BEFORE
AFTER
Posted on 09/21/2005 7:55:26 PM PDT by RGSpincich
Bonds, Alou lift Giants to win with home runs apiece Wednesday, September 21, 2005
By HOWARD FENDRICH Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- Barry Bonds saw the paper asterisks fans waved at him. He heard the boos and insults.
And when Bonds rounded the bases after hitting an upper-deck homer in his 2005 road debut, he stepped on home plate, pointed to the sky with two fingers as he always does, then put a finger over his lips as if to say, "Shhhhhh!"
On a night filled with subplots and drama befitting a September game between clubs clinging to faint playoff hopes, Bonds hit his 706th homer, then drew a walk before Moises Alou's go-ahead, three-run shot in the ninth inning of the San Francisco Giants' 4-3 comeback victory over the Washington Nationals.
Bonds' homer was his third in 18 at-bats since returning to the Giants last week after missing most of the season recovering from three knee operations -- and being the subject of constant speculation about steroid use.
He directed his post-homer gesture at a particular fan he said was giving him a hard time all game.
"He was just heckling. I just told him to sit down and enjoy it," Bonds said.
He was the center of attention from batting practice on, including when Nationals manager Frank Robinson went to the mound to talk to Livan Hernandez (15-8) in the ninth inning with a runner on and two outs and Bonds at the plate.
Washington led 2-1, and Robinson told Hernandez not to pitch Bonds inside. Hernandez walked the slugger on four outside pitches, then watched Alou hit a first-pitch slider over the wall in left for his 18th homer.
"He hit it good," Hernandez said.
Bonds was booed when his name was announced during pregame introductions, booed each time he stepped into the on-deck circle, and booed when he went out to play left field.
Still, when he sent a 1-2 pitch from Hernandez into the seventh row of section 468 for one of the longest shots this season at RFK Stadium -- which is averaging the fewest homers in the majors -- most of the crowd of 32,403 rose to watch the flight. There was a lot of applause and throaty yells of approval, plus plenty of flashbulbs popping.
"It's amazing to see," said Jack Taschner (2-0), who pitched a scoreless eighth for the win. "Barry comes up, they boo, then Barry hits a home run and they all start cheering. It's amazing. It obviously doesn't affect him very much."
Bonds has homered in three straight games. He is third on the career list behind Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).
"Hopefully, I can just hang onto it as long as I can until the end of the season," he said.
In a great closing twist, the player who replaced Bonds in left for the bottom of the ninth, Todd Linden, made a diving catch of Brad Wilkerson's slicing drive just in front of the warning track to preserve the win with two runners on. Linden went one way, then spun around before laying out to make the grab.
"When he started getting turned around, I thought, 'Wow!' We might win this game," Wilkerson said. "It took the wind out of me a little bit."
The rest of the Nationals, too, probably. It was Washington's third consecutive loss, and the go-ahead run in each came in the opponent's final at-bat.
"We're losing ballgames on one swing of the bat," Robinson said.
Bonds was the first player to greet Alou when he arrived at the dugout, but Washington nearly made the celebration moot against Armando Benitez, scoring one run in the bottom of the ninth and threatening to add more before Linden's catch.
Asked what would have happened if he had still been in left field at the end of the game, Bonds didn't hesitate.
"We would have lost," he said.
Giants Notes
Bonds popped up to shallow center in his first at-bat and grounded out to shortstop Cristian Guzman -- shifted to the first-base side of second base -- in his third at-bat. ... Asked how Bonds has looked to him since joining the club last week, Giants manager Felipe Alou said: "To me, my personal estimates: 80 percent when it comes to baseball, running and throwing, outfield. Now hitting? 100 percent."
How many stolen bases did The Babe have compared to Bonds' 500+ SB's?
100 or so in 20+ years?
BEFORE
AFTER
Bonds not dominating anything?
He's a 7-Time league MVP
Yeah, nobody gains weight as they get older.
That's all the proof I need.
Bonds will pass on the ERA and raise a stolen base total of 506 to Ruth's 123.
Further in support of Ruth's greatness (and I'm a Giants fan) is that, in his era, if you hit a home run you could expect to take one in the chin on your next at bat. I've watched most of Barry's milestone homeruns -- in awe, I might add -- and I've never seen him knocked down the next time up. No umpire would ever allow it. BB gets to dig in every time. Ruth didn't.
