Barry Bonds just became baseball's all-time home run king. He hit his 756th against a slightly familiar lefty on the Washington Nationals.
Some slightly familiar company he keeps:
Jack Fisher gave up the home run that tied Babe Ruth's single-season home run record.
Tracy Stallard gave up the home run that broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record.
Steve Trachsel gave up the home run that broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record.
Chan Ho Park gave up the home run that broke Mark McGwire's single-season home run record.
Mike Bacsik gave up the home run that broke Hank Aaron's career home run record.
And the fan who caught Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run? Our old pal Dave O'Brien just reported with a touch of astonishment that he's wearing a Mets jersey.
Who says we're not a part of home run history?
In other news from Tuesday night, the team Hank Aaron used to play for and still works for beat the team Mike Bacsik used to pitch for…beat them rather handily. With a 756th career home run being hit across the continent, I consider the matter trivial. As Hank Aaron recorded a graceful, gracious, great message of congratulations to somebody he probably wanted nothing to do with, for one Tuesday night, I'm willing to let this Atlanta victory over the Mets go uncommented upon.
If Hank can extend a hand, so can I: Congratulations to the greatest hitter I've ever seen. However you did it, whatever happens to you as a result of however you did it, whyever you act the way you do, you could play some ball, with or without.
I wish you had done it without.
I'm disgusted. Not because of anything he took or didn't take, but that such a repugnant human being should shove Hank Aaron out of the record books. I admire Hammerin' Hank no end, and even if he'd never taken so much as Tylenol, Barry Bonds isn't fit to wipe his cleats. Great hitter. Horrible person. Questionable validity.
I watched Hank secure his record. This one… I would have sooner watched Jeter, Giambi and A-Rod dance naked on my lawn.
Tonight, the TMI on your cap stands for Totally Misguided Imagery.
I mean Giambi? Naked? On your lawn?
That's it, I'm calling the cops.
what is the big deal here? a batter for a last-place team hits a homerun against another last-place team that leaves him merely 112 home runs shy of the career professional record (sadaharu oh, 868), and espn goes bonkers.
is this the kind of country we've become, corrupted by the lure of lowered expectations? a distant second place is good enough? sheesh.
That's how repulsive I find Bonds doing what he did. Doesn't get much worse than that imagery, does it?
Unless you add Clemens.
I wouldn't congratulate this guy with a hose if he was on fire. Didn't like him before he cheated, don't like him now.
I was what was once known as a “baseball purist”… but you don't hear that term much anymore. At least the most revered record in sports is now officially tainted and we can all just get on with the business of ignoring how screwy MLB has been since it died that ugly death in 1994. Congratulations, Bud.
Congratulations to the San Francisco Giant fans. You got what you wanted. The goal for which your team sacrificed it's season has been realized. I hope that Bonds homer achievement makes the fact that your team is in last place and has a very poor outlook for the future more bearable. Maybe now Bonds will retire, and the team that he's been holding hostage can go on about it's business of trying to figure out how to win more than it loses.
There was a game other than Mets/Braves?
I hadn't heard…
Regarding that game, all I can say is FUCKPISSWANKBUGGERSHITTINGASSHEADANDHOLE!
Congratulations go out to Barry. I hope it was worth it. Giants fans got what they wanted. All we want is to beat the Braves!
If the guy who caught Bonds' ball was a real Mets fan — or a real baseball fan — he would have thrown it back.
Would you throw back a potential million?
If it were I, that baby'd be going right into a safe deposit box…
Back in the day of McGwire and Sosa “saving” baseball, I was with the “aw, give it to the player” crowd. Now, unless it's a Met (and not the next Bobby Bo), I imagine I'd be working with Leland's or Sotheby's or whoever could make me a buck. At least Bonds says he doesn't care. If A-Rod wants his 500th, give the guy who caught it a thousand bucks…per every homer you've hit in your career.
Take a peak at the latest SI. Interesting Bonds article. It has a break down of his numbers- and I mean all his numbers including height and weight. It does seem something profound happened to his body starting in 96' extending through 2001..Try and remember that 73 home run season. The entire year seemed unreal. I could not help but thinking how he was doing it? For that matter I felt the same way about Mcguire and Sosa. Those numbers seemed so ridiculous! They still do!! I tried to rationalize it by saying the Ballparks are too hitter friendly or that the pitching was basically crappy through out the league and that the players where bigger and stronger based on better training..However I still wonder.. The fact is Greg is that I don't really want to know if all three of them cheated. I really want to believe that they didn't. I love the game so much that I want to believe it simply happened in the course of the games progression. But I am also not a child. I lost all my innocence in Baseball on a day in June in the year 1977..Nope I don't want to know. And I don't hate Bonds as he is the greatest hitter of his generation. His swing is too sweet his eyes too keen. I wish he was on our side..
Rich
It's not a potential million. It's about $100,000, according to estimates. This is because many investors worry that the ball will drop in value if Bonds is found to have lied about steroid usage.
If you have a good job and a good life, $100,000 won't change much. That money will be gone soon enough, but if you have the guts to throw the ball back, you'll always be the guy/girl who threw back Bonds' record-breaking home run ball. And that would easily be worth $100,000 to me.
Or as Nelson Rockefeller put it to reporters in one 1960s campaign swing, “Take your average family of four making a hundred thousand dollars…”
I'd like to say I'd throw it back. But holding $100,000 in my hand? I dunno.
Fortunately, I have the reaction time of a sloth on heroin, so this will remain utterly theoretical where I'm concerned.
You can't bring reality in here. Realistically, there'd be no chance of me catching the ball because I'd duck and cover my head instead of grabbing it. Also, when I tried to throw it back, I'd probably toss it smack into the railing or something, setting off a new melee.
But this isn't about reality. It's about principle.
This is how I support our 756 home run champion: http://www.756iwasthereblogspot.com
I was there at the game and i was totally impressed when Barry Bonds finally broke the record. Also in attendance for ball 755. I have much love for the Bay Area.