755!

Barry Bonds has finally tied Hank Aaron's home run record.

In the second inning of the Giants 12-inning 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres, Bonds smacked a Clay Hensley fastball into the left field stands and off an advertising sign at Petco Park for a no doubt about it opposite field home run. He'll sit out today's game in San Diego so that Bonds can break the record in San Francisco. The Giants will have a seven game homestand at AT&T Park starting Monday versus the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

How you feel about about this milestone achievement depends on your ethnicity and I've commented on it in a previous post.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig released this statement concerning the milestone homer.

"Congratulations to Barry Bonds as he ties Major League Baseball's home run record. No matter what anybody thinks of the controversy surrounding this event, Mr. Bonds' achievement is noteworthy and remarkable.

"As I said previously, out of respect for the tradition of the game, the magnitude of the record and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, either I or a representative of my office will attend the next few games and make every attempt to observe the breaking of the all-time home run record."

Too bad Hank Aaron and Barry's critics aren't giving him that presumption of innocent until proven guilty.

Barry Bonds-Why All The Hateraid?

On the night of April 9, 1974 I was an 11 year old watching with hopeful anticipation NBC's live telecasr of the LA Dodgers-Atlanta Braves game. I was hoping I'd get to see Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's home run record before I had to go to bed.

I really didn't need to worry about that because this was one night my parents weren't enforcing my 10 PM CST bedtime. I was watching history in the making so I was going to be allowed to stay up until it happened.

At 8:07 PM CST in the fourth inning, Al Downing threw the fastball that ended up being blasted by Aaron 385 feet over the fence at the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium for the record breaking homer. After watching all the ensuing hoopla, celebrations and speeches I ended up crawling into bed right on schedule.

Hammerin' Hank eventually pushed that record to 755 before he retired at the end of the 1976 season as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. At the time, there was debate on whether the new record would be broken. I knew that it would probably happen someday. I wasn't like the folks in Babe Ruth's era who thought that no one would break his record of 714 homers. I doubt that they even considered the possibility that it would be broken by an African-American.

Enter Barry Bonds. Son of a major league ballplayer and godson of legendary home run king Willie Mays. Would seem to be the perfect story for baseball history.

But since Bonds has had a tempestuous relationship with sportswriters over his career, he has been reviled and criticized by them for what seems like ages. And since many of those sportswriters are of a lighter pigmentation, the negative rhetoric coming from their mouths about him borders on racist Pavlovian foaming at the mouth.

He has the opposite reputation with his fellow major league ballplayers.

He's been accused of taking steroids, but his critics conveniently gloss over the fact that he's never failed a drug test. All they have are circumstantial accusations of use. Before I judge Barry Bonds, I want more than circumstantial evidence so that I can make a reasoned and thoughtfully logical decision on whether he did or didn't and then react accordingly. Until that evidence comes forth from the 'He Cheated' crowd, I'm going to continue to enjoy watching him blast home runs into McCovey Cove or out of whatever major league ballpark he happens to be playing in.

I've gotten to the point that I'm sick of the monotonous Barry bashing, the calls for stripping him of the record, the calls for Major League baseball Commissioner Bud Selig not to be there the night (or day) he hits home run 756, the inflated, biased opinions of (white) sportswriters that he's cheated, blah blah blah.

I'm a little angry and disappointed that after all the hate mail and death threats that Hank Aaron received in the run up to his breaking Babe Ruth's record 37 years ago, that he of all people would have empathy for Bonds' plight. It's gleefully being reported that Aaron says that he won't be in whatever major league stadium Barry breaks his record in, even if it's in Atlanta.

So why are y'all and much of the general public chomping on generous portions of Hater Tots when it comes to Barry Bonds? He hit homer number 751 last night in Cincinnati and is only five homers shy from breaking the record.

The bottom line is I don't hear any hue and cry from those same white sports writers and many white baseball fans to strip Mark McGwire of his 1998 single season season home run record of 70 homers (which Barry broke when he hit 73 dingers in 2001). He was evasive in front of Congress back in 2005 when called to testify on the issue along with Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro.

It's known McGwire used andro, which was LEGAL at the time but later banned. Palmeiro tested positive a few months AFTER stating he'd never used them during that March 2005 hearing.

Where's all your outrage about that? Where's your outrage at Major League Baseball and Commissioner Selig for allowing it to happen in the first place?

Barry Bonds is one of the greatest players of all time and it may be a few decades before you see another like him. Seven time NL MVP. Voted once again as a starter on the All-Star Team. 22 years in the majors.

You Barry bashers need to come clean on the fact that some of you are conveniently dumping all your frustrations on his doorstep for what's happened in baseball concerning the steroid issue and it's being aided and abetted by some peeps who have personal axes to grind with him.

