When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

08.08.2007
756

Congratulations, Barry Bonds. Now let’s win the goddamn game. I went out for ten minutes to help my pregnant wife bring her laundry up the stairs, and boom. Honey, you owe me one.

Bonds’s address to the crowd — watching the myth, the villain, the poster boy, suddenly just a man with family and a deceased, beloved, complicated father, double up with emotion — was a powerful moment.

Nats 8, Giants 6: Bittersweet. The Giants’ bullpen coughed it up in the eighth. Hack. Expectorate. Record-setting home runs are fabulous, but losing sucks. You know what this really means: tomorrow starts Your 2008 San Francisco Giants. Call me a buzzkill, but to paraphrase Randy Messenger, the freak show is over, everyone can calm down, and it’s time to get on with the business of making long-term fans long-term happy.

PLODAG: Hank Aaron. His salute to Bonds on the video scoreboard after Bonds hit the record dong was as cool and dignified as could be. He made Bud Selig look like a pouty Bratz doll.
Also on the Network:



[August 8, 2007 12:36 AM]  |  link  |  reply
BawLa said

I must say, that was an amazing moment. I was speechless. This is what all of the pain has been for this year, and now that the moment has passed, it was kinda worth it.

[August 8, 2007 10:47 AM]  |  link  |  reply
johnP said

It's funny listening to people who probably never read a history book voluntarily, pontificate about how history will treat Bonds. I don't pretend to know, either. It's possible that 100 years from now, children will ask, "what's this asterisk next to Barry Bond's name?" And the wise grand-daddy will reply, "This star means something special. It means the record was set long ago, before DNA rearrangement therapy, bionic implants, and those dastardly x-ray vision glasses that the DAMN CHEATERS are using these days..."

[August 8, 2007 12:06 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Congrats to Barry, may he have many many more.

Aaron's speech was great, a must view, people can see it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070808&content_id=2136645&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf&partnered=rss_sf

Aaron's message was everything that Bud Selig's wasn't, particularly in that there was no reservation on his part in handing off the baton to Barry, no mention of Barry's "difficulties" or "how history will view this", it was sincere and humble, yet grand and historic.

I am very curious how reporters, who were hand wringing over their speculation that Aaron was upset or having a feud with Barry because of the steroids accusations, will handle Aaron's graceful and heartfelt statement which shows that their speculations were totally baseless. Aaron made this message 5 weeks ago, even before Barry hit the two in Chicago. It appears that Aaron is, as the article noted, a private person who didn't want to be in the middle of a frenzy or controversy, a frenzy or controversy that the media continued to whip up out of nothing regarding Aaron.

This kind of reminds me of a Bloom County strip where there is a crowd of reporters barking loudly as they move from one "news event" to another.

[August 8, 2007 12:51 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Boof said

What made it even more special was that my son threw out the ceremonial first pitch last night. How cool is that?

[August 8, 2007 12:52 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Dan from NM said

Congratulations on the little one tk.

[August 8, 2007 1:16 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

He did? How cool! What was the occasion?

[August 8, 2007 1:21 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Very cool -- what was the occasion? Is your son on a little league team or something?

[August 8, 2007 1:34 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trilljester said

I missed it too, ELM. My wife and her sister were playing Scene-It Friends, and they finished 20 minutes after he hit it.

I did watch the end of the game, and I thought that besides Hammerin' Hank being PLODAG, I thought Rajai Davis had another good game. Props to Bengie "Clutch" Molina as well.

[August 8, 2007 1:46 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Oops--that was a weird double-post. There was a hiccup in the matrix.

Highest non-Bonds OBP on the Giants? Rajai Davis, .370.

[August 8, 2007 2:05 PM]  |  link  |  reply
rocketdog said

Wow, dude. You are a buzzkill. :P Although seriously...I hadn't thought about it until now, but I guess in a lot of ways this is the first day of the post-Bonds era.

OGC: Was that the strip with the terrorist and the taxi? God I miss Bloom County.

[August 8, 2007 2:31 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Boof said

He was representing the Museo Italo-Americano for Italian Heritage Night. He got a ball with his name and date inscribed on it. Hopefully, the guy in the Giants organization will assist him in getting Bonds to sign it. We'll see on that.

[August 8, 2007 2:56 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Ah, so "Boof" is short for Mozzarella di Bufala?

[August 8, 2007 7:04 PM]  |  link  |  reply
KQED said

I'm writing from KQED Public Radio, for "Forum." We are looking for sports bloggers to potentially speak on our program tomorrow on the Barry Bonds hoopla. Please give us a call as soon as possible if you are interested. 415-553-2320.

[August 9, 2007 1:54 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Yeah, that's sounds about right. Yeah, I miss it too... (I'm on a roll! :^)