Unpopular opinion: No one has dominated their sport more than Barry Bonds

[SoutheastBeast1]

You always hear about Jordan and Brady. To some extent Tiger Woods and Gretzky will get thrown into conversations.

The guy who really dominated though was Bonds. He gets lost in the shuffle because of all the haters out there still pretending he was a cheater and don't want to acknowledge just how incredible this guy really was. Then you'll also have the haters who say he never won a World Series, but baseball is a very different sport.

One single player simply doesn't have the ability to carry a team the same way as other sports. You can hit 3 solo home runs in a game and those could be the only 3 runs your team scores. You could throw a perfect game one day then sit the bench for the next 3 watching as your team falls behind 3-1 in the series.


The truth is no one has ever been more feared.

In 2004 Bonds reached base 376 times. He only had 373 at bats.

He won 7 MVPs, 12 Silver Sluggers, 8 Gold Gloves, and made the All-Star team 14 times. He has single season records of most HRs, most walks, and highest OBP. He has career records of most HRs, most walks, most intentional walks, and most runs created. He's top 5 in career OPS, runs scored, total bases and top 10 in just about everything else.

He's first in WAR for all position players.

Beyond the numbers, the sheer fear of facing him is what separates him from the rest. No one said to themselves, "I'm gonna let Jordan dunk on me so he doesn't hit a 3 instead." People actually walked Bonds with the bases loaded on purpose to forfeit a single run. Imagine giving your opponent points just because you're afraid the guy you are facing will do more damage than what you give them for free.

The craziest part about it all was the guys knowledge of the strike zone. He simply did not get himself out. It's easy to think everyone just intentionally walked him, but that's not true either. His walks records were earned. So many other players would have been far less effective chasing balls outside the zone. Bonds was not only the most powerful hitter of all time, he was undoubtedly the most efficient player to ever play as well which so many people overlook. He had 4 consecutive seasons with an on base percentage higher than .500. No one since 1960 has been above this number. You saw Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle combine for it to happen 3 season between them in the 50's.

Bonds didn't like the media and the media didn't like him. So you'll never see him held in high esteem the way Jordan, Woods, and Brady have been done by the media. Bonds wanted to be left alone. If you weren't paying attention while his career was happening you missed the truest representation of dominance of a sport that has ever been seen.

The most talented and feared athlete of all time: Barry Bonds

[SmashinYoungVag]

But he’s not an undisputed goat. You got Ruth and to some extent mays with solid arguments.

Peyton Jordan and Usain Bolt are undisputed goats

[Barteh]

There's probably dozens of examples if you stop only looking at major yankee sports.

Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games under a different flag each time (Soviet Union, Unified Team and Russia respectively), and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. His wrestling record is 887 wins and two losses, both by a single point.[10][11][12][13][14] Prior to his final match versus American Rulon Gardner in September 2000 which he lost, a point had not been scored against him in competition the previous six years

Specifically picked a big olympic sport like wrestling instead of something like darts, which most probably wouldn't take serious. Karelin literally has his own move where he just lifted somebody up from the ground. Named after him cuz he was the only one strong enough to do it.

[SoutheastBeast1]

But he’s not an undisputed goat. You got Ruth and to some extent mays with solid arguments.

Peyton Jordan and Usain Bolt are undisputed goats

You really don't though. Ruth is only in the conversation because he played in 1900. If you want to play the Ruth card I can just as easily play the Wilt Chamberlain card against Jordan.

Chamberlain averaged 50 points one season. 44 points in another season. He had 78 triple doubles in his career to Jordan's 28. He had 31 triple doubles in a single season, more than Jordan's career triple double total. He averaged 23 rebounds a game in his career.

And they didn't even track blocks back then.

[SoutheastBeast1]

There's probably dozens of examples if you stop only looking at major yankee sports.

Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games under a different flag each time (Soviet Union, Unified Team and Russia respectively), and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. His wrestling record is 887 wins and two losses, both by a single point.[10][11][12][13][14] Prior to his final match versus American Rulon Gardner in September 2000 which he lost, a point had not been scored against him in competition the previous six years

Specifically picked a big olympic sport like wrestling instead of something like darts, which most probably wouldn't take serious. Karelin literally has his own move where he just lifted somebody up from the ground. Named after him cuz he was the only one strong enough to do it.

This may be true, but who the f*ck watches this sh*t lol

[Murph0408]

after all this time it just is what it is when it comes to Barry Bonds and all those guys who put up video game numbers 20 years ago. I'm not even mad about it and I don't feel like really pushing back against your argument OP. he probably was the best of our lifetime if not the best ever.

but he was cheating. they were all cheating back then. he's as known for being the guy who cheated as he is for being the HR king.

