Posted on 05/22/2006 9:08:03 PM PDT by Al Simmons
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 755 for Barry Bonds?
"No, [expletive] that. I'm going for Oh's record."
That's right. Barry's looking past 714, past 755, for the world record of 868 career home runs held by Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh of that country's oldest team, the Yomiuri Giants.
Driven to Win
Barry has always been driven. In high school, he used to compete over most things, whether it was home run totals, stolen bases, pieces of gum chewed or anything that could be counted. Once, he actually pulled out a ruler in the locker room in order to put to rest the question as to who held the most valuable record in the entire school.
And now that he's achieved what only two people in America have ever achieved, 714 home runs, he's not at all ready to rest on his laurels. Even though he was quoted in February of this year as saying, "I've never cared about records anyway," Bonds's statements among friends tell quite a different story.
"Hank Aaron? [expletive] that guy," He said. "I can outhit him, and besides, I'm not even worried about him. I'm not worried about the American record, they're going to 'star' me anyway. I'm going for the best in the world."
Oh's career home run record of 868 is 113 more than Hank Aaron's Major League Baseball home run record of 755 and has been held since he retired in 1980 at age 40, having amassed a Japanese baseball record of 2,786 hits, 2,170 RBIs, and a lifetime batting average of .301.
And Bonds is hot on his trail.
"My knee? Not a worry," he claims. "Pain isn't nothing but French for 'bread'. I'm going to take it all."
And knowing Barry, I don't doubt it.
The obnoxious Kieth Olbermann of MSNBC has awarded Drudge the title of today's 2nd Worse Person in the World for his linking to the bogus site.
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