Posted on 05/07/2006 10:00:12 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) PHILADELPHIA -- Barry Bonds is heading home, one behind the Babe.
Bonds hit his 713th homer Sunday night, moving within one of tying Babe Ruth for second place on baseball's career list.
The San Francisco Giants' slugger hit a mammoth shot in the sixth inning off Philadelphia right-hander Jon Lieber, sending a 2-1 pitch off the facade of the right-field upper deck during a 9-5 loss to the Phillies.
"They tell me that's the way the Babe used to hit them," Giants manager Felipe Alou said.
Bonds' fifth homer of the season was estimated at 450 feet, one of the longest ever at Philadelphia's hitter-friendly park. He needs 42 to tie Hank Aaron for the major league record.
"About tore that golden arches sign down out there," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "I'm glad he's leaving town, too, because he's about to get hot."
The solo homer cut the Phillies' lead to 5-3, but they soon broke it open and pushed their winning streak to eight games for the first time in 15 years.
The last time Philadelphia won eight in a row was a 13-game run in 1991.
The Giants were headed back to San Francisco to begin a homestand, but Bonds is not expected to play Monday night.
Bonds had been held in check since arriving here on Friday. He went 3-for-9 in Philadelphia's three-game sweep with a pair of singles. He had gone 11 at-bats since his previous home run Tuesday against San Diego.
As he took his slow trot around the bases, some of the Phillies fans -- who had been needling Bonds with boos and derisive chants throughout the series -- stood up, cheered and clicked photographs.
He struck out swinging in his next at-bat against reliever Aaron Fultz in the eighth inning, sending many fans heading for the exits. He was taken out of the game before the bottom of the inning, replaced in left field by Jason Ellison.
Carlos Oliveras caught the home run ball, specially marked to assure authenticity. The 25-year-old Oliveras, an Airman 1st Class who lives on McGuire Air Force Base in Fort Dix, N.J., paid $20 for his seat in Section 202, Row 7.
He said he is a Bonds fan and would probably keep the ball.
"I never thought I was going to be lucky like that," Oliveras said.
It was Bonds' fourth career homer off Lieber. But the seven-time NL MVP came into the game 5-for-36 (.139) against the right-hander, his lowest batting average against any pitcher he had faced at least 15 times.
With his mother cheering in the stands, Bonds pumped his fist as he returned to the dugout, perhaps trying to inspire a slumping Giants team that had lost three straight, six of seven and eight of 11.
Now he is one homer shy of Ruth's 714, one of the most hallowed numbers in a sport ruled by them. Ruth hit No. 714 in 1935 and held the major league record until Aaron broke it on April 8, 1974.
Ruth's total is the record for left-handed hitters, and Bonds has said he's more interested in owning that mark than catching Aaron.
Commissioner Bud Selig has said baseball won't do anything special to celebrate Bonds passing Ruth because it would only put the Giants' star in second place.
Maybe it also has something to do with allegations of steroid use by Bonds and baseball's probe into whether he took performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds has long denied ever knowingly taking steroids, though the new book "Game of Shadows" reveals his alleged extensive doping regimen the authors say began after the 1998 season when Bonds saw the attention Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa generated in their race for the single-season homers record.
Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to his role in a steroid distribution ring, and a federal grand jury is looking into whether Bonds perjured himself when he testified to the separate grand jury that indicted Anderson and three others in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal.
Perhaps no pursuit of second place in anything has ever garnered as much attention as Bonds closing in on Ruth. The Phillies said they received about 200 requests for media credentials this weekend, about 125 more than for a typical game.
The Giants do plan a celebration when Bonds catches Ruth. The team was set to take an overnight, cross-country flight and face Houston ace Roy Oswalt at home Monday night to make up an April 12 rainout. But Alou said Bonds probably won't play against the Astros.
As Bonds walked out to left field before the bottom of the first, fans in the front row of the bleachers unfurled a huge sign that read: "Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer. Aaron did it with class. How did YOU do it?" In addition, one `i' and the question mark were dotted with asterisks.
The sign came out again in the third. Another sign in left field read "LIAR."
Lieber (2-4) allowed four runs and six hits in seven innings. He is 2-0 in his last three starts after losing his first four outings.
Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer off Matt Morris (2-3) and drove in three runs for the Phillies. David Bell had three hits and scored twice.
How many black or Latin pitchers did Babe Ruth face in his career?
Quite a few, actually. ...when he went barnstorming.
I'm not sure if you can compare the two players. I mean really, how many candy bars named after Barry Bonds have been sold? Oh, the Baby Ruth candy bar was not named after Babe Ruth the baseball player even though most people think it was? Sorry, well, as P.T. Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute". Geesh, P.Y. Barnum never actually said that either?
As you can see, I don't know much of anything about baseball. I just don't watch any sport that does not have cheeleaders.
For those of you that do know baseball I have two questions. One, do you think that players that have used steroids should have their records questioned? Two, should Pete Rose be allowed in the hall of fame?
like i said sarcastically in #33. your not a little bit biased now are you?
Btw, of the top 20 pitchers with the best ERAs currently playing, only TWO are black/Latino (Pedro Martinez and Mike Jackson). ....so it's not like they dominate the mound.
Ruth would've been as dominant in today's game as he was back in the pre-war era.
Asked what he thought of Bonds, Babe, after putting down his cigar, and stuffing the rest of his hot dog in his mouth, washing it down with beer, smiled broadly and let loose a tremendous fart.
It will never count. Bonds will be more bitter than Rose ever was...with good cause.
How many Home Runs again did Ruth hit based on the big ballparks of the 20's where for example batters had to hit it 403 ft to clear left field at the Senator's ballpark, how about the Big Ballpark in the Bronx where Babe crushed his homers at home. A long out to left or center would be a HR in most modern ballparks that Barry has faced. How about the trips to St Louis' Grand Avenue where center field yawned 430 ft away.
Has Barry faced any ballparks like that?
How many games did Bonds win as a pitcher? Ruth won 94. Ruth was the best pitcher in baseball in 1916, winning 20 games and leading the league in both ERA and shutouts. He would surely have won the Cy Young if it had existed then. He was also a twenty game winner in 1917.
Ruth is the only pitcher in major league history to have pitched in at least 10 seasons and had a winning record in all of them.
200 hit seasons: Babe Ruth - 3 / Barry Bonds: 0
For the record, Babe Ruth stole 123 bases, not bad at all for a man who spent his first 4 major league seasons as a pitcher and who was never given the green light to steal in those years. Had Ruth began his career as a hitter and not a Cy Young caliber pitcher, he would have hit about 125 more home runs. Give Ruth the steroids that the fraud Bonds has taken over the years and he'd probably have hit 1,000 home runs. Steroids make a huge difference, that's why these fraud athletes risk their health and their lives to take them.
Also there were less teams and better pitchers. Now there are so many teams they are watered down with bad pitchers.
Ruth was great, Bonds isn't in the same league as him.
I am completely biased in this matter. Part of it is to counter the Sports MSM’s East Coast bias.
cool, please explain
Bonds is almost certainly a juicer, but folks are just deluding themselves if they thing sports stars of the past avoided steroids because of higher moral standards or any love of the game. They didn't do it because they didn't know about them or they weren't available, but if you had offered the athletes of yesteryear better performance from a needle I'm guessing that most of them would have jumped at the chance to shoot up.
How many of Ruth’s home runs would be counted as ground rule doubles today? I read once that balls that bounced in fair territory, but then went over the fence, used to be counted as home runs.
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