2024 (Judge/Ohtani) vs 1998 (McGwire/Sosa)

[MoreToppsPlease]

Originally Posted by BostonNut

We were all turning a blind eye to what those guys were putting into their bodies to put up those numbers.

Now that we know they are all using something it’s just, meh.

Just my opinion.

Nobody then had a clue until maybe the last week of the season when they thought maybe something may have been off.

Then it eventually became obvious that Bonds was cheating even more than the guys before and everyone then knew.

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by vinbots

Judge and Ohtani aren’t trying to break 61*. That was an OMG achievement that the world knew about.

Took 17 posts for someone to point this out?

[Cracktoast]

McGwire/Sosa was a simpler time pre- 9/11 before CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc... went 24/7 political. I forget the guys name but CNN actually used to have a dedicated sports show that came on at like midnight or something like that and ESPN was the cat's meow for everything sports.

Today other sports specifically NBA , NFL, and College Football have taken a big bite out of sports news. After the greatest MLB Rivalry of all time was destroyed when Boston defeated The Evil Empire in 2004 baseball became really mehhh and became more about individual achievements rather than Team Championships. And now you have streaming channel exclusive games that lock portions of fans out of watching games unless you pay for that subscription or view it through other not so legal means.

[hxcmilkshake]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

McGwire/Sosa was a simpler time pre- 9/11 before CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc... went 24/7 political. I forget the guys name but CNN actually used to have a dedicated sports show that came on at like midnight or something like that and ESPN was the cat's meow for everything sports.



Today other sports specifically NBA , NFL, and College Football have taken a big bite out of sports news. After the greatest MLB Rivalry of all time was destroyed when Boston defeated The Evil Empire in 2004 baseball became really mehhh and became more about individual achievements rather than Team Championships. And now you have streaming channel exclusive games that lock portions of fans out of watching games unless you pay for that subscription or view it through other not so legal means.

Fred Hickman!

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by MoreToppsPlease

Nobody then had a clue until maybe the last week of the season when they thought maybe something may have been off.

Then it eventually became obvious that Bonds was cheating even more than the guys before and everyone then knew.

It's so obvious you don't know what you're talking about:

It was reported by an AP reporter during the 1998 season that McGwire had Andro in his locker. Andro is a steroid precursor and a PED that had been banned by multiple sports leagues and the Olympics at the time. The report was a national scandal -- I remember hearing about it on the radio. The public chose to ignore the implications of the story because they were caught up in the home run record chase.

Bonds cheated more than others? No, he was just better than anyone else. He led all 508 qualified MLB hitters in OPS in the 1990s. He was third in home runs and 6th in stolen bases. This was before he bulked up in the late 90s and early 2000s.

[JohnnyAppleseed]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

McGwire/Sosa was a simpler time pre- 9/11 before CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc... went 24/7 political. I forget the guys name but CNN actually used to have a dedicated sports show that came on at like midnight or something like that and ESPN was the cat's meow for everything sports.

Today other sports specifically NBA , NFL, and College Football have taken a big bite out of sports news. After the greatest MLB Rivalry of all time was destroyed when Boston defeated The Evil Empire in 2004 baseball became really mehhh and became more about individual achievements rather than Team Championships. And now you have streaming channel exclusive games that lock portions of fans out of watching games unless you pay for that subscription or view it through other not so legal means.

bin Laden and the Red Sox killed the MLB is one of the takes I'll see in my lifetime.

[rms13]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

McGwire/Sosa was a simpler time pre- 9/11 before CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc... went 24/7 political. I forget the guys name but CNN actually used to have a dedicated sports show that came on at like midnight or something like that and ESPN was the cat's meow for everything sports.

Today other sports specifically NBA , NFL, and College Football have taken a big bite out of sports news. After the greatest MLB Rivalry of all time was destroyed when Boston defeated The Evil Empire in 2004 baseball became really mehhh and became more about individual achievements rather than Team Championships. And now you have streaming channel exclusive games that lock portions of fans out of watching games unless you pay for that subscription or view it through other not so legal means.

I am a Sox fan and 2004 definitely killed a lot of my excitement for the MLB in a weird way. The curse was one of the great storylines every season. Once the HR record was broken and the curse was broken I admit I've had less and less interest every year. Sox-Yankees is definitely meaningless now compared to the years before that and it will never be the same.
Now I feel like there aren't many compelling storylines. Maybe someone breaks DiMaggio's hitting streak record one day. I don't care if anyone breaks either of Bonds HR records. Nobody is going to break Rose all time hit record. Nobody is going to be at the Ripken streak. Nobody is going to break any of the big single season or career pitching records because of the way the game has changed for pitchers. 50/50 was cool but like Canseco's 40/40 it will be forgotten quickly. Guys hitting 6O HR is just another good season. I don't know what else can happen in MLB at this point that's going to be historic in the sense that people will care 100 years from now or 50 years from now etc.

