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I guess you all don’t want to see history, do you?
By: Jimmy Smith
Barry Bonds, undoubtedly the best baseball player of my lifetime and yours, has become everyone’s favorite athlete to hate.
His swing is painful; seeing fans boo him is even worse, but he is still hanging in there to prove you wrong.
You all know you want him to break the record. If anything, it gives you something to talk about at work. It gives me something to write about, so Go Barry Go.
But you can’t deny how great it would be to experience that piece of history. I saw my favorite baseball player, Cal Ripken Jr., set the consecutive games played record. I remember watching Mark McGwire hit number 70 while at, oddly enough, a baseball practice. I also remember watching Bonds hit 71 while I was waiting for my appetizer in Applebee’s. I need one more positive baseball memory.
Where will I be when Bonds hits 756? Are the fans even going to allow it to happen? Face it; you don’t want such a “horrible person” to hit all of those homeruns. Well I do, I missed Aaron’s record so this is my only chance to see the greatest record in all of sports being contested.
The start of the 2006 season was one for Barry to forget. He had a syringe and countless number of un-hittable pitches thrown at him. No one would pitch to Bonds. That was one of the reasons why he was still behind the starting gate while Albert Pujols had already hit double-digit homeruns.
When someone finally decided to pitch to Barry, he got a chance to shine. Well shine as much as someone with the weight of the sporting world on his shoulders can. Aaron Cook of the Colorado Rockies threw that pitch, and Bonds hit that elusive first homerun of the season. Yes it was hit into the mile-high air of Coors Field, but he still hit it. If you think you could even hit a homerun there, than why aren’t you playing for the purple and black?
That first one is always the hardest to get. So from here it should be easy. Well check again. Bonds has bone chips in his elbow, negative voices ringing in his ear, and a television show that has viewer ratings equal to that of ESPN’s newest show idea, competitive paintball. How can the rest of this season be easy? Well, his hunger for the record and desire to prove the fans wrong will be enough for him to pass the records of the two greatest homerun hitters of all-time.
He will pass Babe Ruth. Face it, he can still hit. It is only a matter of time at this point. But what are you going to do? Rejoice? Revolt? Well its up to you, I am just trying to get you ready for it.
You are going to want to throw things at him or call him names. But before you do, remember that this is a piece of history for the ages and you may never see anyone compete and contest the homerun numbers of both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. And if you are going to chant things, be more creative. Holding up a sign with an asterisk on it and screaming things like “Babe was better” isn’t going to mess with his mind. You are only giving him the strength to fight on.
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