Right back at it

Barry Bonds didn’t waste any time to extend the distance himself and Hank Aaron’s home run mark. Last night Barry went deep against Nationals starter Tim Redding for number 757 of his career. But here’s the thing, does anybody even care anymore? Barry is the home run king now. Any updates are meaningless because he is only setting the bar slightly higher for the next guy who comes along, years down the road. Be it, Griffey, A-Rod, Pujols or maybe a kid like Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder, they better hope Barry doesn’t go on some kind of tear and put his final mark too far out of reach.

Also, wouldn’t it be hilarious if an American League team was able to actually get Aaron out of retirement and use him as a pinch hitter? Imagine if he could actually catch Bonds and re-solidify himself as the all-time home run king. It’s a bad movie waiting to happen.

A new king is crowned

Hate him or love him, Barry Bonds is the new career home run leader.

Last night against Mike Bacsik, a journeyman who will now forever live in infamy, Bonds came up big, going three-for-three, but there was no hit bigger than his third. Barry drove a 3-2 pitch to right-centre field, the deepest part of the AT&T Ballpark, into an incredible swarm of fans, waiting to pounce on the historic baseball.

Bacsik, whose father was also named Mike and pitched in the big leagues, actually shares a distinction with his son: He pitched to Hank Aaron when Hammerin’ Hank was sitting on 755. While the elder didn’t give up a shot to the former King, there also wasn’t as much pressure on him since Aaron was already well past Ruth’s mark.

After Bonds had rounded the bases and celebrated with teammates, family and friends, Aaron himself appeared on the outfield video-board to congratulate Bonds in a touching and classy recorded piece. I understand Aaron not following Bonds around to see the historic and didn’t understand why he was taking flak for it; this piece should erase any of the criticism that the legend had to endure.

And, for the record, I never had anything against Bonds through the years, except for two minor and actually quite loser-ish things: firstly, Bonds was never in any of the more recent MLB video games. There was always a guy on San Francisco named something Joe Young or John Dowd and you would have to waste your time going in to edit the player if you wanted that tidbit of realism back. Secondly, in old school video games, Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. were retardedly good. There was hardly any way to get those guys and it was even cheaper to play with them.

So, now, with 756 out of the way, let all those jackasses out there keep arguing (a losing cause) for that asterisk.

Tempers flare in T.O.

The hatred for A-Rod in Toronto, which started up back in May, finally boiled over last night with Josh Towers on the hill. In case you forgot, but really how could you, we're all constantly reminded of most things A-Rod does, Rodriguez yelled something to the affect of "mine" while passing behind Jays third baseman Howie Clark during a pop up, causing Clark to drop the ball and prolong the inning.

Well, last night, it seemed Towers had had enough of A-Rod's antics and decided to plunk him in the leg on his first pitch of the at bat. A-Rod seemed to take exception to this and decided to walk towards the Towers mound to which Josh responded by telling A-Rod to get over to first. The benches and bullpens cleared with nothing really happening.

Just when everything seemed to settle down, A-Rod and Towers started jawing at each other again and then, of course, the teams hit the field again. Particularily in the middle of the mix was good ol’ Canadian boy Matt Stairs who looked ready to pick a fight with anybody who’d listen. After this all settled down, A-Rod went on to score from first when the next batter, Jorge Posada, doubled.

Later in the game, Roger Clemens , who had already locked up a win, retaliated his own way by drilling Alex Rios in the ribs with a fastball. Oddly, the Jays didn’t even leave the bench as Clemens and Joe Torre were ejected. Come on boys, you have to get up for something like that. Also, I was really looking forward to the chance of seeing Clemens go Nolan Ryan on someone.


**Bonds hit his 756th home run!! more later!**

Something else to watch by the bay?

Do to the fact that Barry Bonds is chasing some sort of record, the woeful Giants are being broadcast nationwide all too often; is there a bright spot to that besides the chase and drama that comes with Barry? You wouldn't think so but I've found a reason. His name is Tim Lincecum.

While I am a baseball fan and watch it whenever I can and especially when I'm at work because, well, that's what they pay me for, I don't usually pay an incredible amount of attention to games involving last place teams. But while watching last night's last-place face off between the Giants and equally sad sack Washington Nationals, the kid on the mound of for San Fran popped off the screen for me.

His wind up isn't exactly orthodox but it's no Dontrelle Willis. He doesn't throw in the high 90s like a Jake Peavy. He's one of those "stuff" guys who relies on getting their pitches in all the right places and boy does it show. Since being called up on May 6, Lincecum has tallied the most K's by anyone in the senior circuit. He’s ahead of guys like Peavy and the Phillies' Cole Hamels.

Still, it's more than the numbers that impress me; it's everything about the way he pitches, even if it was just against the Nationals last night. I will have no problem calling Tim Lincecum "my boy" from now on.

Milestone mania!

It was quite the weekend for MLB milestones as I'm sure you've heard. Three pretty big numbers were hit, one of them colossal. To lead things off, Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to get to 500 career home runs with a dinger on Saturday afternoon. The last man to hold the record was Jimmie Foxx, who managed it at the nearly the age of 33; A-Rod beat him out by almost a year, celebrating his 32nd birthday roughly a week before number 500.

Then, the big salami. Barry Bonds took a Clay Hensley offering out to the left-field bleachers of Petco Park in San Diego. With that shot, he tied Hammerin' Hank Aaron with 755 career home runs — first on the all time list. The next home run will be even bigger of course; it will push one of the most hated men in the league into the sole possession of the hallowed record. That's assuming he actually gets that next knock. He sat out Sunday and didn't even get a pinch-hit at bat to try for 756.

Finally, to round up the weekend, Tom Glavine took the hill on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball looking for win number 300 and came through. An interesting point was brought up by a co-worker of mine: Glavine may be the last 300 game winner ever. The way that pitchers these days are going, they don't have the longevity and rarely the consistency of those from the former generation.

Think about this; Johan Santana, arguably the best ace in the league, has 89 career wins and is 28 years old. While it is somewhat feasible, the chances that he pitches until he's 43 and wins 14 games per season are improbable. With the amount of pitchers that blow out their arms, it may be impossible to go that late into your career in the future, but we'll find out 15 years from now if Santana, Peavy or Halladay have what it takes to stick around into their 40s and hit the magical 300.

It's back! It's finally back!

The NFL is back in business kids. With the Hall of Fame game between the Steelers and Saints last night, the NFL's preseason has kicked off. Sure, it's not like all the stars are shining — most only play a drive or two in their first preseason game of the year — and coaches aren't going to throw their entire playbooks and gimmicks out there for other teams to scout. But what the hell, it's football. I don't care if it is Jason Fife leading the Saints down the field trying to come back from a 17-point deficit. It's still NFL football and boy did I miss it.

And congratulations on the inductees to Canton, especially Michael Irvin who was part of the monstrous Cowboys offense of the 90s that captured my heart.