[Stifle]

To compare this s season’s duo to the 98 Dup I’ll take this seasons performance. If the matchup were against Bonds & Sosa of 2001, about the only match they would have competition is from the 1920’s to a Ted Williams season W/ stud teammate. Sosa & Bonds put up stupid numbers that season.

[ThatGuyPal]

No one cares about a guy stealing bases.

Bonds still got a lot of attention because he was cranking em out of the park, the thing people care about. Until either of them are approaching Bonds record roids or not I don't see how their is a conversation on MLB not doing enough lol if people care things will get covered especially in this day.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Anyone who thinks this year with Judge/Ohtani is even in the same stratosphere as the 1998 HR race, wasn't alive in 1998. Period.

[Raleigh504]

[QUOTE=rms13;19643447]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

There are definitely a lot of people here obsessed with steroids but as a whole I don't think that has anything to do with where the league is now. That was a big story like 25 years ago. People who are in the key demographic now weren't even alive then. Look at the NFL. Guys get suspended for PED there all the time and nobody cares. The concussion issue in NFL is much bigger then PED in MLB in my opinion and that hasn't effected the league's popularity. It seems like there are at least a couple of star players in the NFL every year with some big off the field issues and that doesn't matter. Despite all that stuff the NFL is the most popular league in the US and it's more popular then ever. Honestly I think one of the big issues with MLB is that gambling on baseball isn't as exciting as gambling on football, basketball or even the UFC. Gambling is a huge focus of sports today. ESPN and all the networks covering football dedicate time to gambling and have people on shows discussing the lines etc every day. But baseball also is a dinosaur in that regards and they've obviously have a checkered past with gambling so I understand why they don't want to embrace that aspect more but at the same time you have to change with the times and baseball is very slow to do that. The NFL and NBA are expensive too so I don't see the cost of attending a baseball game being a huge factor in popularity compared to other sports. Baseball is just less popular then it even has been and younger people are less and less interested. I live in one of the hot spots for youth and high school baseball so it's probably more popular here then in other parts of the country but even here the white suburban kids where I live all seem like they're more interested in playing basketball. There are competitive pick up basketball games every time I go to the park and I don't think kids have played pick up baseball games in about 40 years.

The difference with pick up basketball than any sport is all you need is 3 other people to play. Even 1 other person works. You really can't play 1v1 in baseball and call it pick up. At min you need 5 people to a team and even then will need additional gear, balls, bats to be able to play vs just 1 basketball.

I grew up playing both pickup baseball/wiffleball and basketball. Granted we also lived in the suburbs, in a development with other kids around my age. Most kids I knew had a hoop in their driveway (in ground vs the cheaper moveable ones) and we had the few backyard half-court basketball hoop that most of the better pickup games would be played since you could do more than 2v2.

Wiffleball was easier to play pickup since we didn't use gloves, and could have everything we needed in a wiffleball "kit" from your local Walmart/Target.

[Raleigh504]

Originally Posted by rms13

I am a Sox fan and 2004 definitely killed a lot of my excitement for the MLB in a weird way. The curse was one of the great storylines every season. Once the HR record was broken and the curse was broken I admit I've had less and less interest every year. Sox-Yankees is definitely meaningless now compared to the years before that and it will never be the same.
Now I feel like there aren't many compelling storylines. Maybe someone breaks DiMaggio's hitting streak record one day. I don't care if anyone breaks either of Bonds HR records. Nobody is going to break Rose all time hit record. Nobody is going to be at the Ripken streak. Nobody is going to break any of the big single season or career pitching records because of the way the game has changed for pitchers. 50/50 was cool but like Canseco's 40/40 it will be forgotten quickly. Guys hitting 6O HR is just another good season. I don't know what else can happen in MLB at this point that's going to be historic in the sense that people will care 100 years from now or 50 years from now etc.

Also to me it hurt when Damon (who was a Sox darling) went right to the Yankees in 2006. I couldn't take any Boston fan (I was in college then and had a lot of northeast kids at my school) serious about the rivalry is the greatest ever when he signed with the Yankees after winning a title.