Do Barry Bonds' mechanical batting aids give him an unfair advantage?

It has been said that the devices worn by Barry Bonds during his at-bats have contributed "75 to 100 home runs to his already-questionable total".

Bonds wears a batting helmet and a custom "elbow protector" that allow him to crowd the plate and take away a pitcher's ability to use the outside pitch to any great effect.

Ruth and Aaron never had the mechanical advantage and protection offered by Bonds' elbow apparatus, and Ruth would typically step up to the plate 'sans helmet' -- wearing only a baseball cap (as did Aaron in the early part of his career).

In fact, it is against the rules of major league baseball for other hitters to wear Bonds' elbow apparatus. Bonds was granted a dispensation for the device, since he began wearing it before Major League Baseball thought to prohibit such a thing.

Should Bonds' asterisk include not only the illegal steroid information, but also the information about his swing-enhancing elbow apparatus?

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/...

The elbow protector is a joke. It is impossible to pitch inside to the guy. Any advantage that a pitcher might have is taken away by the elbow protector. With the rules about pitching inside the way they are; warnings to each team, automatic ejections, etc... it's already virtually impossible to pitch inside anymore. I'd like to see all these cry babies step in against Bob Gibson or Don Drysdale. Bonds would be knocked on his *** on the first pitch and all the umpire would say is, "Get up."

Well I think the elbow protector is fine. He is just protecting his arm. He wears it because he got hit a lot before he starting wearing it. He would probably hit better without all that junk on his arm, but I would wear it too.

OK, the elbow thing is ridiculous. Bash Bonds for something plausible. The elbow thing adds maybe an extra centimeter to his elbow and let me tell you from experience as a pitcher that if I want to pitch outside I will pitch outside whether the batter's elbow is in line with the plate or 1cm over it. There's no way it could have given him a 75 HR advantage... It's the roids doing that

I don't believe steroids or ANY device will help you hit home runs. If they did you would see a lot more of them in use at SOME level. Its the hand eye coordination and reaction time that makes for a great hitter. Drugs and devices cannot compensate for lack of skill!

Of course it helps him and never should have ever been allowed. Only if a player has a decernible injury should he be allowed to wear any gear, and then only briefly. Think about it, why do cops wear protective armour? Fewer get hurt.The umps messed up big time by letting Bonds wear his arm protector. It's like wearing a boxing helmet during a professional boxing match - either all should do it or none. But then again, a skinny little under-fed kid like poor Barry needs all the armour he can get.

Wow, you win...this is officially the dumbest thing I've read all day.


Here is just another case of writers and fellow Bonds haters grasping at straws to try and strengthen their disliking of Barry Bonds.

If someone was paying me $16mil to play baseball, I would try to protect myself too. Just because he started using it before the MLB decided that it was unfair doesnt make him a cheat or somehow discredit his HR total. It makes him smart and protective of his body.

Craig Biggio is staying in the game just so he can be the leader in the HBP category, but you've got nothing to say about him, and he wears a healthy size piece of armor too. So, does that detract from his recent accomplishment of 3,000 hits?

Today's players have many advantages over players of yesteryear. They have Lasik surgery, private jets, massage therapy, top notch medical treatment, supplements, weights/excercise equipment, personal trainers, etc. Before the '70s, pitchers who tore a tendon were done, and now, they can have Tommy John surgery [so does that take away from Mariano Rivera's stat line?] Yes, today's players have greater advantages and players in 30 years will have even more than the players of today have. It doesnt make it "unfair", it just makes it different.

Are you for real? Those protective devices do not even extend out as much as your crossed eyes are observing.....

Wear those same protectors and see if you can hit outrageous amounts of HR's with them. I bet you cannot.....

So what if he gets to wear them? Does that give you cancer or does that put your family into poverty? Who cares what you think?

Anyways when he took steroids, they were prescribed, which made them "LEGAL"! MLB did not ban or make them illegal for years after Barry and others took them.

I hope that retarded people like you die with your false hatred and mudslinging against Barry Bonds, who is truly an innocent man.

If Barry Bonds doesn't use the protection during batting practice (And from everything I've seen he doesn't). And batting practice is where he works on all the details of his swing. How then can adding the protection during the game improve upon what he does in batting practice? Seems to me that if it were adding some kind of advantage to his swing then he wouldn't work on his swing without it.

Matt Culbertson

Denver, Co