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."
Were there any good Black, Latin or Asian players back then that Ruth would have had to compete against if they had played in the major leagues?
In those days, Pitchers went the entire 9 innings, so Ruth was facing the same old tired-armed Pitchers all season long.
Actually, starting pitchers pitched complete games about 75% of the time during Ruth's era. Some of the starting pitchers that Ruth had to hit against were among the best in major league history, including Walter Johnson, Smokey Joe Wood, Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Grove, Chief Bender, Stan Coveleski, Dutch Leonard, Red Faber, Urban Shocker, and Red Ruffing.
Ruth was an out of shape lop who drank excessively and smoked and probably wouldn't even make a current Major League roster.
If you truly believe this, then you are ignorant about baseball.
Barroid homers again.
Will Bonds also pass on Ruth's .342 career batting average (compared to Bonds' .300 career batting average)? Will Bonds also pass on Ruth's .690 career slugging average (compared to Bonds' .611 career slugging average)? Will Bonds also pass on Ruth's 2213 career runs batted in (compared to Bonds' 1843 career runs batted in)? Will Bonds also pass on Ruth's 94 career pitching wins (compared to Bonds' 0 career pitching wins)?
Bonds is loser and so is baseball. Blah Blah Boreing.
Ruth is already better than Bonds in many different categories. Ruth has more career runs, hits, triples, home runs, runs batted in, and has fewer strikeouts. Ruth also leads Bonds in career batting average, on-base percentage, slugging average, and total bases. Ruth as a pitcher has 94 career wins and a 2.28 ERA. Bonds has never thrown a pitch in a major league game.
I'll say it again: Ruth wouldn't make a MLB roster in this day and age.
The nutrition, training and exercise regimens of todays athletes is light years ahead of what it was back in Ruth's era.
Not to mention, Ruth probably wasn't too concerned with diet, nutrition, training and exercise to begin with.
He's no pitcher, let alone a GOOD pitcher.
He's just a lyin' cheat who's sorry that he got caught....just like Maguire and Sosa.
Ruth was "an out of shape lop who drank excessively and smoked" . . . and still has more home runs than Bonds and also has a career 2.28 ERA (11th all-time among 20th Century pitchers with 1,000 or more innings pitched) and only 7.18 hits allowed per 9 innings (12th all-time among pitchers with 1,000 or more IP.
Ruth's juice was alcohol and cigarettes, Bonds is steroids and HGH and God-knows what else, and Ruth was STILL a better player. LOL
Bonds is so good he needs steroids and HGH and so forth just to catch up to only the batting exploits--but not the pitching greatness--of "an out-of-shape drunken smoking lop."
ROTFLOL
"Dude, see Bonds for what he is.. a very emotional immature person. Listen to the phone messages of him badgering his mistress and then listen to him bitching at the media and you have the same person. There is no question that he is one of the all time greats - pre steroids even. But he is also incredibly childish for a 41 year old man. He needs to be disciplined by a real adult because somehow he managed to miss out on that through his childhood."
Sort of sounds like the majority of basketball, some football and a few baseball players in the game today. If a winning personality and a good nature was what was required, we wouldn't have very interesting sports teams. It would be nice if all sports figures were great role models, but that hasn't been the case for a whole lot of years (Babe Ruth being a prime example of a failure as a human being while a great ballplayer). A lot of other good ballplayers are idiots, too, but society has seen fit to look the other way as long as they are savvy enough to fool the media (ala Jeff Kent). Guess we have to decide whether we want to judge the performances on the field or in the locker room interviews.
I can't fault him for being a jerk to the media. If I could mess with them as much as possible, hell- I'd do it in a second.
"Aaron looks like he bulked up later in life, too."
I have found that age tends to do that.
Bonds did'nt get "caught" for anything.
All we've heard is rumor and innuendo - no positive drug test.
Ruth and Bonds were/are both pretty close in height and weight, yet you look at pics of Ruth and Bonds, and the differences are dramatic.
