No HR record brewing for Bonds in Milwaukee
Posted: Friday, July 20, 2007 1:51 PM
His second-inning blast soared over the rightfield stands and onto Sheffield Avenue in Chicago, and while Barry Bonds circled the bases, the voice inside my head went quiet. Bonds’ second homer of the day, in the seventh inning, was the silencer. Those whispers of Bonds experiencing sore legs -- whispers which surfaced just days after the Giants announced a future plan wedded to youth -- seemed to hint at a stay on the disabled list.
Would this aging superstar in search of a baseball home for next year milk his chase of breaking Henry Aaron's all-time home-run mark by extending it into next season to guarantee himself a contract for 2008?
Well with his two home runs at Wrigley Field on Thursday Bonds silenced those voices in my head. He stunned even the most veteran Bonds observers with a classic performance. He heard the hatred. He felt the anger. And he did what has defined Bonds’ career -- he defied all with his two home runs and six RBI.
Now Bonds has set up a completely awkward weekend in Milwaukee. The town of Aaron and baseball commissioner Bud Selig is home to a pennant race, the Brewers trying to reach the postseason for the first time in 25 years. Yet that will be a weekend sideshow to Bonds and his pursuit of surpassing Aaron's 755 home runs.
Will Selig -- without the excuse of next weekend’s Hall of Fame induction -- attend the games? Will the gentler fans of Wisconsin treat Bonds with more respect than fans in most other cities the Giants visit? Will the Brewers, chasing a division title, walk Bonds at every possible turn, challenging the weak Giants' lineup, and minimizing Bonds’ chances to make history in their ballpark? Will Bonds even contemplate hitting home runs 755 and 756 anywhere but in San Francisco, where he will be bathed in adulation? This view still answers a resounding “no.”
While Bonds was Thursday’s headline at Wrigley Field, the Cubs won the game. They took three of four from the Giants. They are 6-1 since the All-Star break and 28-13 since they bottomed out on the first weekend of June. Remember that weekend highlighted or lowlighted by now former Cubs catcher Marty Barrett vs. Carlos Zambrano in a dugout skirmish caught by television cameras, and manager Lou Piniella’s on-the-field tantrum. All that now seems a decade ago.
For that give Piniella a ton of credit. He has won over a clubhouse that was skeptical of his harsh assessments of the team's players and at times their play. And he has changed the Cubs to his liking, make no mistake about that. He was handed a team in the spring that had Barrett behind the plate, Cesar Izturis at shortstop, Matt Murton in leftfield, Alfonso Soriano in centerfield, and Jacque Jones in rightfield. Today none of those players are in those places. Barrett and Izturis have been traded, Jones should have been dealt, Murton is at Triple-A, and Soriano has moved to leftfield.
Piniella saw the energy of Ryan Theriot and made him the shortstop. After multiple issues between Barrett and the pitching staff, the Cubs traded for Jason Kendall, who comes from Oakland with meager offensive numbers but widespread respect from the pitchers he caught with the Athletics.
Soriano needed to play leftfield, as he did in Washington last season, and when healthy, Cliff Floyd is an upgrade in rightfield over Jones. Piniella now has his team in place, and suddenly a wonderful late-summer race between two NL Central neighbors -- the Cubs and Brewers -- looms. A month ago, this could not have been envisioned, but baseball will be better for it.
