As Barry Bonds was playing the Yankees this weekend, I was watching the game in between commercials during the Mets game on SNY. I am a Mets fan, but since Bonds was conveniently playing the other team in town, I took the opportunity to flip channels and get a glimpse of him. This is when I started grumbling (to myself since no one else was in the room) that he was bound to break the home run record set by the legendary Hank Aaron this year. I usually like to see records broken, but this thing called “steroids” sort of ruins it all for me.
I recalled the time Hank Aaron hit number 715 as if it were yesterday. Since I was not around for Babe Ruth's dingers, I felt privileged to have witnessed Hank’s home run and remember the frenzy of talking about it the next day with my friends at school. We felt like we were all part of history, and since we were Mets fans, the idea that he broke a record held by a Yankee didn’t bother us at all.
Still, there was a good deal going on back in those days that we kids didn’t know about. We didn’t know how difficult it had been earlier in Hank’s career, when he suffered indignities coming into baseball less than a decade after Jackie Robinson paved the way for black ballplayers. We didn’t know about the death threats he had received as he inched closer to the Babe’s home run mark. There must have been a good deal going on inside Number 44’s head as he stepped to the plate and hit the record-breaking homer off another guy wearing the same number on his uniform, but we didn’t know about any of this other stuff.
No, all we knew about was the glorious swing and the great strides taken by Hammerin' Hank as he rounded the base paths. We saw the stupid fans running after him, forever immortalizing their bravado and foolishness on video. Hank had broken the record and that was fine, but the record almost didn’t matter as much as the idea that we got to see a moment of baseball purity. Ball thrown cleanly; bat against ball; ball soaring over the left field fence into baseball history. It seemed all about the moment: surreal and eternal and it makes me shiver still just thinking about it.
Article comments
1 - RJ
Bean him. Every at-bat. EVERY at-bat.
Until he is injured. And cannot play anymore. Forever.
That is how opposing teams should treat BB after he hits #754.
Never allow him another pitch to swing at. EVER.
Pitchers will be tossed. There will be suspensions. There will be fines. The Giants will gain a small advantage in their games during the regular season. (But they still won't make the playoffs.)
Keep him at #754 for months. For seasons, if need be. He'll get the hint, eventually. And then retire. As #2. Forever.
And he is "number two" (shit) in my book.
2 - Jonathan
it'll be glorious. Review his whole career and you'll see a Hall of Famer. MVPs, homers, hits, steals, walks--see the whole picture. Compare with his father, Bobby Bonds' career.
3 - Victor Lana
Thanks for the comments. I don't know about keeping him at bay, RJ. Doesn't that make everyone else as bad? As for it being "glorious," Jonathan, I would say that pitching a perfect game is glorious; pitching it whilst high on crack would be something less. The problem with Bonds is that some people still don't think that what he did was wrong.
4 - alessandro Nicolo
I don't know what I would say. I think I'll go with "what the dilio?" or "pass the catsup."
The shitty thing about Bonds is that he was a Hall of Famer (character notwithstanding) before all this garbage of taking special spinach. As a result, because he was such a great hitter, he began to hit dingers. And now, as if life isn't absurd enough, he's out to crack one of baseball's most hallowed (and over-obsessed) records.
Angels and Devils, Vic. You said it. Bonds chasing of the record mirrors life.
5 - mark
The biggest difference between baseball then and now is our access to information. Steroids were around in the 50s. We know now that many bodybulders were already at least trying them then. (WARNING: IDOL BASHING TO FOLLOW!) If Micky Mantle took steroids,(and if that was part of his liver disease, as it would be), we'd never know. It's only common sense that the "old-school", (legal at the time, they'd be doctors and scientists),steroid purveyors would offer them to the power players of the day, just as they did to the bodybuilders. GET REAL: The "good old days" were as corrupt as any other time.
6 - Victor Lana
Mark, one thing you can see on the archive tapes is that no one in those days was engorged like Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and company. Mantle's body broke down on him, and he admitted that he would have taken better care of himself (meaning less partying) if he knew he would live as long as he did.
I think the hot period for steroids was like 1990-2002 or so, before all the manure hit the fan. I'm sure there werre drugs around before that, but even if the guys were taking them they didn't look like Hans and Franz.
7 - Paotie
Steroids or not 800 homeruns, is freaking hard to do in MLB. I don't think the majority of Americans pumped up on steroids could even get close to 300 homeruns.
I don't know. I'm tired of seeing the Bonds watchlists on newspapers and ESPN. The sooner he gets the record, the sooner he can retire and move the hell on.
8 - Victor Lana
You know, Paotie, I first read what you wrote as "the sooner he can retire and move on to hell," but then I read it again and realized it was just what I wanted to read (I guess). Good point either way though.
9 - Johnny
I love to see Bonds hit 800 homers.That will make my day.He will be up there with Josh Gibson. Alllright.Go for it Barry.
10 - mark
Everyone has their "unfair advantage". Yes, even Hank Aaron, who was liked and respected by other players, and was served up a lot of "gifts" to add to his total, as Bonds surely -never- was. Subtract Bonds's steroid homers, and subtract Aaron's gift homers. The biggest difference between now and the so called good old days is that we'll never know what happened back then. Things -did- happened though. Would anyone really be all that surprised if the Babe got shot up with stimulants before games. Just to cure the hangover, of course.