Oh ye of little faith…Mr.Bonds has done it. History in the making tonight, right there at Pac Bell Park. May all baseball fans rejoice!
I was just in IMHO posting about this.
Now that he’s done it, I hope he gets at least 72, so the nay-sayers won’t be able to point out the homer McGwire hit in '98 that was called back because the umpire ruled fan interference. The announcers were already talking about that on the radio tonight, claiming Mac had really hit 71 that year.
So even as a Cardinal fan, I hope Barry hits one more, so the yahoos can’t lessen what he’s done this year with meaningless arguments.
Kudos to Chan Ho Park for actually pitching to Bonds instead of taking the cowardly way out.
and especially to Mark McGwire for cheering on Bonds in the chase.
What I’m curious about is…
Chan Ho Park?
Does anyone else remember another big-ticket HR served up earlier in the year by the Parkster?
Hmmmm… It’s a conspiracy I tell you!
Are you serious? The constant griping about how easy Bonds has it, and how the challenges he’s facing are nothing compared to what Mcgwire had to go through? Personally I don’t count that as “cheering.”
I don’t say this often, but cite please?
Despite the veracity of that, when Bonds hit 70, McGwire called his buddy Robb Nen’s cell phone and asked Nen to give Bonds his (McGwire’s) cell phone number so he could congratulate Bonds personally instead of just issuing a press statement. I’d have a cite for this, but espn’s already updated the main page and I can’t find the article now.
This is attributed to Tony LaRussa (not McGwire)
I knew it. I was just too lazy to look that up for my first post. Back in a sec.
I wouldn’t have posted just to say that, but I also wanted to say to Crunchy Frog, your fears are assuaged. 72.
I was just about to post that. I’m a Cardinal fan, but good for Bonds. No one can’t whine about that called-back homer now. The record is undeniably Barry’s.
okay… http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/ken_rosenthal/20010917a.html
On September 17, Mcgwire said: “He hasn’t been under the microscope all year. As far as the media coverage, as far the scrutiny, there’s no way what he’s trying to do would even come close to what I tried to go through.”
I’m working on more comprehensive coverage of what he had to say. But for now, I mean, this is what I was talking about. Big Mac being unsupportive. I hadn’t heard the reports of the cell calls or whatever, so maybe it’s not a consistent picture either way.
Well, it was his record. Would you like to have a career season like that only to have it beaten (in almost every way - walks, batting average, and all done in fewer at bats and games played) only 3 years later? Some of what he had to say may be sour grapes on McGwire’s part, but at least he had the sportsmanship to not be a dick about it when the record was matched.
But re-reading the thread, I don’t think McGwire has been cheering Bonds on either - why would he? It was his record, his claim to fame. But then again, I don’t think his griping was constant.
Well, he does seem to be saying at least the politically correct things lately. And without seeing an indepth, unedited interview, I wouldn’t put too much into even a quote like that. You never know what kind of questions preceeded the quote. Journalists have been known to do these sorts of things from time to time to create more than is there.
theoretical question: So Mark, do you think that this has been as difficult as when you were chasing a 37 year old record? It doesn’t seem that the scrutiny has been the same for Barry…you really opened the gates to make it easier for the next guy…
and then
So without seeing the set up or the context of the quote, I wouldn’t put too much in it. I’m personally neutral on McGwire, he seems like a fairly nice guy, not a saint. In my first post I was just pointing out that he was shown to be supporting Bonds efforts now. Even that could have been contrived, I realize. But it will be interesting to see how Barry reacts when the next guy gets 75…
I found a link to a commentary in the Sporting News on October 1st. I was probably giving McGwire a bit too much credit in my previous posts. I recant. Still, he does seem to have come around lately.
More importantly, this thread should get back on target of singing the praises of some of Bonds accomplishments, which are pretty damned impressive. side commentaries are mostly irrelevant right now.
Congratulations Mr. Bonds!
Yeah. First I wanna say that the tone of my first response (i.e. “Are you serious?”) was out of place, as subsequent events have showed.
So, at this point, I have spent a while searching for more info on Mcgwire’s comments, and all I can find is more brief references to it in some baseball columns. Geez, none of these sites have a usable search function at all! What a drag. So I’m gonna go with
And ShibbOleth’s point is well taken. Without more information, you never really know. So there you go. Kudos to Park for serving it up. Kudos to Jim Tracy for not being a little bitch like Larry Dierker. And kudos to Big Mac for taking it all graciously, all things considered.
Now that is unbelievable – a simulpost wherein both participants in a discussion simultaneously back off and acknowledge the validity of the other’s point of view. Even more unbelievable, I spent 15 minutes looking for that exact article on TSN and I couldn’t find it. Sigh.
Anyway, so yeah. Barry is the man. This year has been amazing. And if he doesn’t win the MVP, it’ll be a worse travesty than when they didn’t give it to Pedro just because he was already winnin the Cy Young.
Yeah, that’s gotta happen less often than 72 homeruns in a single season. 