Bonds would play for free

[Jon]

I don't believe Bonds ever withdrew from the MLBPA. What he did was decide not to sign their licensing agreement.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe he also quit paying dues, which pretty much puts out out of a union.

It's odd that I haven't been able to find anything online that points one way or the other.

[circlecitycub]

I've always disliked Edmonds and Bonds. If the devil told me that in order to see the Cubs win the WS those two must be on the team I'd laugh hysterically and ask where should I sign.

 

Give me that championship run and I will enjoy every bizarre minute of it.

[JimSorgi]

I've always disliked Edmonds and Bonds. If the devil told me that in order to see the Cubs win the WS those two must be on the team I'd laugh hysterically and ask where should I sign.

 

Give me that championship run and I will enjoy every bizarre minute of it.

Make sure you read the entire contract. The devil can be kinda deceiving.

[cheapseats]

it's been pretty nice not to hear a bonds story on ESPN every single day.

 

Or just don't watch ESPN.

[CubbieBum]

If Cub fans can accept Jim Edmonds, they can accept Bonds. If they can run the statuesque Cliff Floyd out there defensively, they would accept whatever Bonds can do.

 

Not that it matters, because Hendry would never sign him.

 

It seems MLB has decided to make Bonds the sacrificial Lamb of the steroids era. Maybe on some levels he deserves his fate.

 

You do realize there is a difference between cheaters, and guys who seem washed up?

 

I'm sure I have supported users and cheaters before the difference between them and Bonds is I didn't know it at the time they were playing otherwise I would have said give them the boot. With Bonds we know before even signing him has cheated and therefore we shouldn't sign him. I will never ever support one of my teams selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win. That's how this whole steroid era got going anyways. Owners wanted to win more than do what is right.

[fromthestretch]

If Cub fans can accept Jim Edmonds, they can accept Bonds. If they can run the statuesque Cliff Floyd out there defensively, they would accept whatever Bonds can do.

 

Not that it matters, because Hendry would never sign him.

 

It seems MLB has decided to make Bonds the sacrificial Lamb of the steroids era. Maybe on some levels he deserves his fate.

 

You do realize there is a difference between cheaters, and guys who seem washed up?

 

I'm sure I have supported users and cheaters before the difference between them and Bonds is I didn't know it at the time they were playing otherwise I would have said give them the boot. With Bonds we know before even signing him has cheated and therefore we shouldn't sign him. I will never ever support one of my teams selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win. That's how this whole steroid era got going anyways. Owners wanted to win more than do what is right.

 

Every team has had players that have been on performance enhancing drugs. Hell, it's not really a secret that the coffee pots in many team clubhouses had more than just java in them. Every team knew what was going on and looked the other way. I'm not sure how you can possibly think signing Bonds is any worse than that.

 

And if you truly aren't going to support any of your teams "selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win," let me know what a life without competitive sports is like.

[CubbieBum]

If Cub fans can accept Jim Edmonds, they can accept Bonds. If they can run the statuesque Cliff Floyd out there defensively, they would accept whatever Bonds can do.

 

Not that it matters, because Hendry would never sign him.

 

It seems MLB has decided to make Bonds the sacrificial Lamb of the steroids era. Maybe on some levels he deserves his fate.

 

You do realize there is a difference between cheaters, and guys who seem washed up?

 

I'm sure I have supported users and cheaters before the difference between them and Bonds is I didn't know it at the time they were playing otherwise I would have said give them the boot. With Bonds we know before even signing him has cheated and therefore we shouldn't sign him. I will never ever support one of my teams selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win. That's how this whole steroid era got going anyways. Owners wanted to win more than do what is right.

 

Every team has had players that have been on performance enhancing drugs. Hell, it's not really a secret that the coffee pots in many team clubhouses had more than just java in them. Every team knew what was going on and looked the other way. I'm not sure how you can possibly think signing Bonds is any worse than that.

 

And if you truly aren't going to support any of your teams "selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win," let me know what a life without competitive sports is like.

