Yes... Bonds 70! ABFT!
Bonds ties Big Mac with 70th home run
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By Jim Caple
ESPN.com
HOUSTON -- Move over, Big Mac. You've got company.
Just three years after Mark McGwire set the single-season home run record with a seemingly untouchable total, Barry Bonds matched him with his 70th home run Thursday night with a monumental blast in the ninth inning of Astros rookie Wilfredo Rodriguez.
After walking three times previously in the game, Bonds stroked a 1-1 fastball from the left-hander into the upper deck in right-center field to tie McGwire. He immediately dropped his bat and raised his arms in celebration. He was greeted by his teammates at home plate and kissed his son, who was serving as batboy. The crowd in Houston then gave Bonds two curtain calls and he tipped his hat and waved to the fans.
The record-tying blast ended a string of three homerless games for Bonds since he hit No. 69 on Saturday. Since that home run off San Diego's Chuck McElroy, Bonds had gone 2-for-6 with 10 walks and two hit-by-pitches, including eight walks in the three-game series against the Astros.
In his first three plate appearances on Thursday, all against Astros starter Dave Mlicki, Bonds walked on four pitches in the first inning, grounded out to second base on a 2-2 pitch in the fourth and then walked on four pitches in the fifth. He was intentionally walked in the sixth by reliever Ricky Stone with a runner on second, even though the Giants were leading 8-1
Bonds and the Giants have three more games remaining, in San Francisco against the Dodgers.
Bonds' record-tying homer came during the same week as the 50th anniversary of Bobby Thomson's famous Home Run Heard 'Round the World, hit on Oct. 3, 1951. And there would be a connection between the home runs. The man in the on-deck circle for Thomson's home run is Bonds' godfather, Willie Mays.
Nor is Mays the only part of Bonds' lineage. He is the son of long-time major leaguer Bobby Bonds, the nephew of Reggie Smith and a cousin of Reggie Jackson. "I'm just blessed," Bonds has said. "My father is a gifted athlete. I get a lot of information from someone I consider the best all-around baseball player, Willie Mays. So I get a lot of information from a lot of great athletes."
Mays has advised Bonds not to change his approach -- not to start swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Bonds has done that and now has 175 walks, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 170 set in 1923.
The three-time MVP also has a quick, compact swing that impresses his peers as much as his home runs impress fans. "The one thing about Barry Bonds that really hasn't since he came up is his stroke," Tony Gwynn said. "He's got the most efficient stroke in the game."
Bonds said he hasn't talked to McGwire about breaking the record, "Because I didn't think that it was realistic that I would be here today, and that's the honest truth. I think everyone needs to understand, Mark set a table. He's the first one, and it's his record and he needs to be recognized for his record."
He said that Tuesday -- before he joined McGwire.
When McGwire passed Roger Maris and broke the record in 1998, not only did the entire nation follow the chase closely, so did the Dominican Republic, home country for Sammy Sosa, who pushed McGwire all the way. That hasn't been the case this time. With McGwire's record still so recent, with no one else in the hunt and with September 11 still in everyone's minds, fans never got as excited about the chase this year.
Indeed, there was a mixture of cheers and jeers when Bonds stepped to the plate for the first time tonight.
Like Shane Reynolds and Tim Redding in the first two games of the series, Mlicki worked Bonds carefully. In the first inning, he threw four pitches off the plate; catcher Brad Ausmus slammed his glove into the dirt when home-plate Alfonso Marquez ruled the 3-0 pitch was just off the plate. However, Mlicki paid the price for walking Bonds when Jeff Kent belted the first pitch to him over the left-field fence for a 2-0 lead.
Mlicki did challenge Bonds in the third, when he again came up with the two outs and the bases empty. He got ahead 0-2 on a foul ball and swinging strike and Bonds eventually grounded out to second baseman Craig Biggio, who was playing in shallow right field with an extreme shift on.
In the fifth, Bonds came up with runners at first and second and one out, but Mlicki threw him a high fastball and then three pitches in the dirt.
The crowd at Enron Field booed lustily when Bonds was intentionally walked by Stone in the sixth, an unprecendented move considering the Astros were losing 8-1 at the time.
With pitchers hitting him and otherwise avoiding throwing him a strike -- it's been a wonder that Bonds ever saw enough pitches to hit. Yet he has. "He's probably getting, two, three, four pitches to hit, all night," Gwynn said. "And when he hits it, it goes out of the ballpark. It's amazing. It really is. His stroke is so good, he doesn’t have to hit strikes."
The 70 home runs are by far the most for Bonds, who's career high had been 49. But he has 564 in his career -- only six players ever hit more -- and could finish with more than Mays.
Bonds said he never dreamed of hitting more than 30 home runs in a season. "Thirty home runs every year was my goal and I just wanted to stay consistent," he said. "I also wanted to steal 30 bases every year, too, but I didn't know that I was going to get older and slow down." |
