At one point, a serious argument could have been made that Pudge was possibly the greatest catcher of all time. However, due to his apparent involement with steroids, I think it's impossible to make that claim today. It will always be unclear how much of Pudge's offensive production, was due to performance enhancing drugs, and how much was due to his own skill set. It's very similar to the Barry Bonds/Hank Aaron comparison. Is anyone really perpared to say that Bonds was a better power hitter and a better all-around player than Aaron, even though much of Bonds' production has apparently been due to performance enhancing drugs? I don't think so. Pudge's and Bonds' possible envolement with steriods makes any comparison to baseball's all-time greats irrelevant.
That is a big disappointment, hearing about Pudge and steroids. I had not heard a thing about it. I really respected him for coming to the Tigers when they were not very far into the rebuilding. He was, in my opinion, a good reason that they were able to land some good players, like when they found that Pudge was coming here. I do not know if I would have put him up with Johnny Bench and some of the other older guys like Bill Dickey, but I really have liked Rodriguez. Too bad!! I do know that I will never consider Bonds the equal of Aaron. I really liked it when Sosa and McGwire "saved" baseball, and was equally disappointed in Mark, and then in Sammy for the corked bats. After the strike year and the fans' total disrespect of baseball players and owners, Mark and Sammy had that great home run race and I felt that it saved baseball. And then . . . .
Ive allways heard the league knew that sosa and mcguire knew something was fishy(if not more) and never said anything because of the fact that they were keeping the league afloat..
So the question is: How much of Babe Ruth's performance was due to performance enhancing hot dogs and liquor? After all liquor was illegal during the 20s. LOL Seriously. The media has created in this country the legal concept of guilty until proven innocent. No physical proof of steroids or any other performance enhancing drugs have ever been found in Bonds or Pudge's body. Yes I know Pudge lost weight and his power numbers went down. Well, in the U.S. of A. the last time I checked circumstantial evidence is just that and not permissable in a court of law. As far as I am concerned those Bonds and Pudge numbers are good for me whereas the records created by all those corkers like Maris (Don't tell me he didn't cork in 61 when he hit his 61 and Sosa should be thrown out. Heck, if Cash corked that year circumstantially one can assume that Maris who never hit over 40 HRs in the minors, corked that year. Even Pete should go into the HOF for my money. To penalize someone because they have a sickness, is not only sick but mean. Yes gambling, like Pete, McClain, Sir Charles etc do have done is a sickness and we need to show compassion toward them just like anyone else who has a genetic disease .
Not so fast buckeyes. No disrespect to Mrs. Buckeyes#1, but hunting down a slow, dimwitted, furry tree climber isn't exactly that big a deal.
He's not even the greatest Tiger catcher of all time. We got a great one in the HOF. However, Henry Aaron was much better than Barry Bonds. Hank almost never hit less than 26 or more than 47 homers in any of his thousands of years of playing. He was a model of consistency.........