 

Teams can win without breaking moral and ethical boundries to do so. Look at the Spurs. Life has been just fine living WITh competitive sports with the philosophy of not breaking the rules just to win. Most athletes live by that most fans do not because to a fan all there is is winning and excuse me if I refuse to look at it with that stupid ignorant vision. Like I said the difference now from then is I know. I didn't and don't know if Sammy took illegal stuff. I am 100 percent confident he took something but it may or may not have been on the ban list like McGwire's androstine. Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

[fromthestretch]

Teams can win without breaking moral and ethical boundries to do so. Look at the Spurs. Life has been just fine living WITh competitive sports with the philosophy of not breaking the rules just to win. Most athletes live by that most fans do not because to a fan all there is is winning and excuse me if I refuse to look at it with that stupid ignorant vision. Like I said the difference now from then is I know. I didn't and don't know if Sammy took illegal stuff. I am 100 percent confident he took something but it may or may not have been on the ban list like McGwire's androstine. Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

 

Can you honestly tell me with no doubt whatsoever that no one on the Spurs has ever taken anything illegal to enhance their performance? There's no way you can say that with absolute certainty.

 

I'm not advocating that athletes break the rules to win, and I honestly wish baseball was steroid-free. However, Bonds is not on any official "suspended" list. MLB has taken no official action against him, and there are rules in place on how they deal with these things when they catch someone. He'd be subject to the same testing as anyone else. If you can't support the Cubs if they sign Bonds, then I don't see how you can support them now when there are a few minor leaguers in the organization that have been suspended in the past few years for taking performance-enhancing drugs and most likely at least a couple players on the current 25-man roster who have done something along those lines without getting caught.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a Purdue fan, right? Did you stop supporting the Boilers when they were found guilty of some recruiting violations about a decade ago? I know I wasn't happy about it when it happened, but I didn't stop being a Purdue fan.

 

It's great to have morals, but to honestly think that there is a team out there - at least at the professional level - that hasn't looked the other way once in awhile when someone was doing something they shouldn't have been doing is being a bit naive.

[Jehrico]

Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

See: Indiana and Kelvin Sampson.

[Jehrico]

If Cub fans can accept Jim Edmonds, they can accept Bonds. If they can run the statuesque Cliff Floyd out there defensively, they would accept whatever Bonds can do.

 

Not that it matters, because Hendry would never sign him.

 

It seems MLB has decided to make Bonds the sacrificial Lamb of the steroids era. Maybe on some levels he deserves his fate.

 

You do realize there is a difference between cheaters, and guys who seem washed up?

 

I'm sure I have supported users and cheaters before the difference between them and Bonds is I didn't know it at the time they were playing otherwise I would have said give them the boot. With Bonds we know before even signing him has cheated and therefore we shouldn't sign him. I will never ever support one of my teams selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win. That's how this whole steroid era got going anyways. Owners wanted to win more than do what is right.

 

Every team has had players that have been on performance enhancing drugs. Hell, it's not really a secret that the coffee pots in many team clubhouses had more than just java in them. Every team knew what was going on and looked the other way. I'm not sure how you can possibly think signing Bonds is any worse than that.

 

And if you truly aren't going to support any of your teams "selling their integrity, credibility and/or soul just win," let me know what a life without competitive sports is like.

There's a large difference between a league-wide tolerance that lead to so many people being part of a problem and individual cheaters. With your coffee example specifically, like you said, everyone was doing it. If you don't want to root for one team for such an offense (ignoring the fact that it was unknown at the time), then you can't root for any others. This happened league wide because the commissioners office turned a blind eye for so long, even though it's his primary responsibility above and beyond all others to maintain the integrity of the game. If any teams didn't want to take the blind eye philosophy, they wouldn't have been able to compete in the old days. And it's arguable as to how fair it is to say they were "turning a blind eye" because the league had no rules banning such conduct, so they weren't technically "cheating" (the legal and ethical issues are another argument and not binding to the cheating argument, IMO). Fast forward to today, the commissioners office has finally addressed the issue, so you can be competitive without PEDs. From a fans perspective, anyone using PEDs now is an outright cheater, rather than simply being a part of a league wide problem. I'd rather that cheaters be kept out of the league.

[fromthestretch]

Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

See: Indiana and Kelvin Sampson.

 

One big difference there is that Sampson was in a position to severly handicap what has historically been a great program. And he did, at least for the next couple of years.

