Posted on 07/02/2007 10:37:45 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Seeing as this All-Star Game is going to be a San Francisco thing anyway, they might as well have put Barry Bonds in the middle of it, in the city and amid the fans that adore him without reservation.
Besides, most of the game will be played at night. No shadows.
Bonds overtook Alfonso Soriano in the final days of balloting, a quarter million-vote rally that put him into the National League outfield with Ken Griffey Jr. and Carlos Beltran.
So, presumably in the hours before he chases down Hank Aaron, before he forces an in-or-out answer from Bud Selig, Bonds will stand on the ball field where they count his home runs with panels in right-center field, his walks with rubber chickens down the right-field line, his detractors with rigid forefingers from the big glove to McCovey Cove.
"I'm at a loss for words right now," Bonds told reporters in San Francisco. "It just means more 'cause I'm at home. This is my town. This is my house. You can't say enough about being at home. It's great. This is the one I'll remember all time. This is the one I'll remember forever."
Bonds has been selected to 13 others and this will be his 12th start.
He is batting .304, back from .265 a little more than a month ago, with 16 home runs and 40 RBIs. He leads baseball in on-base percentage, OPS and raised eyebrows. Matt Holliday and Carlos Lee were more deserving of the start, and the sport probably could have done without the headache, but this is Bonds' summer and, like he said, this is Bonds' town.
He'll make his first All-Star appearance in three years, so this could be viewed as a comeback of sorts, a couple weeks before his 43rd birthday. Bonds has hit 69 home runs since the 2004 All-Star Game, which was played in Houston, where his fellow starting outfielders were Lance Berkman and Sammy Sosa.
The National League has gotten younger and fresher since, resisting its status as the inferior league with four infielders and a catcher who are first- or second-year All Stars; Prince Fielder at first, Chase Utley at second, Jose Reyes at shortstop, David Wright at third base and Russell Martin at catcher. The pitching staff has six who are All-Star freshmen or sophomores.
Griffey, at 37 and once presumed to be the one chasing Aaron, still drew more NL votes than anyone.
Then, there's the snub-off, which once brought us the "Punch A.J." campaign, which Michael Barrett took quite literally.
The NL snubs: Jimmy Rollins, Edgar Renteria, Chris Young, John Maine, Ryan Howard.
The conspicuously absent, and deservedly so: Barry Zito, Andruw Jones.
The throw-in: Freddy Sanchez.
The vote-in candidates: Tom Gorzelanny, Roy Oswalt, Brandon Webb, Young, Carlos Zambrano.
The deserved: Young.
Meanwhile, of the 11 American League pitchers already in, only Johan Santana and C.C. Sabathia has participated in more than one All-Star Game. Josh Beckett, Dan Haren, John Lackey, Gil Meche, J.J. Putz and Justin Verlander are first-timers. The starting lineup is thick with veteran All-Stars, however. Tigers' second baseman Placido Polanco is the only newbie, and David Ortiz looks it, with three previous All-Star selections. The rest is thick with Alex Rodriguez (11th), Ivan Rodriguez (14), Derek Jeter and Vladimir Guerrero (8 each), Ichiro Suzuki (7) and Magglio Ordonez (6).
Sammy Sosa, who recently hit home runs Nos. 600, 601 and 602, was left out, despite 14 home runs and 63 RBIs.
Other AL snubs: Gary Sheffield, Orlando Cabrera, Jose Lopez, Curtis Granderson.
The conspicuous ones: Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Bobby Abreu.
The throw-in: Michael Young.
The vote-in candidates: Jeremy Bonderman, Kelvim Escobar, Roy Halladay, Pat Neshek, Hideki Okajima.
The deserved: Neshek.
If rotations play out as scheduled, it appears NL manager Tony La Russa, in particular, and AL manager Jim Leyland will have their pick of starting pitchers.
In the National League, Jake Peavy, Brad Penny, Ben Sheets, Cole Hamels and, if he is voted in, Young, could start.
Josh Beckett, Sabathia, Leyland's own Verlander and Santana line up in the American League.
LOL! That looks like a 1987 card.
Let the scumbag fraud be booed on national tv.
The guy who amazed me, bulking-up wise, was Michael Jordan. When they showed the before and after of him, I couldn’t believe it!
He would be if the All-Star Game weren't being played in San Francisco. Instead, expect him to get the loudest cheers by far.
Haven’t seen that. Seems like ppl are finally on to Clemens. I think the bat throwing incident in the 2000 WS was roid rage. And I think roids enable him to keep up his fitness regime and recover quickly enough, and keep those legs big and strong.
I don’t like the way all stars are picked. I think they should get in based on their current averages. By that standard Bonds would get in.
All Star Barry Bonds? OK, here goes ... B*A*R*R*Y***B*O*N*D*S
It’s a popularity contest, as they say.
Agreed - personality-wise, is Barry or Hammerin’ Hank the bigger a-hole?
I am happy to see 5 Tigers getting in without Jim Leyland’s help. Magglio Ordonez deserves to go due to his .389 batting average. Pudge is a natural all star simply because he’s the best catcher out there. Placido Polanco has earned his way in after 10 years and the .330 batting average isn’t hurting much. Justin Verlander’s recent no hitter probably didn’t hurt in the player’s voting. Carlos Guillen was another player’s choice.
Shefield would be an obvious choice but but he irritates people by running his mouth. Kenny Rogers would be another obvious choice but he’s only had 2 starts this year.
All in all I think it’s going to be a strong national league team.
When I was twenty years old, I was in the Navy. My military ID said I was five feet eight inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. I never measured but I would guess I was about eight percent body fat. Today I'm forty. I've been out of the Navy for fifteen years. I stand five feet eight inches tall and I weigh one hundred and ninety-eight pounds, fifteen percent of which is body fat, measured electronically. In other words, I'm pretty stout.
My before and after pics are night and day, but I've never done steroids or HGH of any kind. What I did do was bust my ass in the gym and in my everyday life. Until the last five years I never had to watch what I ate - I just ate whatever and grew. However, over the last five years I've had to make a concious effort to take in the proper amounts of protein and carbohydrates and hit the gym five days a week.
Did Barry juice? I have no idea. What I do know is that attempting to use pics twenty years apart as evidence doesn't wash.
He's an outstanding ballplayer in every aspect of the game. Since his rookie season in 1986, he's only really had a few bad seasons and one if them was when he was injured and when his dad died.
Typically, people who make the claims of him juicing are not true fans who follow the game very closely. Anyone can look at his stats and see that since his rookie year, he's improved in almost every area. His overall averages, on base percentage, and slugging percentages have gone up while his strikeouts have declined - Steroids can't make that happen. Surprisingly, his home run stats are fairly consistent across his career, rising slightly as his overall average went up, his strikeouts declined, and his base on balls numbers skyrocketed. But with the exception of that single seventy-three knock year, he was pretty consistent including the slight ups and downs that plague every player.
These stats show an outstanding ballplayer improving and honing his skills over a twenty-some-odd year career.
Was he juicing? I have no idea.
Nor do I care.
Even though I'm not a big fan of his, he's one of the finest ballplayers I've ever seen and it's been amazing to watch his career.
I can't wait for the day he hits number seven fifty-six and I get to see all the wailing and gnashing of teeth from all the never-has-beens, wanna-bes, washed-up-has-beens, and never-will-bes that infest the sport like a cancer. The burn off will be glorious.
Col Sanders
Has he hit a homerun into McCovey Cove since he returned from the year he took off for his knee operations and system cleaning?
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