I don't think Ruth ever lifted a weight in his life.
At least not one that weighed more than 12 oz.
Again, Ruth played in a different era - only against white players, mostly from the East Coast, while Bonds plays against the best competitors from all over the world.
Ruth faced the same handful of Pitchers, game after game, year after year, who had dead arms from pitching so many innings, while in this day and age, Bonds has to face relief specialist like 100 MPH flame throwers like Greg Gagne, who's job is to pitch just 1 inning, not to mention starters who only go 6 innings, middle releivers, set-up men, closers etc...
Babe Ruth faced one guy all game, same delivery with just a couple of pitches. Ruth faced a ton of tired Pitchers in the later innings, who were struggling just to finish games.
Ruth played in a Stadium with a short porch designed for him to succeed, while Bonds played at cold, windy, cavernous Candlestick park, and SBC park, statistically one of the toughest parks to HR in, not to mention "Death Valley" which is Right-Center Field at SBC, where HR's go to die, especially for Left-handed hitters like Bonds.
And, if Willie Mays didn't spend a majority of his career at Candlestick, especially before it was enclosed, he might have hit another 100 or so HR's.
Ruth also played much of his career when a ball going over the fence on a bounce was credited as a HR, and wasn't a Ground Rule double until the mid-1920's
And who does Barry Bonds have protecting him by batting behind him?
The only couple of years he had a good bat hitting behind him, he hit 73 HR's in one season.
Conversely, Ruth was on a team of All-Stars and didn't get pitched around as much as Bonds, who was walked over 220 times last season.
And again, Ruth had good bats behind him, so he saw a lot more hittable pitches.
One of the main reasons why Ruth has more RBI's, HR's and hits.
Bottom line is, athletes from Ruth's era would be average at best by today's standards.
Diet, Nutrition, Training, Exercise are a big part of the reason.
When Bonds pitches 29 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series, give us a call.
HR champ twice in 20 years. Wow, he's amazing.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Ask Bill James. Stolen bases are way overrated.
There IS the little matter of 500 stolen bases to Barry's credit ...
Now, now, that's an exaggeration.
Ruth had a career .690 slugging percentage when the league average was .400.
Bonds has a career .611 with the league averaging .407.
Babe Ruth was in a league of his own, but Barry holds up okay in comparison, which says something in itself.
Besides, comparing performances from different eras is pretty foolish. Put Bonds in a time machine, send him back to the 20's, and I'll bet you he hits lots of home runs -- just not in the majors, since they didn't let blacks play.
I would like to thank you for posting it. I don't care whether he uses, used, or will use steroids. He's a good player that's going to break Hank Aaron's record. And considering the treatment he gets (as evidenced by some of these posts), I can't necessarily blame him for all of his outbursts.
Actually, Williams missed time for two wars. He served in both World War II and Korea. And he STILL hit 521 homers. He could easily have hit 700 for his career if he had played those seasons in his prime years. For my money, there's your greatest ever hitter. I'd take both Ruth and Bonds' godfather, Willie Mays, before Bonds as all-around players.
And let's not forget this: back then, players played in real ballparks. Though famously short down the lines, the Polo Grounds was 455 feet to straightaway center. Griffith Stadium was 407 feet - down the left field line. That's 70 feet farther than most modern stadia.
Amazingly, SBC Park is only 309 feet down the right field line. Wonder why?
You may wish to put the stolen bases in a little context. During the 1920s, teams stole an average of 90 bases per season (14,407 successful steals during the 1920s, according to my Bill James Encylopedia). During the first ten years of Bonds' career, strike-shortened 1994 excepted, teams stole an average of 125 bases a year in a slightly longer schedule. The game was different.
Ruth was baseball's best left-handed pitcher, admittedly in a pitching-dominant era, before he revolutionized the game through power hitting. As far as I'm concerned, stolen bases doesn't even make ante, much less a raise.
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