Balco Bonds Edges Closer to Aaron
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Balco Bonds Edging Closer to Hank Aaron
Barry "Balco" Bonds hit his 752nd and 753rd home runs of his career as he edged closer to Hank Aaron and his record 756 home runs. Bonds plays his next three games in Milwaukee against the Brewers where he could pass Aaron in the same city Aaron played for many years. Giants lost for the 7th time in last 9 games in which Balco had homered.
If he doesn't pass Aaron in Milwaukee he will have seven home games coming up next week against the Braves and Marlins so I would be surprised if he passes Aaron in Milwaukee but he is likely to be held out of one of those games if he gets down to needing one homer to pass Aaron.
Balco has skewered the home run records of baseball to where they have been rendered meaningless as he passed the great home run hitters like Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth and is now on the brink of passing Aaron who played for the 1957 World Champion Milwaukee Braves and then seventeen years later broke the most sacred record in baseball by hitting his 715th home run.
Now Bud Selig is going to have to make his decision soon about whether to be there or not when Bonds does pass Aaron. In my book he has not broke Aaron's record but has only passed it when he does hit No. 756. When you think of all the hate mail that Aaron received when he got close to Ruth's record it makes it more painful to see a cheater pass Aaron who was villified by racially motivated individuals who went out of their way to make life miserable for Aaron while he pursued the record.
Even his former friend Gary Sheffield knows that Bonds was into steroids to have such a radical body change and said so the other day. When Bonds saw his home run totals dip from 1996-1999 from 42-40-37-34 he knew he was in the normal decline for a player his age but he suddenly hit home runs in astronomical numbers from 2000-2004 hitting 49-73-46-45-45 in those five years.
If you count any home run over 34 his last normal year for those five years that is 88 extra home runs but if not for the steroids he may have been hitting from 25-30 homers those five years as his skills declined like they normally do for a player his age but he found the fountain of youth at the Balco Laboratories.
The way I figure it he would have 665 homers right now and needing 50 to pass Ruth but it is not likely he would even be playing if not for Balco. In his speech if and when he passes Aaron he should say "I want to thank Balco for enabling me to hit 88 home runs I wouldn't have hit otherwise and made this day possible. I want to thank Greg Anderson who is sitting in prison today who knows that I cheated but refused to talk so that I could pass Hank Aaron's record without being indicted for perjury. I want to thank all my teammates who I like so much that I don't want to be in the same team photo with them and most of all I want to thank Bud Selig for making this day possible by looking the other way while I was injecting steroids like crazy into my body so I could hit the ball further and my long outs started turning into home runs."
It amazes me that in 2004 he hit hit 45 homers in 373 at bats while walking 232 times with 120 of them being intentional walks. If not for all the walks he could have hit 80 or 90 home runs. True, he may have never failed a drug test except for the amphetamine test he failed but the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming from his abnormal growth of his head and feet to massive weight gain to hitting balls over the fence that used to be outs. All we can hope for now is that Bonds will be proven to have taken steroids before being placed on the ballot for the Hall of Fame so that he will be on the outside looking in and the only way he can get in the Hall of Fame is to pay his admission like the rest of us.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Magglio Ordonez is still leading in hitting with a .360 average with Ichiro Suzuki in second with .352 average....Alex Rodriguez leads in homers with 32 with Prince Fielder close behind with 30....Rodriguez leads in runs batted in with 92 and Chase Utley and Ordonez are next with 79....Suzuki leads in hits with 135 but is only hitting .274 in July after hitting .427 in June and hitting .244 in his last ten games. Three players are next with 127 hits.
Utley leads Ordonez in doubles 40-36....Curtis Granderson leads in triples with 16 with Jimmy Rollins having 10 in second place....Rodriguez leads Utley in total bases 227-221....Barry Bonds leads in walks with 95 with Todd Helton in second with 77....Adam Dunn leads in strikeouts with 114 but is being challenged by Ryan Howard with 107....Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 47 and Juan Pierre is next with 38....Ryan Braun leads majors in slugging percentage with a .660 percentage but the official leader is Rodriguez at .649 since he is leading qualifiers. Surprisingly in second place is Carlos Pena at .617. Utley leads Granderson in extra base hits 59-56.
Pitching
C.C. Sabathia leads in wins with 13 with three pitchers tied with 12 wins....Erik Bedard leads in strikeouts with 156 with Johan Santana next with 140....Chris Young lowered his ERA to 1.85 last night leading the majors in that category with Jake Peavy next with a 2.30 ERA....Francisco Cordero leads the majors in saves with 30 with Jose Valverde and J.J. Putz tied for second with 28 saves....Paul Maholm and Kip Wells have the dubious distinction of leading majors in losses with 12....Sabathia also leads in hits allowed with 158 with Roy Oswalt in second with 152.
Daniel Cabrera leads in earned runs allowed with 78 and former major leaguer Ervin Santana is next with 76....Santana also leads in home runs allowed with 23....Cabrera also leads in walks with 68 with Doug Davis next with 62.
