We all know that Bonds is already under fire over steroids, but this latest accusation of poor sportsmanship has to do with the jointed armored cup he wears over his elbow. This modern rambrace/couter assembly is claimed to give Bonds an unfair advantage both psychological and physical.

Beyond his alleged steroid use, Barry Bonds is guilty of the use of something that confers extraordinarily unfair mechanical advantage: the “armor” that he wears on his right elbow. Amid the press frenzy over Bonds’ unnatural bulk, the true role of the object on his right arm has simply gone unnoticed.

This is unfortunate, because by my estimate, Bonds’ front arm “armor” may have contributed no fewer than 75 to 100 home runs to his already steroid-questionable total.

Bonds tied Henry Aaron’s home run record of 755 on Saturday night and will go for the new standard this week back at home in San Francisco.

The article makes some very good points. The device on his arm may not be a bionic super enhancement machine but a brace can definitely help a swing and armor does give you confidence.



  1. Mr. Fusion says:

    #29, Bubba,

    I apologize for laughing, but damn, BubbaRayDipdork: is funny. It must have taken quite some time for someone to come up with that one. The originality. The creativity. Gosh, the artistry. THE HUMOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    *

    Do they contribute to society? If you judge businesses, I wouldn’t leave out entertainment. Or the dreams of competitive kids.

    I say yes, all entertainment contributes to society. If our minds had to focus entirely on just making a living, then we would have the minds of cattle or chickens. All higher order animals play and are entertained by small things.

    Are top entertainment people overpaid? That depends on their value to society. So many people went to the Ball Park because Bonds was playing, or saw a movie because it starred Adam Sandler, or attended a concert because Barbara Streisand headlined, or read a book because Stephen King wrote it. Their celebrity status did draw paying customers. Performance unknown.

    My kid just went through her softball season. They didn’t win although they made it to the tournament. She was also called up to play on the next level’s roster. Not only was I proud as heck for her, but those games were far more entertaining then most could appreciate. I’m way too old to have any dreams about “making it”. My kid though, I watched her play her dream. Cheap entertainment? Nope. Precious entertainment.

  2. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Do they contribute to society? If you judge businesses,
    >>I wouldn’t leave out entertainment. Or the dreams of
    >>competitive kids.

    Mr Ray, if you’re saying that professional sports is the moral equivalent of WWF Smack Down wrestling (phony, dope-ridden, money-driven, not really a “sport” at all) or a VH1 music video (with Milli Vanilli), I’m 100% in agreement.

    I would much rather go see Mr. Fusion’s kid’s softball game than the Giants or the Mets. I sometimes go to the local high school football games or hockey games, but I wouldn’t go see professional baseball (or most other sports) if you paid me.

  3. BubbaRay says:

    #31, Mr. Fusion, The BubbaRayDipdork award is now blog approved and official. It’s mine, all mine, and like Hop’s Ultimate King Kahuna Moran Award, I’m keeping it!!

    Some lucky winner is in the blog wings, I can just feel it.

    #32, Mr. Mustard, Unlike most on this blog, I’m anticipating the college football season. So I’m crazy, so what. Ya’ll go watch whatever entertainment you want. But yes, I’d rather go watch kids play then some of those overpaid steroid athletes. I miss Nolan Ryan.

  4. iGlobalWarmer says:

    NFL Preseason begins tomorrow! Yay.

  5. Raineer says:

    So no one else uses the elbow guard? Mo Vaughn comes to mind, among others.

    We’re in the steroid era, deal with it. Barry Bonds is unquestionably the best player of the steroid era, deal with it.

  6. James Hill says:

    I’m more interested in the possibility that he’s having steroids injected into his eyes to improve vision. An enhanced ability to pick up a pitch’s rotation would do more for hitting than larger muscles.

  7. smartalix says:

    36,

    Good point. Very few gave Tiger Woods flak for his laser surgery to improve his distance vision.

  8. Angel H. Wong says:

    #37

    Considering the amount of beer & whiskey golfers drink during these tournaments any advantage given by the steroids goes down the drain.

