Aug. 8, 2007 - K.B.: A new champ.
On the warm summer evening of September 13th, Hank Aaron swatted a homerun off of pitcher Jerry Ruess. Aaron trotted around the bases like any other homerun. But it wasn’t. It was the homerun that broke the record of most career homeruns, previously held by the Great George Herman "Babe" Ruth. Some of the fans liked it and some didn’t. Aaron even had to be escorted out of the ballpark for safety.
Fast-forward 33 years. The greats of the past, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and others had all faded away. New players, such as Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera had taken their spots on the field and in stardom. One specific player though went all out this year. Barry Bonds.
Bonds at the beginning of his 22nd season this year had 734 homeruns, 22 shy off Hamerin’ Hanks record of 755. Bonds hit #754 on July 27th and #755 off pitcher Clay Hensley. Three days later, against the Washington Nationals in the 1st inning at AT&T park in San Francisco, Bonds stepped up to the plate with Mike Bacsik pitching. Bonds hit a deep ball to center field but it did not go out. It was a double. Bonds would have to wait until the next at-bat to try again.
In the 5th inning, with Bacsik still pitching, Bonds came in for his second at-bat. First pitch, ball 1. Second pitch, ball 2. It looked like Bacsik might walk Bonds. Pitch three, barely a strike on the outside corner. Pitch four, fouled off. Pitch five, ball 3. Pitch six, outside and would have been ball four but Bonds fouled it off to stay alive. Pitch seven, barely in side the strike zone and just barely reachable to Bonds who swung and launched the ball to deep center. The croud was on its feet before the ball left the bat, cheering wildly. The ball landed in 435 feet away from home plate. Fans started fighting over the ball like it was buried treasure. Matt Muphy ended up with the ball but hurried quickly out of the stadium without talking to anyone. Bonds smiled and skipped around the bases. When he came to home plate, he greeted by all his teammates. But that wasn’t all who greeted him. On the digital scoreboard in center field, Hammerin’ Hank himself congratulated Bonds on his milestone.
New homerun champ –Barry Bonds.
Keep reading because later on this week I will search and try to give an answer to the question "Who is the greatest homerun hitter of all-time?"
K.B. is a reporter and founder of the IBAW
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Kingfisher
So, Steroid Man finally beat Hank. =(
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