A New Homerun Champ...

In case any of you have missed it, last night Barry Bonds hit homerun #756 off of the the Washington Nationals' Mike Bacsik. I feel that I couldn't ignore this on the blog and still profess to be a true baseball fan. As always, let's hit up some interesting facts about this milestone.

I think one of my favorite things about Bonds' record-tying and -breaking homeruns were who they came off of. While Aaron hit his record-tying homerun off of Jack Billingham (who would had won 19 games and finished fourth in Cy Young voting the previous year and would go on to win 19 games in 1974) and -breaking homerun off of Al Downing, who would have a 17 year career, was an All-Star, and finished third in Cy Young voting in 1971, Bonds did not face such an illustrious opponents to tie or break the records. Bonds hit the record tying homerun off of Clay Hensley, a 27-year old pitcher who was so-so last year and--this is my favorite part--was himself found to be using steroids back in 2005 as a minor leaguer. See, God does have a sense of humor! Last night Bonds hit number 756, to break the record, off of the aforementioned Mike Bacsik, a guy who hasn't pitched in the majors in 2 years, before this season has never played in more than 11 games (once), and is playing for the Washington Nationals, who are are tied with Florida Marlins for last place in the NL East and are probably playing over their heads (if you believe in expected win-loss percentages based on runs scored and runs allowed, which I do). While ESPN constantly talked about how Bonds had hit more homeruns off of guys like Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Curt Schilling (each have allowed 8 homeruns, but I think this is less due to the fact that Bonds has them "figured out" and more to do with the fact that they are good pitchers so they have been in the majors a looonnnnggg time), Bonds hit his big two home runs off of another guy who people will say isn't "clean" and a guy who has played 37 career games over 5 seasons, which happen to span 7 years. Downing and Aaron became close and Downing embraced his place in history. If Bonds' victims do the same, I'm afraid it will be more of a chance for fifteen minutes of fame (and a few bucks at card shows--which I might add, are probably some of the saddest things I've ever heard about) then about embracing your role in a historic moment.

There's three things that bother me about this chase and one reassuring fact. First, it really bothers me the way that sportscasters have taken to telling the story of Hank Aaron. It goes like this:

Hank Aaron was everything that was right with baseball. He faced bigotry, hate, and pitchers with the same grace and dignity as a champion. After having put up consistent years of 40 homeruns, and never hitting more than 47, which he did once, Aaron finally stood at the doorstep of history. At the end of 1973, he stood at 713, having hit that one on the next to the last day of the season.

He was assailed with hate mail during the offseason. Living in Georgia, and the South in general, Klansmen threatened to burn his house, lynch his children, and shoot him from the stands. Still Aaron went out there, and bravely played the 1974 season. He hit number 714 on the first day of the season in Cincinnati. Three days later, with a record crowd of 53,000 at Fulton-County Stadium, he hit #715 off of Al Downing. Two boys jumped down from the crowd to congratulate him, but many thought of something more disasterous. It was OK though, they just congratulated him. The End.

It really is a beautiful story. But, what they don't say is the next day, the crowd at Atlanta dropped back to 10,000 and typically stayed at that level (with the exception of a June game between the Braves and the Mets where Tom Seaver pitched). Aaron went on to hit 20 home runs in 112 games, only 89 of which he played in the outfield. At the end of the season, the all-time home run champ was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for an outfielder named Dave May, who would hit 15 homeruns over two seasons with the Braves before being traded along with 3 other players to the Rangers for Jeff Burroughs (who was a decent player). The Braves also got Roger Alexander, a career minor leaguer who never saw the majors. Aaron went on to play two more years for the Brewers, almost exclusively as a DH, hitting 22 more homeruns. I don't want to channel Paul Harvey, but when you hear the rest of the story, it sounds less classy, not as dramatic, and, I would venture to say, sadder. Aaron was also very old when he hit record-breaking home run (especially by that era's standard), he wasn't an everyday starter, and while he is a classy guy, the moment wasn't the way it was described. Maybe it's because I wasn't alive at the time, but it seems to me that te was a bench player that year, only starting 89 games, and not one of the best. It sounds more like Craig Biggio getting his 3,000th hit this year, playing when he shouldn't be and limping along as a shadow of his former self. Yes, the record is about longevity, but it's hard to remember how the moment was when we like how we wanted it to be.

Another thing is that while there are books that detail Bonds guilt (and I admit that these guys were willing to go to jail over what they had written so they probably aren't lying), he hasn't really broken any rules. If he had used performance-enhancing drugs (namely, steroids and HGH) he really hadn't broken any rules of baseball. They weren't banned by baseball until 2003. He may be guilty of a criminal drug charges, but so was Tim Raines and Keith Hernandez (for those of you who don't know, Tim Raines would only slide head first into second base to avoid breaking his vial of crack in his back pocket) (and yes, that's the same Keith Hernandez on the Seinfeld episode with the "second spitter", who turned out to be current Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell). In addition, he has never failed a drug test administered by baseball, he has only once hit more than 49 homeruns (73 in 2001, and I know that number looks suspicious), it is widely believed by clinical physiologists that HGH has no effect on strength (though it does make your organs grow like acromegaly), and let's not forget that baseball parks are smaller now, there are more teams so the pitching talent is diluted, and there's better training (for an economist's take on this, read this article in the AJC, as well as the NY Times.