  9. rocketdog says:

    Folks, this is a load of crap. Will Caroll from Baseball Prospectus interviewed the manufactuer of the arm pad right after this story started making the rounds. (The story is subscription-only, but the complete audio version of the interview is free). Carroll went over each claim from the article point-by-point with the guy, and although he thinks it’s arguable that the hitter could gain some psychological advantage by being able to lean further over the plate, the idea that the pad is somehow enabling Bonds to have a more effective swing (much less contribute a whopping 75-100 HRs to his total, as the original article claims) is completely ridiculous. It’s just a plain old elbow pad. It protects his elbow from getting hit by pitches.

  10. jz says:

    I haven’t posted for a week since I have been enjoying myself out of the summer heat in the Great White North. I got together with my brothers and we played a lot of sports. I have often envied my older brother’s stamina, but last year I read that people with ADD and ADHD, which he has a mild case of, have much better stamina than those who don’t. The reason is that they have lower levels of dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.

    So while Bonds may have taken steroids, it is true that some people have higher levels of steroids to begin with. If sports were all about being totally fair, then we should have doctors take tests, measure all body chemistry, and make sure all chemistries are even. Think that is going to happen anytime soon?

    Bonds also got me to thinking about why I and others watch sports. I remember the movie Vision Quest about a wrestler, and a speech one of the kid’s mentors made about how watching Pele made him cry. He said that it was amazing to watch a member of his race, the human race, do something so beautiful. Watching Bonds hit, Jordan shoot, Elway throw, or Gretzky pass is art in motion. There isn’t an athlete alive who doesn’t envy their talents.

    As far as why Bonds record is “tainted”, I think it has zero to do with steroids and everything to do with the media. The media hates Bonds; they think he is an ass,and he probably is but so were a lot of legendary baseball talents. The media envied the spitball pitcher who got away with it but not Bonds. The spitball pitcher kissed the media’s ass while Bonds kicked it. The “issue” has less to do with Bonds cheating than the media not liking him.

    I for one have gotten totally sick of our profit driven media. My younger brother got back from travelling the world and was shocked at how tense the U.S. is compared to elsewhere. The reason is simple: fear sells, and our media is scaring the shit out of us. Pick up a typical magazine and read about all the ways you are going to die: AIDS, global warming etc. And because of the money, the media is now making news not reporting it.

    Our media has learned that telling you things you want to hear is a great way to pump up the dough too. The entire news media is loaded with people who say, “If I were Barry Bonds, I would do this…” Yes, you and the media are more deserving than Bonds is.

    I can never understand morons who think that if they had Bonds talent, money, or fame, they would do better with it. To all those envious morons, I say go out and make it on your own. I have news for you: Barry Bonds is not holding you back.

    I hope the internet with blogs like this one are the death knell to this media empire. So often I have found the driveby media (an expression borrowed from Rush Limbaugh) is too afraid to say anything controversial. No one in the media had the balls to call Bush’s bluff on Iraq, but Sean Penn went to Iraq and saw first hand Iraq was not a threat to us.

    Maybe you don’t like Sean Penn, but Sean Penn was right about Iraq, and the entire media was wrong.

    I say we celebrate Bonds achievements and tell the media to go screw itself.

  11. iGlobalWarmer says:

    Bond’s “achievements” are aided and tainted. Screw him.

    Sean Penn is an actor and anything he says about anything other than acting is meaningless.

  12. sdf says:

    I say let these boneheads do anything and everything they want to “excel” at their stupid sports, and let darwinism sort it out. they’re all using performance enhancers, it’s just a questions of semantics and legal grey areas.

  13. JoJo Dancer says:

    Hey JZ, no disrespect man. But it does state “Please leave a comment” for a reason. I don’t think many of us really want to read a blog post unless ofcourse we subscribe to it. Dvorak.org/blog is already a blog which we all are able to “comment” on.

    If you are going to comment a “blog” type post, then maybe it would be best if you um, started your own blog?

  14. KVolk says:

    I only have an issue with Bonds because he is a jerk. He is going to pay the price for steriod abuse when he dies in his 50’s and the record he set’s will be broken by Arod in the next 15 years so his fame is even more fleeting. I think all professional athletes should be made to read Marlowes Dr. Faustus to see what kind of decisions they will be facing.

  15. Early baseball was a game played without gloves. During the slow transition to gloves, a player who continued to play without one was called a barehanded catcher. This did not refer to the position of Catcher, but rather to the practice of catching with bare hands.

  16. I like to skate on the other side of the ice.

  17. daniel says:

    do they sell this elbow guard anywhere ??


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