Babe Ruth - HBP, 22 seasons: 43
Barry Bonds - HBP, 19 seasons: 93
http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/ruthba01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bondsba01.shtml
How on earth would that support Ruth's greatness? Beanballs are more common now than they were then, and if a pitch was heading towards Ruth's face after every home run then he must have been real good at making love to the dirt and ducking them. The man only got plunked about twice a year, usually.
I stand corrected. But I'll still wager that BB normally gets hit because he seriously crowds the plate, and rarely ever takes one high and tight after a home run. By comparison, you read the memoirs of the old players, the brushback was SOP most of the time, and almost a requirement after a home run. And umpires allowed it.
BTW, the best home run I ever saw was Bonds v. Gagne. 100 mph pitch. Barry PULLED it foul. Next pitch: 101 mph. Barry parked it in the right field stands. That was superhuman.
Before
Aaron looks like he bulked up later in life, too.
He's a lot more flabby in the later picture, but I don't think that's what anybody means by "bulked up".
Bodies change in response to training or lack thereof at any age is my point. I'm 54 and get on extreme running kicks where my legs become quite muscular. Barry could have bulked up easily by intensive weight training only at age 35+.
The figures I gave were correct, except center was actually further, "center field: 487 ft (1923), moved in to 466 ft (1937)" post Ruth; "deepest left-center: 500 (1923), 490 ft (1924) moved in to 457(1937) post Ruth.
Your sentence is a little confusing, but I'll read it assuming the "only" isn't meant to be there. In which case, easily? No. The man was already a prime athlete, meaning he was already at a pretty high threshhold, baseball players nearly always being at their peak physically in their late 20s. It had to be some pretty damned intense weight training to move past that physical prime in his late 30s.
One thing steroids do is allow you to work out longer, and recover from strain and fatigue quicker. More intensive workout sessions. And since Bonds has admitted (in all but guilty knowledge) to taking some anyway, there doesn't seem much left to argue reasonably. People just don't turn out the greatest four-year run not just of their career, but in all history, naturally as they cusp 40.
Fine, but the impression you left of Yankee Stadium was not really true. The park was a lot harder than modern ballparks in some places, way easier in others.
Well, Bonds spent much time playing at cold, cavernous and windy Candlestick park, and more recently at SBC park, which has been one of the toughest parks in the Majors to hit HR's in.
Also, Right-Center Field at SBC park is 421'
And yes, that Bonds-Gagne battle was a classic.
He pulls a 100MPH pitch foul and into the bay, then hits a bomb into CF off a 101MPH Gagne heater.
He hasn't suffered any though. His home/road splits over his career are about even.
Barry Bonds used to commit any spare time before games to lifting weights, working meticulously to build up his leg strength for long nights of standing in left field and on the basepaths following his many walks.
His bum right knee no longer allows it. He is carrying a few extra pounds around his middle and vows to spend the offseason bringing his playing weight down from more than 228 pounds to about 200.
"I'm going to be skinny," said Bonds, who weighed 185 pounds as a rookie in 1986 but has not been near 200 for many years.
Such a drop is hard to imagine for the imposing Bonds. But doctors have told the San Francisco slugger he must lose weight to protect his fragile knee, which required three surgeries since Jan. 31 and sidelined him for most of eight months.
Considering the way Bonds has been aching after his first four starts, he is likely to listen.
"I want to get my legs strong again," Bonds said in a recent interview with the Associated Press and MLB.com. "Hopefully I'll train hard all winter. I can hit it, but I don't feel like I feel when I'm strong. I can tell out there. I'm older now. It's harder."
Complete b.s. from Mr. Bonds. See how skinny Sammy Sosa looks this year? Bonds will be the same. Disgusting.
Not just Sosa. Have you seen Pudge Rodriguez lately? Jason Schmidt's fastball took a noticeable drop in velocity this year. And where did Bret Boone go? Could go on and on.
It's a complete travesty it took the game this long to finally clamp down on the drugs. The records set during the last 10 years are so above anything previously achieved that they may never be broken naturally. How could the people who run this sport have been so short-sighted?
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