[gusmahler]

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Hypothetical: if it were Ken Griffey Jr. who were coming up on 755 instead of Barry Bonds, do you think there'd be this kind of divide on him? (Let's assume that Griffey had the exact same unproven allegations that Bonds had.)

It seems that lots of people hate Bonds because he's a jerk, not because he's black.

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Good point about Griffey. Personally, I'd be much more excited about Griffey breaking Hank's record than Bonds. Maybe that's cause I'm a big Griffey fan (even though he plays in the same division as my Stros), but I think more of that lies along the lines that he wasn't even accused for using steroids (as far as I know). Bonds can be a jerk, but can you blame him sometimes? The media hassles him way more than anyone else.

I am a bit excited to see a part of history though.

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The reason for the hypothetical was that in the 90s, well before Bonds was accused of being a user, he was clearly better than Griffey. Yet, just as clearly, Griffey was much more popular than Bonds and regarded by non-sabermatricians as the better baseball player.

So let's imagine that their career paths were switched. Instead of Griffey being saddled with injury problems, he was approaching 755 . . . and the one being accused of steroid use.

Do you think that:

1) the accusations against Griffey would be as constant as the accusations against Bonds?

2) that anyone would be rooting against Griffey breaking 755?