But he’s not an undisputed goat. You got Ruth and to some extent mays with solid arguments.

Ruth only played vs white people. i can't take him seriously when talking all-timers.

[SmashinYoungVag]

You really don't though. Ruth is only in the conversation because he played in 1900. If you want to play the Ruth card I can just as easily play the Wilt Chamberlain card against Jordan.

Chamberlain averaged 50 points one season. 44 points in another season. He had 78 triple doubles in his career to Jordan's 28. He had 31 triple doubles in a single season, more than Jordan's career triple double total. He averaged 23 rebounds a game in his career.

And they didn't even track blocks back then.

Fair comparison. But chamberlain gets marked down because he didn’t win much in the most individually driven team sport. If he had 5+ rings he’d be in the convo. But winning matters more in basketball than it does in football and baseball.

And at the end of the day you can only be judged against your peers and Ruth dominated his. Can bring up integration, steroids, bonds body armor, Ruth level of competition. At the end of the day Ruth is at worst a top 3 player ever imo

[Barteh]

This may be true, but who the f*ck watches this sh*t lol

Wrestling is a pretty big sport worldwide man. There's a reason I picked that and not something like pole vaulting. If you're gonna arbitrarily limit the sports and only count something like 5 sports then it doesn't even make sense to count baseball because it's not even that popular.

[WHChampion]

Hard to compare cross sport dominance. Mayweather and Phelps have to be up there.

[digital022]

Dude was juiced to the gills. He was a twink his rookie year.

[SoutheastBeast1]

Wrestling is a pretty big sport worldwide man. There's a reason I picked that and not something like pole vaulting. If you're gonna arbitrarily limit the sports and only count something like 5 sports then it doesn't even make sense to count baseball because it's not even that popular.

LOL, ok.

I wasn't even hating above. I'm sure that guy you posted is dominant. But let's be real...

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...nt-2021-07-02/

Despite being a pioneer of sports, wrestling struggles to win over fans after almost losing its place in the Olympic Games in 2013, when the International Olympic Committee voted to drop it from the Games programme, effective 2020.

One reason for the elimination was believed to be the lack of star athletes in the sport

So yeah, got some bad news for you bro.

Imagine pretending no one watches baseball after the guy you tried to promote in here nearly saw his sport get kicked from the Olympics entirely because there's not enough star power.

Baseball is literally the 3rd most watched sport in the U.S. and MLB athletes are some of the highest paid athletes because there's high interest in it. Even if you want to extend to the entire world, baseball still does well. Quick search of most watched sports still puts it 7th or 8th on most lists.

[Barteh]

LOL, ok.

I wasn't even hating above. I'm sure that guy you posted is dominant. But let's be real...

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...nt-2021-07-02/




So yeah, got some bad news for you bro.

Imagine pretending no one watches baseball after the guy you tried to promote in here nearly saw his sport get kicked from the Olympics entirely because there's not enough star power.

Baseball is literally the 3rd most watched sport in the U.S. and MLB athletes are some of the highest paid athletes because there's high interest in it. Even if you want to extend to the entire world, baseball still does well. Quick search of most watched sports still puts it 7th or 8th on most lists.

Wrestling isn't "my sport" lol. The dude is just such a legend and his achievements are so extraordinary that most people will have heard from him.

I don't really take those world rankings very serious for one reason. A lot of those sports, like baseball for example are popular in very few places where many people live. Cricket would be an even better example. Sounds pretty ridiculous to make a serious claim that cricket is a top 3 most popular sport just because Indians and Pakis watch it. While the truly big sports like football and tennis are popular in most countries across the world.

But yeah, all of this discussion is pretty irrelevant to your original discussion so I'll just leave it at that. Maybe I'll watch a short documentary about Barry Bonds tonight or something to learn more about him. Cuz I think this kind of stuff is interesting even when I don't follow a certain sport.

[DomMJr]

Wrestling isn't "my sport" lol. The dude is just such a legend and his achievements are so extraordinary that most people will have heard from him.

I don't really take those world rankings very serious for one reason. A lot of those sports, like baseball for example are popular in very few places where many people live. Cricket would be an even better example. Sounds pretty ridiculous to make a serious claim that cricket is a top 3 most popular sport just because Indians and Pakis watch it. While the truly big sports like football and tennis are popular in most countries across the world.