 

If the Cubs sign Bonds and he cheats, Bonds get suspended, and the Cubs are in the same position they are now, minus a couple hundred thousand dollars. Unless, of course, you assume he goes on some 'roid rampage and kneecaps Lee, Ramirez, and Zambrano. That's what we call a worst-case scenario though. :lol:

[Derwood]

if you were a cubs fan in the 90's, you were rooting for a cheater

[fromthestretch]

There's a large difference between a league-wide tolerance that lead to so many people being part of a problem and individual cheaters. With your coffee example specifically, like you said, everyone was doing it. If you don't want to root for one team for such an offense (ignoring the fact that it was unknown at the time), then you can't root for any others. This happened league wide because the commissioners office turned a blind eye for so long, even though it's his primary responsibility above and beyond all others to maintain the integrity of the game. If any teams didn't want to take the blind eye philosophy, they wouldn't have been able to compete in the old days. And it's arguable as to how fair it is to say they were "turning a blind eye" because the league had no rules banning such conduct, so they weren't technically "cheating" (the legal and ethical issues are another argument and not binding to the cheating argument, IMO). Fast forward to today, the commissioners office has finally addressed the issue, so you can be competitive without PEDs. From a fans perspective, anyone using PEDs now is an outright cheater, rather than simply being a part of a league wide problem. I'd rather that cheaters be kept out of the league.

 

As you said, the league has addressed this, so if Bonds does something, he gets suspended.

[jersey cubs fan]

if you were a cubs fan in the 90's, you were rooting for a cheater

 

Did any of us really ever root for Manny Alexander?

[Jehrico]

if you were a cubs fan in the 90's, you were rooting for a cheater

 

Did any of us really ever root for Manny Alexander?

He's talking about Glenallen Hill and his rooftop smash. 8-)

 

We didn't knowingly root for a cheater, and at least Glenallen has admitted his mistakes and apologized for them.

[Sammy Sofa]

Almost everyone knew about steroids by then. We're not idiots.

[jersey cubs fan]

Almost everyone knew about steroids by then. We're not idiots.

 

My favorite storyline out of all this is all the media types saying they had no idea what steroids were back in the 90's, when their use in sports was very well known when I was a kid in the 80's.

[Dr. Cub]

Teams can win without breaking moral and ethical boundries to do so. Look at the Spurs. Life has been just fine living WITh competitive sports with the philosophy of not breaking the rules just to win. Most athletes live by that most fans do not because to a fan all there is is winning and excuse me if I refuse to look at it with that stupid ignorant vision. Like I said the difference now from then is I know. I didn't and don't know if Sammy took illegal stuff. I am 100 percent confident he took something but it may or may not have been on the ban list like McGwire's androstine. Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

 

Can you honestly tell me with no doubt whatsoever that no one on the Spurs has ever taken anything illegal to enhance their performance? There's no way you can say that with absolute certainty.

 

I'm not advocating that athletes break the rules to win, and I honestly wish baseball was steroid-free. However, Bonds is not on any official "suspended" list. MLB has taken no official action against him, and there are rules in place on how they deal with these things when they catch someone. He'd be subject to the same testing as anyone else. If you can't support the Cubs if they sign Bonds, then I don't see how you can support them now when there are a few minor leaguers in the organization that have been suspended in the past few years for taking performance-enhancing drugs and most likely at least a couple players on the current 25-man roster who have done something along those lines without getting caught.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a Purdue fan, right? Did you stop supporting the Boilers when they were found guilty of some recruiting violations about a decade ago? I know I wasn't happy about it when it happened, but I didn't stop being a Purdue fan.

 

It's great to have morals, but to honestly think that there is a team out there - at least at the professional level - that hasn't looked the other way once in awhile when someone was doing something they shouldn't have been doing is being a bit naive.

 

Purdue has athletics? I'm pretty sure the 4 years I was there (1991-1995) that they completely cancelled the football seasons.

[CubbieBum]

Teams can win without breaking moral and ethical boundries to do so. Look at the Spurs. Life has been just fine living WITh competitive sports with the philosophy of not breaking the rules just to win. Most athletes live by that most fans do not because to a fan all there is is winning and excuse me if I refuse to look at it with that stupid ignorant vision. Like I said the difference now from then is I know. I didn't and don't know if Sammy took illegal stuff. I am 100 percent confident he took something but it may or may not have been on the ban list like McGwire's androstine. Signing an admitted cheater is a line I don't want my team to cross and if they do I would seriously have to think about my support of said team.

 

Can you honestly tell me with no doubt whatsoever that no one on the Spurs has ever taken anything illegal to enhance their performance? There's no way you can say that with absolute certainty.

