincinnati Bengals
        NCAA Hoops: Xavier Musketeers
        NCAA Football: Miami Hurricanes
        NHL: Calgary Flames

        "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

        "The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

        Comment

        • elicoleman
          Im The Baby/Gotta Love Me
          • Sep 2002
          • 34655

          #5
          Re: Collusion

          I'd sign him. Our softball team could certainly use some power.
          Originally posted by CardsFan27
          This is the 3rd time John Calipari has been to his first Final Four!
          What I'm Currently Listening To

          Comment

          • RandyMoss84
            MVP
            • May 2003
            • 1457

            #6
            Re: Collusion

            Originally posted by Psyblast
            LMAO.

            Once again, what is the MLBPA going to do, force some team to sign him?

            Who wants a 43 year old that can't play the field anymore and would bring nothing but negative publicity to the team?
            no the MLBPA gives the owners some hefty fines

            in the AL you can play DH and Bonds is still near the top of the league EVERY year in OB% and slugging.

            you guys can say all you want but the fact is Bonds can hit and teams arn't signing him while scrubs are getting signed to huge deals
            "They call me the freak, cause i'm a freak of nature" - Randy Moss
            "I'm not afraid to be lonely at the top" - Barry Bonds
            "Just throw the ball above their heads!! They can't jump with me, Golly !! " - Randy Moss

            Comment

            • RandyMoss84
              MVP
              • May 2003
              • 1457

              #7
              Re: Collusion

              Originally posted by elicoleman
              I'd sign him. Our softball team could certainly use some power.
              Barry plays in the majors, check the record books you'll see him up top
              "They call me the freak, cause i'm a freak of nature" - Randy Moss
              "I'm not afraid to be lonely at the top" - Barry Bonds
              "Just throw the ball above their heads!! They can't jump with me, Golly !! " - Randy Moss

              Comment

              • bucksfan07
                Pro
                • Nov 2006
                • 827

                #8
                Re: Collusion

                ya he can probably still hit but he's regarded as a terrible team mate and someone that can ruin a team's chemistry

                Comment

                • Rainey
                  MVP
                  • Jul 2002
                  • 4507

                  #9
                  Re: Collusion

                  They should sign Hank Aaron too, because his name is also near the top right?
                  NCAA Vets League: Arkansas Razorbacks (9-2, 6-1)
                  MLB OS League: Seattle Mariners (9-2)

                  Comment

                  • RandyMoss84
                    MVP
                    • May 2003
                    • 1457

                    #10
                    Re: Collusion

                    Originally posted by bucksfan07
                    ya he can probably still hit but he's regarded as a terrible team mate and someone that can ruin a team's chemistry
                    there are hundreds of "terrible teammates" out there and they still get signed, not opening talking to everyone is not a terrible teammate. baseball has ****ed him over enough



                    Jeff Kent comes to mind
                    "They call me the freak, cause i'm a freak of nature" - Randy Moss
                    "I'm not afraid to be lonely at the top" - Barry Bonds
                    "Just throw the ball above their heads!! They can't jump with me, Golly !! " - Randy Moss

                    Comment

                    • The Chef
                      Moderator
                      • Sep 2003
                      • 13684

                      #11
                      Re: Collusion

                      Originally posted by RandyMoss84
                      Barry plays in the majors, check the record books you'll see him up top
                      Im pretty sure he was joking, and I figured it was obvious. How can the MLBPA access a fine to the owners? Im pretty sure that can only be done my MLB executives, and last I checked Bonds isnt exactly on Bud Seligs favorite players list so I dont see him going out of his way. Bonds hasnt been signed because he brings the circus to town and there isnt a contending team in baseball that wants to bring that in at the risk of blowing their chances at winning a title. If Bonds has any chance it will be when a team either has a superstar go down for an extended period of time, ie. Pujols' elbow gets worse, Vlad goes down in LA etc, and the other is if a team is in a dog fight for the playoffs and is willing to sacrafice the rest of the season with Bonds to try and make a push, but there is no collusion going on here imo.
                      http://www.twitch.tv/kitm9891

                      Comment

                      • RandyMoss84
                        MVP
                        • May 2003
                        • 1457

                        #12
                        Re: Collusion

                        Originally posted by Rainey
                        They should sign Hank Aaron too, because his name is also near the top right?
                        its up there but not above Bonds plus hes over 70
                        "They call me the freak, cause i'm a freak of nature" - Randy Moss
                        "I'm not afraid to be lonely at the top" - Barry Bonds
                        "Just throw the ball above their heads!! They can't jump with me, Golly !! " - Randy Moss

                        Comment

                        • Psyblast
                          2023 National Champions
                          • Jun 2003
                          • 42584

                          #13
                          Re: Collusion

                          Originally posted by RandyMoss84
                          there are hundreds of "terrible teammates" out there and they still get signed, not opening talking to everyone is not a terrible teammate. baseball has ****ed him over enough



                          Jeff Kent comes to mind



                          As far as I know, Jeff Kent has never been the posterboy for cheating and corruption in baseball, nor has he ever been indicted by a grand jury for lying to the federal government under oath.

                          Comment

                          • elicoleman
                            Im The Baby/Gotta Love Me
                            • Sep 2002
                            • 34655

                            #14
                            Re: Collusion

                            Originally posted by RandyMoss84
                            Barry plays in the majors, check the record books you'll see him up top
                            You mean played in the majors.
                            Originally posted by CardsFan27
                            This is the 3rd time John Calipari has been to his first Final Four!
                            What I'm Currently Listening To

                            Comment

                            • The Chef
                              Moderator
                              • Sep 2003
                              • 13684

                              #15
                              Re: Collusion

                              Originally posted by RandyMoss84
                              there are hundreds of "terrible teammates" out there and they still get signed, not opening talking to everyone is not a terrible teammate. baseball has ****ed him over enough



                              Jeff Kent comes to mind
                              Last I checked Jeff Kent didnt have a circus of media following him everywhere he went, he isnt nearly the distraction that Bonds is. How exactly is the MLB sticking it to Bonds? They arent controlling teams and telling them not to sign him, he did this to himself with his antics and if it wasnt for the ticket sales in San Francisco he would have been out of there sooner as well, his production isnt worth the headache anymore considering he has already broken the HR record.
                              http://www.twitch.tv/kitm9891

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