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.
Everybody wants to forget that part - that a sizable number of pitchers Bonds got those homeruns off of were also using performance-enhancing drugs.
The level playing field - and no MLB rule against steroid usage at the time mean that any talk of an asterisk is just ludicrous envy. Bonds' HR numbers are 100% legitimate given the environment he operated in. Steroids didn't help him hit more or longer home runs, they just kept him off of the DL...which is why he isn't likely to catch Aaron at this point. He's got too many nagging injuries and permanent knee problems.
"Amazing what some people are willing to overlook in the face of ample evidence."
Yeah, I'm one of those crazy types who figures I'll wait until I have all the evidence possible, not just "ample" evidence, whatever that is. I'm kind of silly about waiting till a person is proven guilty before castigating them. Go figure.
I understand what you are saying and I disagree mightily.
Back when there were a total of only 16 teams, and each team had a rotation of only four starters, the competition for those starting jobs was a lot more fierce than it is today.
There were very few "mediocre" pitchers. Look around the league today and you'll see that most teams have an ace or two and then fill out the rotation with a parade of nobodies. From night to night, Ruth certainly faced better pitching than today's hitters.
I’ve never heard that before. When was the rule changed?
Hard to decide whether to cheer the gigantic and awesome home run hit, or boo the guy who hit it.
Be as silly as you like.
I'm kinda silly in that once I see sufficient evidence, both direct and circumstantial, I feel I can make up my own mind as to what transpired.
Good luck helping O.J. search for the real killers.
What's Bonds' ERA? How many wins? How many innings pitched?
We'll be able to save the government lots of money. Now we can dispense with all those arcane trials and such. We can just run things by you! Who knew!
Don't play golf, so I can't help OJ out. sorry! ;>)
Everybody gains three hat sizes in their late thirties . . . don't they?
Babe Ruth was beloved by fans. Bonds is a racist jerk hated by nearly everyone he comes into contact with.
Yep, Joe Morgan was lying as easily as he was breathing last night -- his specialty, along with interjecting race into nearly every conversation. Did he really think that no one watching the game would know those stats?
As far as RBI per 162 games Aaron doesn't even make the top 25 -- Gehrig leads at 149, followed by Hank Greenberg at 148, Ruth and Dimaggio 143, Manny Ramirez 136, Juan Gonzalez 135, Jimmy Foxx and Al Simmons 134, Ted Williams and Albert Belle 130, Hack Wilson 128, etc.
Aaron's down the list a bit at 114 RBIs/162 games, and as I mentioned earlier Bonds is at 110.
I think in the 20s sometime. According to wikipedia, it says it would only have added 1 to Ruth's total if the rule had not been in place. But that's wikipedia and ergo suspect. It doesn't specify exactly when the rule was changed either.
Wow, you really are silly. You think "innocent until proven guilty" means people can't formulate an opinion until and unless blessed by a court of law?
Sorry, but I'll trust "my own lyin' eyes" rather than run around pretending that OJ Simpson, Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson, and in the sports context Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, etc. are "innocent" just because they managed to "beat the system" one way or another.
Well, Mike Schmidt admitted in his recent book that he took amphetamines early in his career, and said that they did help reduce fatigue, especially late in the season. Former pitcher Jeff Brantley said that when he played (1988-2001) he estimated about 75% of players used "greenies". In 1985, Dale Berra and Dave Parker testified in court that they got amphetamines from Willie Stargell, and John Milner testified that Willie Mays used amphetamines. The bottom line is that athletes have always looked for an edge, and always will.
Silly, maybe. I just believe in keeping an open mind. Different strokes for different folks...........
Yeah, but on the flip side, Ruth never had to face fresh specialist relievers who started coming into the game in the 6th or 7th innings, like today. That probably would have reduced his HR total some.
I think the point you are trying to make is that Ruth faced a diluted talent pool. Fair enough. However, the same could be said of Bonds today. Not because of the exclusion of certain races from the game, but because of the fierce competition Major League Baseball faces for athletes with the NBA and NFL. That competition didn't exist in Ruth's day. Baseball was pretty much the top dog in that era, and attracted the best athletes.
As far as I am concerned his and all hte others who are proven to take steroids should have their record removed from the books.
As you are certainly entitled.
We obviously diasgree on Bonds. Although we both agree that he has clear Hall of Fame talent ignoring the possible effects of the substances he's been alleged to have used.
The Babe played 6 years (1914-1919) in the Dead Ball era, and was primarily a pitcher in the first 5.
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