Barry Bonds hit home run number 756 last night against the Washington Nationals. Hank Aaron had a special video tribute, and poor Bud Selig was not in attendance.
Other news, A-Rod joined the exclusive 500 HR club a few days ago. And Tom Glavine become probably the last member of the ultra exclusive 300 win club. In today’s game, it’s a lot harder for a starting pitcher to get a W than it is for joe schmo to hit a baseball over a 350 foot fence.
A few funny lines from a few ESPN.com articles.
1. Article about the great stand-up guys in baseball today. Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki apparently can’t stop thinking about Derek Jeter.
Tulowitzki is a connoisseur of great shortstop play. He used to carry baseball cards of Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter in his uniform pocket in tribute, and he wears No. 2 in honor of Jeter. Tulowitzki has such a man-crush on Jeter, the Rockies jokingly purchased bottles of “Driven” cologne and dabbed it on before a series against the Yankees in June.
There’s nothing wrong with man crushes.
2. An article projecting career home run totals for a few top sluggers like Adam Dunn and Albert Pujols.
Rodriguez has established a 21-percent chance of hitting 900 home runs — more than Oh, even — and a 7-percent chance of hitting 1,000 home runs.
The funny thing that 7 percent chance of hitting 1,000 home runs is surprisingly plausible given A-Rod’s extraordinary talent.
3. Buster Olney on Barry Bonds and the Mitchell investigation.
Written this here before and will write it again. If Bonds is singled out and turns out to be just one of a handful of guys mentioned specifically in the final report generated by the Mitchell investigation, this whole thing is going to come off like the worst possible case of scapegoating.
Bonds is only singled out for two reasons:
1. His name is now next to the biggest statistic in all of sports.
2. His personality is SO unlikeable that everyone likes to hate him. But that also is a digg on Bonds who could have years ago tried to change the stigma/attitude around him.
All in all — in 25 years, he will be looked at as a great baseball player.