 

I'm not advocating that athletes break the rules to win, and I honestly wish baseball was steroid-free. However, Bonds is not on any official "suspended" list. MLB has taken no official action against him, and there are rules in place on how they deal with these things when they catch someone. He'd be subject to the same testing as anyone else. If you can't support the Cubs if they sign Bonds, then I don't see how you can support them now when there are a few minor leaguers in the organization that have been suspended in the past few years for taking performance-enhancing drugs and most likely at least a couple players on the current 25-man roster who have done something along those lines without getting caught.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a Purdue fan, right? Did you stop supporting the Boilers when they were found guilty of some recruiting violations about a decade ago? I know I wasn't happy about it when it happened, but I didn't stop being a Purdue fan.

 

It's great to have morals, but to honestly think that there is a team out there - at least at the professional level - that hasn't looked the other way once in awhile when someone was doing something they shouldn't have been doing is being a bit naive.

 

Purdue has athletics? I'm pretty sure the 4 years I was there (1991-1995) that they completely cancelled the football seasons.

 

Football isn't athletics. From 91-95 Purdue football had Alstott so there was something to root for, and the men's basketball team won the Big Ten almost every year and was ranked #1 for a portion of those years and was a fixture in the top 10. Purdue athletics was alive and well then (heck might be the best era we've ever had with the 3-Pete).

 

To answer the cheating question ... no I wasn't happy at all when it happened (I was around 10 at the time and still knew it was wrong) but the guilty parties were punished (well sort of I know a bit more about what happened because Kendrick's daughter went to school with me and another assistant became my high school's head coach).

 

 

 

To the Bonds issue can you guys seriously not see the difference between supporting someone you believe to be legit and signing/supporting someone who has admitted (according to the leaked testimony) to having cheated in order to obtain two of the most hallowed records in the sport (single-season and career). Bonds hasn't been punished for his cheating ... at least he wouldn't be if a team signed him. His punishment is no team willing to sign him, he has been blacklisted due to his preivous cheating.

 

And whoever the guy who brought up how I can know for sure the Spurs haven't cheated ... I can't but I'm not going to say well f-it and assume every team has cheated somewhere. That's not a good way to live life, enveloping everyone in the umbrela of blame because a few decided to ignore every principle in the book. The Spurs (who are my rival) have won multiple championships and have done it with class, hard work, by being one of the first to trust foreign players, and have never had a scandal other than a ref deciding he hates them (particulary Duncan). To be quite honest your non chalant casting of them cheating really pisses me off. It's the equivalent of saying well some guys your age have raped little girls so I'm going to call every guy your age a rapist.

[Sammy Sofa]

It's the equivalent of saying well some guys your age have raped little girls so I'm going to call every guy your age a rapist.

 

It's actually nothing like that at all.

 

If Bonds is playing and he gets caught, he should be punished. He got away with what he did, just like thousands of other players got away with breaking the rules over the years.

[CubbieBum]

It's the equivalent of saying well some guys your age have raped little girls so I'm going to call every guy your age a rapist.

 

It's actually nothing like that at all.

 

If Bonds is playing and he gets caught, he should be punished. He got away with what he did, just like thousands of other players got away with breaking the rules over the years.

 

Except for if no one signs him then he wouldn't get away with it.

[Sammy Sofa]

It's the equivalent of saying well some guys your age have raped little girls so I'm going to call every guy your age a rapist.

 

It's actually nothing like that at all.

 

If Bonds is playing and he gets caught, he should be punished. He got away with what he did, just like thousands of other players got away with breaking the rules over the years.

 

Except for if no one signs him then he wouldn't get away with it.

 

Why, does it somehow magically go back and erase the last few years he played and the money he made and the records he broke?

[CubbieBum]

It's the equivalent of saying well some guys your age have raped little girls so I'm going to call every guy your age a rapist.

 

It's actually nothing like that at all.

 

If Bonds is playing and he gets caught, he should be punished. He got away with what he did, just like thousands of other players got away with breaking the rules over the years.

 

Except for if no one signs him then he wouldn't get away with it.

 

Why, does it somehow magically go back and erase the last few years he played and the money he made and the records he broke?

 

It doesn't but he is still being punished for what he did if no one signs him. Just isn't the ideal punishment.

 

In no other industry can a guy cheat or steal, have everyone find out he did it, and then still get hired for the same job somewhere else. Like the teachers who have sex with students you don't see any principals saying well he/she was a great teacher and the students tested really well so we are going to ignore what happened and hire he/she anyways because kids learning and testing well is all that matters.

[JimSorgi]

CubbieBum's comparisons are hilarious.

[Brett]

CubbieBum's comparisons are hilarious.

 

Yeah, but his avatar is nice.