756*
Uncategorized August 8th. 2007, 12:16am
It’s official: Barry Bonds has the home run record. He stroked number 756 into the right field seats about 10 minutes ago off of a Washington Nationals pitcher named Mike Bacsik. We assume Bacsik will sleep with at least three random women in bars in 2007 by saying, ‘I served up history this season, baby.’
Bonds homered. The sheep crowd roared. Charm has been a chore for B-squared for the last few years, but don’t expect any acrid exchanges with the media now that he owns one of the best records in the sport. At least for the rest of the month, anyway.
The column we’re most looking forward to this week? With any luck, Selena Roberts of the New York Times will follow-up on this piece she penned after he hit 755. After the jump, a sampling:
“An identity theft has just unfolded. In the crushing instant when Barry Bonds matched Hank Aaron’s legend in San Diego, there were suddenly two Home Run Kings in baseball lore: one a vainglorious impostor, the other an authentic icon.
With the two standing side by side, Bonds is the sultan in the costume jewelry crown, his 755 home runs written into the books with the penmanship of a fabulist.
His distorted immortality is lab made. Aaron was self-made. He was a modest player drawn from reality, with everyman features, extraordinary talent and a social conscience.
So it seems like simple math to vilify Bonds and exalt Aaron in a split screen by the numbers, with one Brave’s consistency measured against a Giant’s synthetic spike.
But the heist of baseball’s most sacred record is a more complicated fraud. This was a journey to deception replete with passive accessories (Commissioner Bud Selig), obfuscating co-conspirators (union boss Don Fehr) and ham-handed federal investigators who never rounded the bag in time to stop Bonds.€
11 Responses to “756*”
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August 8th, 2007 at 12:24 AM
Let me be the first to congratulate Henry Aaron. Class Act.. All the way.. Now to Barry.. All of the sports media types will bitch and moan but Barry is our home run king. They supported him when “pre-steroid era” and they should support him now.. Congrats on 756.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:29 AM
She’s awful.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:59 AM
I agree with Wags on that. I actually began to feel sympathy for Bonds during this season. I didn’t feel as disgusted as I thought I would when he broke it and actually I enjoyed watching it happen. Bonds was always a favorite player of mine and is still one of the best to ever play the game….no matter whether he enhanced his performance these last few years or not. The sad part about this is that Griffey Jr. is the one who should be breaking this record. He was far and away the best player of the 90s and probably had/has the sweetest swing in baseball history.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:00 AM
Yeah, I gagged while reading that.
Oh, and I was there tonight. Don’t call me sheep.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:15 AM
Let’s face it, legions of players were juicing, Bonds just happened to be the most talented of the bunch.
When you consider that cheating was widespread for a number of years, I would say the playing field was about as equal then as it is now.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:48 AM
I’ll never understand the “everybody else was cheating, so it’s okay/not as bad/acceptable that he did too”. He took steroids/performance enhancing drugs, that much has been all but confirmed. For me, this means his record should not stand nor should he get into the HOF. For the record (and all other records), I think they should be evaluated on a case by case basis over the years as more info comes out. Did BB juice? Yes? Strike his record from the books. Sure we’ll never know everyone who used but not everyone who used broke a record. As for the HOF, not to compare BB from say, Pete Rose, but the guy had an HOF career prior to the betting allegations so if BB’s pre-juice career is HOF-worthy, why not Rose?
August 8th, 2007 at 9:54 AM
That was almost as melodramatic as that Mike Vick post you had last week.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Aaron is a class act. Bud is an Asshole. Bonds is the man! Period!
August 8th, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Did Bonds juice? Maybe, maybe not. What were the effects? Minimal to none. Bonds 73 HR spike is no more out of the norm of his career than was Roger Maris’ 61, actually less so. Did Maris juice? By 99, Bonds had hit 40 HR’s 3 times in his career, and over 30 8 times. He had over 100 walks 7 times, including a 4 season run with 120, 151, 145, 130 (I guess steroids helped his eyesight as far back as 95). The 93 times he struck out in 01 (73 Home run year) was the most he had in over 10 years. He is one of the top few greatest hitters in the history of the game. He benefitted by signing with the Giants in 93 having his dad as his batting coach, and also his dad along with one of the top 1 or 2 greatest players ever as his mentors. He is a student of the game, and as he got older he was able to put it all together. If he did juice, it was a placebo and nothing else, because when I watched the drama unfold last night, he hit the ball with a bat, not a syringe,and not with a jar of cream. 43 years old, with Patrick Ewing knees, and he’s headed for another year of over 30 home runs. That’s greatness.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:54 AM
If you want to call Barry a Asshole..that’s on you but If you want to take away the things that he has done since 99 then you better take away all of Roger C records too! That includes him winning 350 games.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:09 PM
Right On Justin Ergler. Well put!