Wednesday, August 8, 2007
756!
For a while I wanted Barry Bonds to break Hank Aaron's record on the road. Maybe Atlanta, which would stick it to Hank Aaron for not being too responsive to the home run chase. Maybe in Dodger Stadium, for obvious reasons. Or maybe Milwaukee, Bud Selig's backyard. That'd show him. Although he'd probably be as clueless as to the record-breaking moment as he was in San Diego (Yo, Bud, that was what's called a "home run"...see, that man rounding the bases just hit a baseball over the fence--never mind.)
But after all that, I'm glad Barry broke the record in San Francisco.
It wasn't a hate-fest at AT&T Park last night. No idiots holding up asterisk signs in the bleachers* (a nice write-up involving that aspect of the "celebration" here, courtesy of the website Bugs & Cranks). No booing as he came up to bat or went out into the field. And thankfully, no Bud Selig anywhere in sight. In hindsight, I'm glad he wasn't there. His non-reaction to homer #755 was pretty sour. Frankly, Bud, you don't deserve to witness history firsthand.
No, just a nice moment for one of the greats of the game, a true giant. Barry Bonds stands alone now as the home run champion of all-time, and he got all the credit and congratulations he deserved last night. Even Hammerin' Hank showed up, if only by video: A short-but-sweet message of congratulations played on the scoreboard moments after the record-breaking home run.
It was a good show. And now, I hope, the Giants can get back to the business at hand: winning baseball games.
Yeah, they lost last night. I didn't particularly care.
• To Mike Bacsik, the pitcher who gave up #756: Don't worry. You're not a schmuck. Just one of, like, 9,000 pitchers who have given up a home run to Barry Bonds. No shame in that. Nobody thinks Al Downing is a schmuck.
• Imagine being a fan of some other team, in town for one day, and getting tickets to the game, and catching the home run ball that just might fetch a half-million dollars. That's what happened to this 22-year-old. Before they showed him on TV, I said to the folks watching beside me, "Whoever it is, he has a bloody face." Sure enough, he did.
But let me ask this: Since when did they whisk spectators who catch milestone home runs away as though they were presidents being shot at? Do we really need this spectacle of a half-dozen uniformed officers carrying the guy away?
By the way, where's the ball Babe Ruth hit to break Roger Connor's home run record of...138? How much would it fetch today? How much could it have fetched the day it was hit?
• Here's that look back at Hank Aaron's 715th home run in 1974. There's even commentary by one of the fans who ran onto the field to pat Hank on the back as he rounded the bases. (Curiously, the man who caught that home run, Braves relief pitcher Tom House, who was in the bullpen at the time, admitted to using steroids in the 1970s. Geez, man, this steroids thing really has connections, doesn't it?)
*True story, and maybe some of you caught this: One of those aforementioned morons was holding up an asterisk sign during one of the San Diego games. While he was on camera, he looked at the sign, decided he was holding it the wrong way, and turned it onto its side. An asterisk. Yeah. This thing: * Yeah. If you hold it wrong, it sure doesn't look like an asterisk, ya moron!
But after all that, I'm glad Barry broke the record in San Francisco.
It wasn't a hate-fest at AT&T Park last night. No idiots holding up asterisk signs in the bleachers* (a nice write-up involving that aspect of the "celebration" here, courtesy of the website Bugs & Cranks). No booing as he came up to bat or went out into the field. And thankfully, no Bud Selig anywhere in sight. In hindsight, I'm glad he wasn't there. His non-reaction to homer #755 was pretty sour. Frankly, Bud, you don't deserve to witness history firsthand.
No, just a nice moment for one of the greats of the game, a true giant. Barry Bonds stands alone now as the home run champion of all-time, and he got all the credit and congratulations he deserved last night. Even Hammerin' Hank showed up, if only by video: A short-but-sweet message of congratulations played on the scoreboard moments after the record-breaking home run.
It was a good show. And now, I hope, the Giants can get back to the business at hand: winning baseball games.
Yeah, they lost last night. I didn't particularly care.
• To Mike Bacsik, the pitcher who gave up #756: Don't worry. You're not a schmuck. Just one of, like, 9,000 pitchers who have given up a home run to Barry Bonds. No shame in that. Nobody thinks Al Downing is a schmuck.
• Imagine being a fan of some other team, in town for one day, and getting tickets to the game, and catching the home run ball that just might fetch a half-million dollars. That's what happened to this 22-year-old. Before they showed him on TV, I said to the folks watching beside me, "Whoever it is, he has a bloody face." Sure enough, he did.
But let me ask this: Since when did they whisk spectators who catch milestone home runs away as though they were presidents being shot at? Do we really need this spectacle of a half-dozen uniformed officers carrying the guy away?
By the way, where's the ball Babe Ruth hit to break Roger Connor's home run record of...138? How much would it fetch today? How much could it have fetched the day it was hit?
• Here's that look back at Hank Aaron's 715th home run in 1974. There's even commentary by one of the fans who ran onto the field to pat Hank on the back as he rounded the bases. (Curiously, the man who caught that home run, Braves relief pitcher Tom House, who was in the bullpen at the time, admitted to using steroids in the 1970s. Geez, man, this steroids thing really has connections, doesn't it?)
*True story, and maybe some of you caught this: One of those aforementioned morons was holding up an asterisk sign during one of the San Diego games. While he was on camera, he looked at the sign, decided he was holding it the wrong way, and turned it onto its side. An asterisk. Yeah. This thing: * Yeah. If you hold it wrong, it sure doesn't look like an asterisk, ya moron!
