Bonds Hits 600!!!

KNBR radio | August 9th, 2002 | Sabertooth

[Sabertooth]

Bonds Hits 600!!!

Barry Bonds became just the fourth man in
Major League History to amass 600 career home runs.

.

[bootless]

I didn't follow that story, and I need to see ALL the facts. Before you start bashing me, I'm a divorced mom to whom child support is very important. But I'm not going to kneejerk this issue before I become informed about it.

Look. I do care when people do lousy things to other people. I am also aware of the occurrence of redemption when people have opened their eyes, discovered their God, and repented. We have ALL done lousy things, whether intentionally or not.

But here's the deal: I have a ten year old son who is also a Big Time Giants fan. He loves baseball - watching it and playing it. I am very careful not to point players out as role models as human beings until I have evidence of their works as a human being. The guys are who good to dogs and kids (so to speak), I will happily point out. There are some excellent players who are not nice people. So, they do not become role models. We admire their glovework, or whatever it is that they do well. And I try very hard not to let him become confused between the two.

For instance, right after Curt Schilling (who I really didn't care for because he was abrasive and kicked the heck outta the Giants on the mound) really impressed me with a beautifully-written essay about our country after 9-11. So, we talked about that, with admiration.

Just some seeds for thought... I don't pretend to know it all. Ty Cobb was a brass-plated bastard to a lot of people ... but he was still a great ballplayer.Had I been alive in his time, I would not have invited him for dinner, and would have someone like Honus Wagner instead.

[bootless]

Thanks, Blues. I'll look for it - I have a little room on my third shelf of baseball books... (has Roger Angell published anything lately?)

[BluesDuke]

That's exactly right. You could also throw Josh Gibson into this mix. He only played in the Negro Leagues.

You could throw a lot of people into the mix on those grounds, unfortunately. Not to mention the Latino players who played for years in Central and South America before their brethren began to cross into the U.S. majors, and how many years did the Asian Pacific players play strictly in those leagues before Hideo Nomo first came to the Dodgers?

(Want to talk about what some might call a freak performance? Hideo Nomo's first of two career no-hitters, pitched against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, yet.)

[BluesDuke]

Cubs-Rockies update: Moises Alou has joined in the fun. He's just hit his second dingdong of the game, and both times he did it off the first pitch thrown by a new Colorado pitcher. A meatball down the pipe, and bing over the left field fence. Now it's 15-1, Cubs...top of the sixth...

[Mr. Mulliner]

You're right about the pitcher's mound. It had a very immediate impact on the game when it was lowered.

Have you read George Will's book about baseball, Men at Work? Somewhere in there he says that every major change in the game has made it harder on the pitcher. It's gone too far, in my opinion. When you routinely get both teams scoring in double figures, it's not baseball anymore.

My point about the strike zone is that it not only increased offense, it lengthened the games. Because it's happened gradually over decades a lot of people don't talk about it that much, but the average length of a game has gone from a little over 2 hours back in the 40s (?) to over 3 hours now. Games are a lot more exciting and, I think, would draw better if they were a good 45 minutes shorter. Those who think that only runs will get fans in the stands are making a mistake, I think.

[BluesDuke]

(has Roger Angell published anything lately?)

The last book by baseball's Homer - well, actually, it is more proper to say that Homer was ancient Greece's Roger Angell - was 2000's A Pitcher's Story, with and about David Cone. It is a remarkable book, as you would expect, and Cone turns out to make a remarkable subject as well as having been a very, very good pitcher for a long enough time...

[Bogey78O]

So strength plays little in hitting homeruns. Fine. Okay. I know players don't bulk up for the fun of it.

[bootless]

Excellent! I was a David Cone fan from his rookie year - used to come out to the Stick whenever he pitched. Thanks.

I saw Roger Angell speak in San Francisco the year "Season Ticket" came out. Got to meet Hank Greenwald and his bride, and Bill King and his wife in the lobby. An excellent night. Thanks ... another trip to my local bookstore!

