Thursday, August 09, 2007

756

Love or hate Bonds, it was hard not to be moved by his big record-breaking moment on Tuesday night. I happened to just walk in the door, switch on the live broadcast of his 3-at-bat of the night via Sportscenter. A 3-2 pitch, and BOOM. Did everyone else watching, at least the baseball lovers, also hope this one was going to be gone? It's pretty hard to ignore that many home runs and how GOOD the guy truly is, even with the help he had along the way. As for me, I'm (oddly enough) a bit of a waffler on the steroids issue, but I'm curious how future fans and players will judge Bonds, and the 15+yrs of performance-enhancing drug use in MLB.

Hank Aaron's video message was classy and on point, offering congratulations and a wish that
"(My) hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams."

Was a nice touch to have Hank present, causing the always impenetrable Bonds to choke up, and I, too, got a little shiver watching this bit of baseball history.

1 comment:

PJG said...

Two Words: Fuck Bonds.

You can compare him favorably to his contemporaries, clearly, as he was better than they and they all cheated, but comparing him to Hank or even Roger Maris is a joke.

Stats to back up claim: Age 25 - 32, which I'll call typical prime years, he averaged 36.25 homers. Good numbers, but projects to something like 500 on career. 35 - 39, at which point every other player in the history of baseball started to suck, he averaged 51.6

And then he has the balls to say he didn't cheat. Look at the before and after pictures. Fuck Barry. Oh, and there is no bias on my part from being a lifelong Dodger fan and watching him beat the Dodgers singlehandedly too many times to count. Nope. None.