Congratulations Barry Bonds!
I’m a huge baseball fan. Have been since I was 11. Collected the trading cards. Celebrated my teams’ wins and rued their losses. Had my heart broken and experienced unbridled elation because of baseball.
Throughout it all, beyond the crack of the bat, the field of green, the nuances of this pastoral game, have been the numbers. Some of those numbers are magical and bring a knowing smile to fans, even the record has been broken: 56, 61, 2,130, 714 and 755.
714 and 755 are more magical than others. 714 home runs (Babe Ruth) stood as the most home runs by any player in all of baseball for 53 years. People swore it would never be broken, until Henry Aaron came along, on his way to 755 home runs, which stood for 33 years, and likewise was thought to be unbreakable.
Wny? Consider this: Besides Ruth, Aaron and now Bonds, no one else has even hit 700 home runs. The next active player, Sammy Sosa, has 604, and the guy behind him (Ken Griffey, Jr.) has 589. Barry has been steadily climbing the charts for years now, and no one else was even close.
Seeing this milestone broken will remain a memory of a lifetime. When I’m 80 and doddering, I’ll be telling the story of 756.
And Bonds hits one hard. Hits it deep! It is outta here! 756! Bonds stands alone! He is on top of the all-time home run list! — Duane Kuiper, Aug. 7, 2007
“756 HRS” image screen-captured from barrybonds.com.
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