But yeah, all of this discussion is pretty irrelevant to your original discussion so I'll just leave it at that. Maybe I'll watch a short documentary about Barry Bonds tonight or something to learn more about him. Cuz I think this kind of stuff is interesting even when I don't follow a certain sport.

Even he cannot beat bloat

[SoutheastBeast1]

Have to agree to disagree. Baseball is played in a lot of countries. Off the top of my head it's extremely popular in

US
Japan
South Korea
Dominican Republic
Mexico
Puerto Rico
Cuba
Venezuela
Argentina
China
Canada


The only regions where baseball isn't popular is Europe and the Middle East. The Middle East is too busy building human bombs and Europe is too busy taking it up the ass from each other. Those are literally the two worst regions in the entire world anyway so who cares if they don't watch it.

I guess Africa too, but only thing popular there is soccer because they're too poor for every other sport in existence. I bet Africa would adopt baseball (and many other sports) just fine with the resources.

[Jaydawg08]

Usain Bolt.. Mayweather.. Phelps.. I suppose Tiger to an extent

Those would be good ones you can point to. I have no idea about hockey. Bonds you can make an argument but like others have said you can say Mays or Babe Ruth. Jordan has more competition.. Obviously LeBron, but Bill Russell has almost double the amount of rings as him, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar has as many rings as him.. more MVPs.. dominated the sport for a longer time period, more All Stars, more All NBA, had the most unstoppable shot in NBA history, and if he wasn't such an ******* to the media he would get much more props.

[SoutheastBeast1]

Mayweather.. .

My problem with boxers is there always seems to be another GOAT boxer every few years. Rocky Marciano... then Sugar Ray... then Muhammed Ali... then Mike Tyson..... then Manny Pacquaio... then Floyd Mayweather

That sport literally moves from one "greatest of all time" to another. Likely for marketing reasons. It's whoever is hot at the moment, don't miss your chance to see the greatest ever!!!




Usain Bolt is a hard one to compare. It's literally one singular thing he's doing... running. If you're the faster person in the world shouldn't you be winning the most? Someone somewhere has to be the fastest runner ever. It's like me calling Aroldis Chapman the most dominant person at throwing a fastball (I have no idea if he throws the fastest anymore I'm just using as an example). I mean that's cool that you can dominate in a fastball throwing competition but someone is always going to be the fastest.

I don't know enough about running though. If Bolt is beating the next fastest runner by a wide margin you might have an argument of that one. Just being the fastest though.... eh... that's not really dominating because someone has to be the fastest.

I'll concede that I think Tiger Woods is #2 next to Bonds as the most dominant at his sport. The things he accomplished really were incredible.

[SmashinYoungVag]

Usain Bolt.. Mayweather.. Phelps.. I suppose Tiger to an extent

Those would be good ones you can point to. I have no idea about hockey. Bonds you can make an argument but like others have said you can say Mays or Babe Ruth. Jordan has more competition.. Obviously LeBron, but Bill Russell has almost double the amount of rings as him, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar has as many rings as him.. more MVPs.. dominated the sport for a longer time period, more All Stars, more All NBA, had the most unstoppable shot in NBA history, and if he wasn't such an ******* to the media he would get much more props.

Michael Phelps one pisses me off. Never once won a single freestyle solo event. Would be like Usain Bolt winning the 100 200 medleys, but now add running with hands above your head and behind your back etc. But never actually winning the the prestigious races.

[SoutheastBeast1]

Michael Phelps one pisses me off. Never once won a single freestyle solo event. Would be like Usain Bolt winning the 100 200 medleys, but now add running with hands above your head and behind your back etc. But never actually winning the the prestigious races.

Phelps pisses me off too. Not on board with him in this discussion at all lol.

Other names mentioned ITT have at least been worthy of discussion. That's why I ignored him

[DASBUNKER]

Wayne Gretzky and I dont even know chit about hockey, thats how dominant he was

[DomMJr]

Phelps pisses me off too. Not on board with him in this discussion at all lol.

Other names mentioned ITT have at least been worthy of discussion. That's why I ignored him

worse, only like 0.0001% of the population in a few countries even tried the sport on his level. It's like saying rowing crew in the 3 universities that still do this means you're world class. I might even consider crew more legit of a sport than swimming because it appeals to more popular athletes.

[DASBUNKER]

Quote from article about WG

To look at his reign another way, Gretzky notched 44 percent more points than Messier, which of course invites the following fun exercise to help put it into perspective:

It would be like another ballplayer whacking 335 more home runs than all-time leader Barry Bonds’ 762.

Just saiyan..

