Free Republic

All-Star promo with David Ortiz as Babe Ruth irks NY OAKLAND, Calif. - Touchy, touchy, touchy. Like a colicky baby who’s also battling diaper rash, the 2008 Yankees can’t seem to stop bawling. Besides a good burp, they also need to grow up. As if sitting in last place in the AL East were not bad enough, the Bronx Bombers discovered on Thursday that after years of planning for this summer’s All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, they were the last to discover that a new “Call Your Shot” insurance-company promotion would feature the Red Sox [team stats]’ David Ortiz [stats]...

Family and sports — likely in that order. Those were John Jay Barry's greatest loves. Though he passed away some 20 years ago, the den of his home on Main Street still personifies the nostalgic renaissance man who used to occupy it. Beside his desk (a deep mahogany brown wood encasement that stretches from the floor to the ceiling and nearly wall to wall) is a latch hook rug with the Brown University seal. An authentic Lionel train snakes across the top shelf of the desk, next to a series of one of a kind hand made ships. In...

First, they shattered Babe Ruth's season long-ball record, making 60 home runs sound like a distinctly ordinary number, one that was almost shrugged off in modern baseball's environment of souped-up sluggers. Then, they turned the Babe's career record of 714 home runs into an afterthought, barely mentioned as first Henry Aaron and now Barry Bonds shot past it and kept right on going. That left Ruth with one distinction, one moment no one has been able to match, a singular statement that nobody but the boisterous Babe would ever have the audacity to even attempt, especially in the pressure cooker...

How does El Hombre match up against the Sultan of Swat? This spring, Washington University scientists, at the request of GQ magazine, put Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols through a series of tests similar to those given to Babe Ruth 85 years ago — tests ranging from finger tapping to visual responses to bat speed. The results? Both men aced the tests, and their results were strikingly similar. In 1921, psychologists at Columbia University put Ruth through scientific tests to try to determine what made him great. He had faster than average reflexes, steady nerves, and superior sight and hearing. The...

Three defense attorneys in a Miami terrorism case who were trapped in war-torn Beirut while interviewing witnesses got tired of waiting for the U.S. Marines to evacuate them. So they hitched a ride on a Norwegian freighter. The attorneys -- Orlando do Campo of the federal public defender's office in Miami, Andrew Patel of New York City and William Swor of Detroit -- along with an Arabic-speaking interpreter they hired arrived in Cyprus on July 19 and caught flights home the next day. "I'm just glad we didn't wait for the Marines," Patel said in an interview from home Friday....

See for example this thread first. Barry Bonds has hit seven fifteen It still remains to be seen if he'll be "Hall of Fame". For the sake of the game I sure wish he had kept himself clean!

"Bonds on Bonds," the ESPN reality series featuring the San Francisco Giants slugger, will go on hiatus after two more shows, and is unlikely to return on a regular basis, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday. Bonds tied Babe Ruth for No. 2 on the all-time home run list at 714 last week, but has hit just six homers this year and Hank Aaron's record 755 is a long way off. Meanwhile, St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols has hit 23 home runs. "If Barry was hitting home runs at Albert Pujols' pace, we would continue," producer Mike Tollin said. The...

Bonds: "I won't stop until I beat Oh" San Francisco , CA - It's one of the benefits of being personal friends with a baseball legend - he gives you what he won't give others. Back when we both played for Serra High, Barry used to boast that, one day, he'd be the Home Run king. Just days after hitting number 714 to tie Babe Ruth's 2nd place number, I gave my old friend Barry a call and asked him how it felt. "This ain't nothing," He said. "I'm not going to stop until I'm the best." Does that mean...

"The best way to pitch Babe Ruth is to pitch behind him. He has no weaknesses except for [intentional] walks. You have your choice -- one base on four balls or four bases on one ball." -- Waite Hoyt At 35, right-hander Waite Hoyt was pretty much done and merely hanging on to draw a Depression-era paycheck from the Pittsburgh Pirates. But he and the Bambino had been teammates on the New York Yankees' Murderers' Row teams a decade earlier, so now fellow pitcher Red Lucas was soliciting advice on how to handle the greatest slugger in baseball history before...

(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. Barry, meet the Babe. Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth for second place on the career list with his 714th home run Saturday, a shot into the first deck of elevated stands in right-center leading off the second inning against the Oakland Athletics. The ball landed about eight rows up in the seats overlooking the high fence just to the left of the out-of-town scoreboard. Though the A's don't provide estimated distances on home runs, the ball appeared to travel about 400 feet -- far from being one of his trademark behemoth drives. The ball was caught on...

Just as Henry Aaron has learned, Barry Bonds will find out that even though he has matched Babe Ruth's career home run total, he will not be able to catch Ruth in enduring eminence. Bonds hit his 714th career home run today. His next home run will send him past Ruth into second place behind Aaron and his 755 home runs. Aaron broke Ruth's record 32 years ago, in 1974, which was 39 years after Ruth had hit his last home run and retired. That means that Ruth hasn't hit a home run for nearly 71 years, but the number...

Barry Bonds circles the bases these days to the sound of one hand clapping ... and one knee creaking. The Shambino is just a homer away from 714 -- Babe Ruth's address -- but the only people outside of McCovey Cove who seem to care are the ones at ESPN, his own private Paraguay. Barry's their boy. To the bitter end. And rarely has the pursuit of a record left such a sour taste. Indeed, Bonds' growing home run total elicits about the same response from the masses as that tote board in New York City, the one that keeps...

What Would You Do If You Caught Barry Bonds' 756th HR Ball?

(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...

FORT MYERS, Fla. - David Wells gave up Barry Bonds’ 701st home run. He doesn’t want the Giants slugger to pass Babe Ruth’s total of 714. “No. Not really,” the Boston Red Sox left-hander said Wednesday, one day after excerpts of a book were released alleging that Bonds used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds needs seven homers to pass Ruth for second place and 48 to overtake Hank Aaron for the top spot. Wells praised Bonds’ baseball skills but said he should “be a man and come out and say that he did it” if he used steroids.

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons...*SNIP* ...By 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle. BALCO tracked Bonds' usage with doping calendars and folders -- detailing drugs, quantities,...

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that...

Sammy Sosa has turned down the modest offer of the Nationals, which is just as well. There is a noticeable stench emanating from his 588 career home runs, just as there is with the numbers of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. The three are forever linked because of their eclipsing Roger Maris, who lost several heads' worth of hair because of the stress associated with his pursuit of Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. Or so it goes with each retelling. We only can imagine the potential physical damage to the three hulks who transformed their upper bodies with suspicious...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush, the First Lady, the dogs and cat, and their family are spending the New Year's holiday at their Texas ranch. On this New Year's Eve, 2005, although mindful of those who will not continue the journey with us into 2006, it seemed to me we should celebrate happy times. That is the theme of this last Dose thread of 2005. HAPPY NEW YEAR, to all. May your 2006 be healthy, happy and full of love. QUOTE OF THE DAY: From the first Inaugural Address of President George W. Bush, January 20, 2001. Americans...

It sure didn't take very long for Barry Bonds to start setting records. With his first home run of the season, Bonds broke Babe Ruth's 70-year-old record. No, not that record. Bonds most likely won't hit No. 715 until next season. But he erased Ruth's standard for most home runs as "as an outfielder," according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Bonds' first HR of the season was the 704th of his career, but more significantly was his 693rd as an outfielder, Elias says. All totaled, Bonds is credited with 696 as an outfielder, eight as a designated hitter and three...