The New Homerun King
The same way I was all set to sngrily blog about the Scott Proctor trade, I was also all set to angrily blog about Barry Bonds eventual breaking of the career homerun mark. Then a crazy thing happened (on the same night as I changed my mind about the Proctor trade) Bonds hit the homerun that broke the record.
Now I don't want to sit here all preachy and talk about how large his head has gotten in recent season, or how he has physically changed in that time. I'll write about how he was the most feared hitter of this generation (if not all time), and how he had quite possibly the best eye in the history of baseball. Of course his career will always be sullied with the alleged steroid use, but until we all talk about how many pitchers and other hitters were using steroids we should celebrate the history we just witnessed.
The same way pitching stats were inflated in the Deadball Era this era will become known as the Steroid Era. Do we discount the brilliance of Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax because they pitched from a higher mound or with not as lively a ball. Of course not. So we shouldn't discredit what Bonds has done either. I'm not saying I condone what he did. I'm just saying it was tremendously widespread, and in a lot more hands then what we really know. What I witnessed on Tuesday night was history be made. I got to see one of the most sacred records in all of sports broken (of course in about 7 years ARod will destroy that mark). I got to see a young man tear up when he spoke of his deceased father who taught him the game and meant so much to him. I also saw quite possibly the most stand up man in the history of sports, Hank Aaron, give a video tribute to Barry. It was a virtual passing of the torch that I don't think anyone expected. It caught me by surprise.
All in all it was a moment that moved me. I didn't expect to be moved, but I was.
Now I don't want to sit here all preachy and talk about how large his head has gotten in recent season, or how he has physically changed in that time. I'll write about how he was the most feared hitter of this generation (if not all time), and how he had quite possibly the best eye in the history of baseball. Of course his career will always be sullied with the alleged steroid use, but until we all talk about how many pitchers and other hitters were using steroids we should celebrate the history we just witnessed.
The same way pitching stats were inflated in the Deadball Era this era will become known as the Steroid Era. Do we discount the brilliance of Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax because they pitched from a higher mound or with not as lively a ball. Of course not. So we shouldn't discredit what Bonds has done either. I'm not saying I condone what he did. I'm just saying it was tremendously widespread, and in a lot more hands then what we really know. What I witnessed on Tuesday night was history be made. I got to see one of the most sacred records in all of sports broken (of course in about 7 years ARod will destroy that mark). I got to see a young man tear up when he spoke of his deceased father who taught him the game and meant so much to him. I also saw quite possibly the most stand up man in the history of sports, Hank Aaron, give a video tribute to Barry. It was a virtual passing of the torch that I don't think anyone expected. It caught me by surprise.
All in all it was a moment that moved me. I didn't expect to be moved, but I was.
Labels: Sports
posted by LEV at
11:16 AM
1 Comments:
Well, not surprisingly, count me out of the celebration.
It happened and I'm over it. Now I can spend the next couple of years arguing Hank's superiority to Bonds just as I had to defend Aaron in comparisons to Ruth until the record was eclipsed.
You're correct in the sense that if we're going to apply asterisks in the record books, the entire argument becomes very, very broad. But somebody is going to have to make a historical note of the Steroid Era other than the fans, and I'm not exactly brimming with confidence that Bud Selig is going to be that man.
You know who's going to be a great commish when Bud steps down? A gentleman by the name of John Schuerholz.
2009 can't come soon enough.
By
D. Rock, at 9:20 AM
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