And let's not forget the old reliable "the media is ruining this". Sportscenter, who in a matter of 7 years raised the discourse on sports and has now ruined it, is trying to force it down our throats, with each of its ex-jocks pushing their opinion (yes, I'm looking at you John Kruk). Beat writers have their own quirky, somewhat snobbish thing to say (which, let's be honest, is just leftovers from some other smuck (usually national writers) writing about how he hates Barry Bonds. And national writers...I can't even go into this, but let's just use Rick Reilly. Reilly writes for Sports Illustrated, by far the leading magazine on sports in the US today. Reilly writes an article every week, which is printed on the inside of the back cover. I read it first every week. Here's his usual list of topics:

1. A heart-warming story about a blind child with no legs or arms, but has functional attennae and is a sports nut and so his dad takes him to games where he senses the game through his two functional appendanges and a wheel chair. (OK, they're not exactly like that, but they're the same stuff you see on Sportscenter on Sundays when they don't have anything else to run but need to fill up an hour and a half. In fact, sometimes, they're the exact same thing.)
2. Some story about being a parent.
3. A story about how certain hockey fans hate him.
4. What he would do if he could change the world.

Reilly has written about how Barry doesn't show up for team photo and is a bad teammate, only cares about himself and has too big of an ego to win the World Series (which went to 7 games), Barry's fans send psycho letters to Rick Reilly. That's just a quick search of what he has written. He also once tried to make Sammy Sosa pee in a cup, and said he would do the same to Bonds, to prove their innocence. I also remember he wrote once that the real criminals (Bonds and his personal trainer) were out free, while the guys that wrote the book Game of Shadows were about to go to jail for writing the book and not telling the court where they got the SEALED grand jury testimony. It goes on and on, and this is just one writer. Writers hate Barry Bonds--he's better than them, he has a sense of entitlement, and is very much a grown up child (whose still growing), he won't show up for a team photo, he's cocky, he toys with the media. The list goes on. They don't like him. And yet, they are the ones telling us that he is bad, he is wrong, and he's not like Aaron. True, he's not like Aaron, but Aaron wasn't like Babe Ruth either. And Babe Ruth wasn't AT ALL like the guys he passed.

The great hope of this situation, is the same hope that I have whenever anything happens of great importance. It's the comfort I feel that while I currently have no idea what to think of the current situation--is it exciting, terrible, horrifying, thrilling, relaxing, or some combination of any number of feelings--the best way to gauge what happens is time and perspective. Let's be honest, Ruth only played against white guys from the US--a very small percentage of the world's population, so it's difficult to say that these guys are the best. Aaron played at what was called the Launching Pad for the majority of a nearly 23 year career. He is currently second all-time in at-bats (behind Pete Rose--wonder how he collected all those hits?) and third in plate appearances (at-bats, plus walks). Bonds played in an era when the homerun rate skyrocketed league-wide, unlike Ruth who in 1920 hit more homeruns than any other TEAM in the American League (I still don't know how that wasn't fishy). Each of these eras had their sportswriters argue about whether or not this record holder was as worthy as the previous record holder and to look at how the new record holder has stained the game by making an unbeatable record tainted and attainable. They had robbed these writers of their innocence and heroes. Yes, a lot of Aaron's attacks were due to his race, but is it so far-fetched that Bonds isn't being treated the same way because of his race (and how he acts). I wonder if Dave Kingman would have been treated like this (a white malcontent).

The point of this is that it is reassuring that to know that history will judge whether Bonds was a cheater or not. Soon, the grand jury will decide whether or not to indict him (and grand juries usually are finished quicker than this--they're pretty much in the favor of the prosection, as the defendant has no representation, is not allowed to cross-examine witnesses, and only has to "probably have done" it, not be guilty "beyond reasonable doubt"). Sportswriters will find something else to ruffle their feathers, Bonds will likely play another season (though probably with an AL team so he can DH, as did Aaron) and then retire, and Americans will begin to discuss who holds the record. Kids will start remembering Barry Bonds as the record holder and dads, hopefully, will teach them what they believe happened in hindsight and who should really hold the record. I don't particularly like Barry Bonds, but even if he has used steroids, he's competing at a level no one has ever even touched, particularly for so long a time period. History will decide what happened and Bonds will be hailed as a champion or a cheater. Why don't the rest of us hold off judgement, or at least our wrath, until then.

Also, if you've made it this far, today is Tricia's first day of school. Pray for her.