The 'Hate on Barry' mantra isn't endearing to many African-American baseball fans like myself. In a time when major league baseball is frantically searching for ways to bring African-Americans back to the ballparks and get them interested in the game again, you're trashing an African-American superstar who's on the cusp of breaking a historic record.

I don't want to hear another negative word uttered from a sportswriter or a non African-American baseball fan about Barry Bonds. It's obvious when it comes to him y'all are about as 'fair and balanced' as Faux News on the subject.

Jackie Robinson 60th Anniversary

April 15 is not just the day you pay Uncle Sam any taxes you owe. (by the way, you have until midnight Tuesday to do that)

Today also happens to be the 60th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field and broke major league baseball's color line. He went hitless that day, but did score the winning run in his debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In that first season he endured racial epithets, flying cleats, pitchers throwing at his head and legs, catchers spitting on his shoes, hate mail and death threats but let his on the field play speak for him. He won over his teammates and his opponents with his unselfish team play and was named Rookie of the Year. Two years later he was the National League MVP. He compiled a lifetime batting average of .311 and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.


It's a bittersweet moment as well. Since 1975 the percentage of African-American ballplayers has gone from 28% to 8%, the lowest figure since Major League Baseball was fully integrated in 1959. I started noticing the trend courtesy of Ebony Magazine. Every April they would do a baseball feature story that would list every team by league and division, have photos of all the African-American members of those teams including coaches and predict how the teams would finish. They stopped doing it in the late 80's. Major League Baseball is also alarmed at the declining numbers of African-American fans attending games.

I think part of the problem is that baseball has spent so much time investing in overseas development complexes in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Asia that they've forgotten to show some love in this country as well.

When I played Little League ball, in my neighborhood alone we had two organized leagues to play in, Southeast and Freeway National. Their ballfield complexes were right across the street from each other. The last year I played in 1977 they added two teams in the minor division because they had an explosion of kids in that age bracket wanting to play.

In 1999 I drove by those complexes and was saddened to discover that Freeway National Little League no longer was in existence. Freeway's old complex was also in a state of disrepair. Southeast was considering taking it over but they don't get the amount of kids they used to. Most of the kids are either playing football or at Crestmont Park trying to be like Mike. (or in the case of my old neighborhood like Clyde Drexler.) Yes, TransGriot readers, THAT Clyde Drexler.

African-American major league ballplayers are alarmed about that downward trend. That concern is shared by Jackie's widow Rachel Robinson and the commissioner's office. Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter has started a program with the goal of increasing the number of African-American kids playing baseball. Another program with the same objective called RBI (Reviving Baseball In Inner Cities) is the most widespread with over 200 affiliates in various cities around the country.

I hope these programs are successful in reversing that negative trend. It would be a travesty for the suffering that Jackie Robinson heroically endured so future generations of African-Americans could play major league baseball to be wasted.

Play Ball!

I'm in love with twenty-five guys.

The twenty-five guys who wear the uniform of the Houston Astros, that is. ;)
In addition to being a huge football fan I love watching baseball. I played Little League ball as a kid and still attend games on a regular basis.

The 2006 Major League baseball season starts tonight and the 'Stros open their National League title defense and 45th season at Minute Maid Park versus the Florida Marlins.

The Astros started play as the Houston Colt .45's three weeks before I born and changed the nickname to Astros in 1965 to coincide with the opening of the Astrodome. It took them 44 years to get to the World Series and I have been watching every frustrating high and low with this franchise as we both grew up in Houston together.

It's been a bumpy ride. Watching them blow a 10.5 game NL West lead in 1979 and getting overtaken by the Reds for the division title. Winning that one game playoff to capture the National League West over the Dodgers in 1980 only to fall to the Phillies in the NLCS in a Game 5 that went extra innings.

In the 1986 NLCS against their expansion cousins the New York Mets, they lost the series in a dramatic Game 6 that lasted sixteen nerve racking innings. They won three straight National League Central titles from 1997-99 only to fall short of the World Series each time courtesy of the Atlanta Braves (twice) and the San Diego Padres. They were six outs away from the World Series in 2004 against St. Louis in the 2004 NLCS with homeboy Roger Clemens on the mound only to lose Game 7.

Then there's last year. Having a 15-30 record on May 31 and being officially declared out of contention by a Houston Chronicle sportswriter. They've always had a history of being a second half ballclub but they outdid themselves in 2005. They put together a monster finishing kick that led to them capturing the NL wild card playoff berth and parlaying that into the 'Stros first National League title.

They FINALLY made it to the World Series only to be swept by the White Sox in a series so close it was decided by a mere six runs.

Oh well. New year, new season. Go 'Stros!