The Diamondbacks will make Luis Gonzalez's No. 20 the first retired number in the proud 13-year history of the franchise. At first glance, I thought this was a misprint and Fredi Gonzalez had actually been hired to manage the D-Backs. Nope. Luis Gonzalez's number will be retired in a pregame ceremony on August 7th. Really?Yeah, turns out my brain chose to completely ignore some good seasons Gonzalez had out in the desert. I spent a decent portion of the early 2000's on some pretty serious performance dehancers. He is the franchise's leader in games (1,194), hits (1,337) and home runs (224). He also hit .298/.391/.529 for an OPS+ of 130. That's a pretty solid eight year stretch he had with the Diamondbacks. On the other hand, it's also a little strange for a journeyman player to hit his eight peak years after he turned 31-years-old.
It's not my job to sit here and sling mud from behind my keyboard. Or is it? I'm not really sure what I'm doing here. I will say this, I think everything was juiced in 2001. Hitters, pitchers, balls, bats, t-shirt cannons, Pamela Anderson, me, you, that guy on your couch, Chris Berman, the Noid, everybody but Vlad Guerrero, Legally Blonde, Bud Selig, etc. Luis Gonzalez had one season where he hit more than 30 home runs before and after 2001. In 2001, he hit 57 homers. Bonds hit 72 and Sosa hit 64. Shawn Green hit 49 and he's not allowed to play on the Sabbath. Is that a thing? I might have made that up. Phil Nevin hit 41. It was a wacky drug fueled time back then, kids. What were we talking about?
HMM..Got to ask you a question: How do you know he's guilty? There is such a thing as innocent until proven guilty, even in baseball. There have been others who had a great season and then slumped. Please refrain from putting someone over the coals before you know the truth. I've followed Luis since he was with Houston and I've never had reason to doubt him or anyone else with the exception of Bonds.
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