[bootless]

P.S. - Roger Angell helped me get 3 credits for sophomore English when I re-entered college at age 29. My English course exemption dissolved when I went from Connecticut to SF, and I challenged the course.

My essay subject? Angell's exquisite New Yorker essay that began, "Today they tore down the Polo Grounds..."

(I passed. I was hooked for then on - that was my first exposure to his writing.)

[glorygirl]

"Is this because Barry ate his Wheaties this morning?"

Not that this relates specifically to this thread, but does anyone remember:

"Henry, you didn't eat your Wheaties;
Strike three, you've got to play the game
Hush push, you didn't have your Wheaties
So tough, you missed another play..."

Or am I showing my age?

[BluesDuke]

I've been a fan of Roger Angell ever since The Summer Game, in which were included his earlier New Yorker essays done with love, bemusement, amazement, and affection about my original Amazin' Mets - both the 1962-63 editions and the 1969 surrealists a.k.a. the Flying Wallendas (in the World Series, especially). I have all five of his collections, including Once More Around The Park, which includes a couple of previously uncollected pieces including a wonderful profile of A. Bartlett Giamatti well enough before Giamatti's unexpected death.

[BluesDuke]

:) I remember Ron Cey, then the Los Angeles Dodgers' third baseman, doing TV spots for Wheaties in the 1970s.

[usadave]

Babe Ruth couldn't even pick up Josh Gibson's jock strap.

Prove it.

[glorygirl]

Yep. A lot of the players did. I don't think they all had songs about them, though. The one I mentioned ran in the early 70s, before Aaron broke the HR record.

[BluesDuke]

"Today they tore down the Polo Grounds..."

I remember reading that essay in The Summer Game when it was published. And I remember crying while reading it.

I saw my first Met games at the Polo Grounds, when I was six - it was a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates in August 1962. The Pirates won the first game, 8-5. In the second game, Met third base coach Solly Hemus got tossed in the third inning, so Casey Stengel sent first base coach Cookie Lavagetto to take third and sent a player, Gene Woodling, to coach first. In the fifth, Stengel needed Woodling to pinch hit and out to coach at first went...Marv Throneberry, to a ferocious standing O.

Come the ninth, the Mets were in the hole 4-1 to the Pirates, who had Elroy Face (then still the best relief pitcher in the National League) on the mound. But the Mets got a run on three singles and had two men on when the fans began chanting "We Want Marvelous!" for Throneberry. Stengel called Throneberry in from the coaching line to grab his bat. Marvelous Marv stepped up against Elroy Face and whacked a three-run shot to the right field seats for the game. It turned out later that the outfield bleacher fans kept chanting for him and wouldn't disperse until he came out of the famous elevated center-field clubhouse for a curtain call. And, finally, he did.

He had nothing on but his undershorts and his uniform stirrup socks.

[bootless]

I love A Summer Game - mine is autographed by Gary Carter, who was gracious enough to sign it, when I didn't know any better. He signed it to my dad, and I have the book again, now that my dad has passed.

His affection for the Amazin's is what got me hooked, too.

Was it his article about A. Bartlett Giamatti that highlighted the portion of his last name, "Amat," which means "he loves" in Latin? Wonderful...

[bootless]

OMG, what a great story!! I love that. Blues, you should write a book. I'm serious.

I neglected to mention that I teared up while writing that essay... I still have it somewhere. Mr. Angell pulled at my heart with that one... and it prompted me to call my father and ask him about that day.

[rdb3]

Somewhere in there he says that every major change in the game has made it harder on the pitcher. It's gone too far, in my opinion.

No, that ain't just your opinion. It's the absolute truth! I haven't read that book, but now I think I might. At any rate, I'm partial to the pitcher since that's the position I played (final record: 10-11, 4.02 ERA)

Isn't that just like a baseball aficionado? Twelve years after the fact, yet I can still vividly remember my record, ERA, and batting average.

Baseball. It is a game of numbers and multiple stories in one story. I love it.

But not more than Cleveland Browns football. HA!

[usadave]

I agree, but the fact remains that creatine is not illegal or banned.

Same goes for steroids.

[bootless]

Steroids are indeed illegal.