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...t-athlete-ever

[Berries1]

Donald Bradman in cricket is statistically so far ahead of 2nd place it’s insane. Average of 99.94 and second best barely cracked 60

[Gryphonly]

Damn this thread is brutal lmao

[Barteh]

Have to agree to disagree. Baseball is played in a lot of countries. Off the top of my head it's extremely popular in

US
Japan
South Korea
Dominican Republic
Mexico
Puerto Rico
Cuba
Venezuela
Argentina
China
Canada


The only regions where baseball isn't popular is Europe and the Middle East. The Middle East is too busy building human bombs and Europe is too busy taking it up the ass from each other. Those are literally the two worst regions in the entire world anyway so who cares if they don't watch it.

I guess Africa too, but only thing popular there is soccer because they're too poor for every other sport in existence. I bet Africa would adopt baseball (and many other sports) just fine with the resources.

Couldn't you just have put a disclaimer in the OP that you're a retard? Would've saved all of us here some time.

[TokenV]

this thread is ridiculous tbh

there is no one as undisputed GOAT status as Eddy Merckx

ded srs, you will not be able to find anyone that says otherwise

[SoutheastBeast1]

Couldn't you just have put a disclaimer in the OP that you're a retard? Would've saved all of us here some time.

Pretty sure you already outed yourself as the dumbest person in this thread earlier bro. Let me remind you....

Wrestling is a pretty big sport worldwide man. There's a reason I picked that and not something like pole vaulting.

Do I need to post the link again how wrestling nearly got booted from the Olympics due to lack of interest? Like... that wasn't my opinion or anything bro. I can almost literally hear the sheer arrogance as if you were verbally speaking this to me face to face.... Wrestling is a pretty big sport worldwide man.

If you and I were wrestling right now I just body slammed the f*ck out of you with the fact it nearly got kicked out of the Olympics recently.

Then you turn around and try to bash baseball as unpopular worldwide. You're like that dude at the party who keeps talking about a topic he has clue about and everyone knows it except for the guy continuing to speak like he's an expert on the subject




P.S.

Location: Netherlands..... which pretty much sums it all up. Typical European f*cktard who can't handle the fact the U.S. runs sh*t. Nothing really to see here. Not remotely shocked you think wrestling is still popular. That's pretty much exactly what I would expect from someone in the Netherlands trying to discuss sports.

Basically baseball is not popular in Europe so you've equated that to it's not popular worldwide. The irony that the American has a better grasp on worldwide popularity than the European in this thread. Just let that sink in.... or keep talking about wrestlings worldwide popularity. I'm officially done giving a f*ck about you.

[iabs]

Rafael Nadal on clay is an absolute JOKE.

14 Roland Garros
has only lost 3 matches in BO5 in almost 20 years
112-3 record

Absolute insanity that will never ever be repeated.

[Berries1]

Rafael Nadal on clay is an absolute JOKE.

14 Roland Garros
has only lost 3 matches in BO5 in almost 20 years
112-3 record

Absolute insanity that will never ever be repeated.

Tennis was robbed of there being no other great clay monkey to challenge him. Was just a walkover for him, especially when he would spend half the year not playing and doping

[Berries1]

this thread is ridiculous tbh

there is no one as undisputed GOAT status as Eddy Merckx

ded srs, you will not be able to find anyone that says otherwise

What Pogacar is doing is even better. Merckx never had to come up against such specialists as Pog does.

[HaiMeesk]

By baseball standards, what Barry Bonds did was pretty amazing, but what he did during his streak of awesomeness wasn't much different than what Ken Griffey Jr and Ted Williams did during theirs'. Also similar is none of these guys would win a World Series. Babe Ruth was far more dominant during his career than any other baseball player, which he did as a pitcher and then as a hitter. Nobody was even close to matching his numbers during his career years.

In other sports there's Gretzky, Lemieux, Jordan, Lebron, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell who dominated and won their championships, unlike Bonds. Not going to get too much into soccer (Pele, Maradona) or golf (Nicklaus, Palmer, Tiger) or cricket (Bradman, Hobbs) because we're talking men's sports here.

People say Tom Brady because that is the correct answer. Nobody has statistically dominated their league over the course of 20 years and led his teams to 7 championships like he did. He's also like 45 years old right now and if he signed with any crappy team right now, that team would be elevated to Super Bowl contenders immediately. I'd also say Lebron has a similar impact with the NBA.

Also, but in conclusion, prime Mike Tyson was the best I ever saw and was unbeatable by anyone until he beat himself.