Derek Bodner’s Blog

756*

It’s not even that Bonds cheated by taking steroids, although that’s part of it. It’s not even that for the vast majority (RE: all) of his majority league career he’s given the indication he’s a creep, although that’s part of it. The problem isn’t that he broke the most revered record in all of sports, although that makes it worse. Last night Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, passing Hank Aaron on the all time home run list, and forever completely closing the age of innocence on professional sports. This day has been coming for a long time. From the strike of ’93, the home run renaissance of the late 90′s, the Michael Vick dog fighting investigation, to the NBA referee scandal this past month. I’m not sure whether it’s sports athletes becoming less trustworthy or the non-stop coverage of sports revealing more about who they are, or both, that has increased in the last two decades, but it seems sport has become less and less about what occurs on the field. Last night was evidence of this. Last night should have been a night all baseball fans would remember for the rest of their lives. The actual achievement of hitting 756 home runs over the course of a career is a surreal feat. In the end, the focus was not on actions that happened on the field. That’s not something that you could say 20 years ago, and it’s a shame, regardless of the cause.

The big news so far during this NBA offseason has been the trade by the Celtics to acquire Kevin Garnett, in what turned out to be a 7-for-1 deal (when draft picks are included). I think this was a tremendous development for the Celtics, and does in fact put them in contention, not only for a chance to go to the finals, but a chance to win within the next few years.

Critics of the trade have mainly argued four things. 1) Trading 5 current players for Garnett leaves the Celtics with little depth. 2) There is only one basketball on the court, and satisfying three former #1 options is going to be impossible. 3) All three of the “big 3″ are getting up there in age, and could begin to decline in productivity/health. 4) The salary of Garnett/Pierce/Allen will cripple the Celtics front office moves, and thus make problem #1 (depth) even harder to overcome.
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