Giants owner Magowan snubs Bonds
Posted: Saturday, August 04, 2007 4:08 PM
Barry Bonds idled into this weekend's series in San Diego at 754 career home runs and to my view he won’t hit any more balls out of the park until Monday at the earliest, when the Giants open a seven-game homestand (the Nationals for four and the Pirates for three). This being the case some thoughts consume me.
Why does the collective body of national columnists hold MLB commissioner Bud Selig accountable for his attendance at San Francisco games when Giants' owner Peter Magowan was not in Los Angeles earlier this week when the Giants visited the Dodgers for three games. Magowan's absence drew nary a peep from the writers?
Why don’t more San Francisco fans understand the words that passed last week from the mouths of Magowan and Matt Morris (dealt to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline)? Magowan was originally against bringing Bonds back for this year but was convinced to do so -- I believe -- by the failure to land another bat admitted that the Bonds hoopla has become wearisome. The real red flag had to be the words of Morris, a very hittable pitcher but also an immensely respected clubhouse presence, who wondered aloud if the Giants' primary emphasis was on winning. Bonds has openly stated what he told the Giants last winter that he plans to play in 2008. I sense that this week cemented the fact that he will play elsewhere.
Why isn’t there more notice of the shocking words of reliever Joe Beimel? Buried in a New York Times story this week is a quote from the Dodgers reliever that his low, outside sinker was once again an effective pitch because “guys aren’t able to muscle around on it.” If anything underscores the importance of BALCO and its pertinence to the Bonds chase, it is the increasingly open discussion of how the game has changed. A major league coach told me this year that “you can watch and see the game revert to past times. It’s not slow pitch softball anymore.” The point: Pitchers and hitters alike were enhancing, but the decline of the home run (just look at the shocking falloff in home runs by notable veterans who thrived in the 1999-2002 era) has the biggest impact on the game.
Why isn’t there more emphasis on keeping pitchers in shape? Kerry Wood returned to the Cubs Friday. Earlier this week, there was a picture of Wood that startled educated eyes. Wood had shrunk. Forty-five pounds worth of shrinkage. Why now? After all the injury problems, why did Wood finally decide to get himself in professional shape? And why don’t more teams insist that pitchers -- too often overweight and in poor condition -- meet minimum standards of weight? Isn’t that part of the obligation when a player signs a contract? Pitchers claim it’s about having their arm in shape, not their waistline, but it’s hard to imagine that better conditioning wouldn’t lessen injuries of all kinds.
