749

[smazza]

750

every home run makes history

[smazza]

too bad griffey isnt in Boonds' league

[smazza]

what an exciting and fun time to be a baseball fan

it is clear most on this board dont even know what an * has been used for in baseball

the education by me will continue

[smazza]

Let Steroid Use

Be One for

The Record Books

There is no asterisk on Maris's record and there never was.

BY ALLEN BARRA

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Asterisk, asterisk. Everybody wants to talk asterisks.

For instance, here's former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent replying to a question in a recent interview:

Q: Should he or other players found to have used steroids have an asterisk next to their names as Roger Maris did after taking more games to pass Babe Ruth's single season home-run record?

A: I took the asterisk off. . . .  Baseball should leave it as is. . . .  I think to get involved is wrong, and you're opening a Pandora's box.

And so the talk of steroid use and how it should affect Bonds's breaking the single-season home-run record in 2001 has brought one of baseball's most enduring myths full circle. There never was an asterisk next to Roger Maris's name nor a record book to enter it in. Commissioner Vincent couldn't remove Maris's asterisk because it never existed.

How did the myth of the asterisk come into being? Apparently it was born in 1961, a combination of the efforts of then-Commissioner Ford Frick and the controversy-making New York Daily News sports columnist **** Young. Frick was one of Babe Ruth's closest friends and considered himself a personal guardian of the Babe's legend. In mid-July of 1961, when Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle were threatening Ruth's 1927 record of 60 home runs, Frick, fearing that the American League's new 162-game schedule would give someone an unfair advantage, called a press conference and announced, "If the player does not hit more than 60 until after his club has played 154 games, there would have to be some distinctive mark in the records to show that Babe Ruth's record was set under a 154-game schedule."

It was Young who gave Frick an ingenious idea, proposing to the commissioner, "Use an asterisk on the new record. Everybody does that when there's a difference of opinion."

The problem was that baseball had no official record book. There were numerous record books, the most popular of which was printed by the Sporting News, but the commissioner had no authority to qualify any player's record with an asterisk or anything else. In any event, Frick wrote in his 1973 autobiography, "Games, Asterisks and People," that "No asterisk has appeared in the official record in connection with that accomplishment."

Scarcely anyone noticed Frick's statement. Ironically, the opposite happened: The title of his book simply confirmed the asterisk in most people's minds. It's possible the asterisk idea would have died a natural death if not for Commissioner Vincent, who announced in 1991 that he was behind the "single-record thesis" and ordered baseball's committee on statistical accuracy to remove the asterisk from Maris's record. And so, one commissioner of baseball came out in favor of removing an imaginary asterisk supposedly put there by a previous commissioner, who had no authority to place it in an official record that in any case didn't exist.

The mythical asterisk was resurrected in 2001 by Billy Crystal's critically acclaimed television film, 61*, three years after Mark McGwire broke Maris's record. By using the asterisk in the title of his film, Crystal reinforced the belief that the asterisk ever existed in the first place (though the film never actually indicated that it had). At the same time, the popularity of 61* had an unexpected effect: By vividly depicting the pressure that Maris faced in 1961, the film earned some belated and much deserved sympathy for Maris's achievement. Talk shows and Web sites were littered with fans saying, "It's time to take the asterisk off Maris's record."

Bob Costas put it best, "The asterisk was real because the majority of fans believed it was. When they stopped believing, it vanished." In Billy Crystal's words, it was finally time to say, "Come back Roger, all is forgiven."

No matter what the outcome of the investigation into Balco and their alleged involvement with baseball players, it's too late now to give Barry Bonds a drug test for the 2001 season, when he broke Mark McGwire's record by hitting 73 home runs. It appears that Bonds and other players who have been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs are safe from having put asterisks besides their names in the official records.

As Roger Maris's experience shows, though, an asterisk doesn't have to be official to be real. If the majority of fans become convinced that Bonds or any other player had an unfair advantage in setting a record, the public will put a mental asterisk beside his name with or without the commissioner's approval. And this time it may be indelible.

Let Steroid Use

Be One for

The Record Books

There is no asterisk on Maris's record and there never was.

BY ALLEN BARRA

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Asterisk, asterisk. Everybody wants to talk asterisks.

For instance, here's former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent replying to a question in a recent interview:

Q: Should he or other players found to have used steroids have an asterisk next to their names as Roger Maris did after taking more games to pass Babe Ruth's single season home-run record?

A: I took the asterisk off. . . .  Baseball should leave it as is. . . .  I think to get involved is wrong, and you're opening a Pandora's box.

And so the talk of steroid use and how it should affect Bonds's breaking the single-season home-run record in 2001 has brought one of baseball's most enduring myths full circle. There never was an asterisk next to Roger Maris's name nor a record book to enter it in. Commissioner Vincent couldn't remove Maris's asterisk because it never existed.

How did the myth of the asterisk come into being? Apparently it was born in 1961, a combination of the efforts of then-Commissioner Ford Frick and the controversy-making New York Daily News sports columnist **** Young. Frick was one of Babe Ruth's closest friends and considered himself a personal guardian of the Babe's legend. In mid-July of 1961, when Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle were threatening Ruth's 1927 record of 60 home runs, Frick, fearing that the American League's new 162-game schedule would give someone an unfair advantage, called a press conference and announced, "If the player does not hit more than 60 until after his club has played 154 games, there would have to be some distinctive mark in the records to show that Babe Ruth's record was set under a 154-game schedule."

It was Young who gave Frick an ingenious idea, proposing to the commissioner, "Use an asterisk on the new record. Everybody does that when there's a difference of opinion."

The problem was that baseball had no official record book. There were numerous record books, the most popular of which was printed by the Sporting News, but the commissioner had no authority to qualify any player's record with an asterisk or anything else. In any event, Frick wrote in his 1973 autobiography, "Games, Asterisks and People," that "No asterisk has appeared in the official record in connection with that accomplishment."

Scarcely anyone noticed Frick's statement. Ironically, the opposite happened: The title of his book simply confirmed the asterisk in most people's minds. It's possible the asterisk idea would have died a natural death if not for Commissioner Vincent, who announced in 1991 that he was behind the "single-record thesis" and ordered baseball's committee on statistical accuracy to remove the asterisk from Maris's record. And so, one commissioner of baseball came out in favor of removing an imaginary asterisk supposedly put there by a previous commissioner, who had no authority to place it in an official record that in any case didn't exist.

The mythical asterisk was resurrected in 2001 by Billy Crystal's critically acclaimed television film, 61*, three years after Mark McGwire broke Maris's record. By using the asterisk in the title of his film, Crystal reinforced the belief that the asterisk ever existed in the first place (though the film never actually indicated that it had). At the same time, the popularity of 61* had an unexpected effect: By vividly depicting the pressure that Maris faced in 1961, the film earned some belated and much deserved sympathy for Maris's achievement. Talk shows and Web sites were littered with fans saying, "It's time to take the asterisk off Maris's record."

Bob Costas put it best, "The asterisk was real because the majority of fans believed it was. When they stopped believing, it vanished." In Billy Crystal's words, it was finally time to say, "Come back Roger, all is forgiven."

No matter what the outcome of the investigation into Balco and their alleged involvement with baseball players, it's too late now to give Barry Bonds a drug test for the 2001 season, when he broke Mark McGwire's record by hitting 73 home runs. It appears that Bonds and other players who have been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs are safe from having put asterisks besides their names in the official records.

As Roger Maris's experience shows, though, an asterisk doesn't have to be official to be real. If the majority of fans become convinced that Bonds or any other player had an unfair advantage in setting a record, the public will put a mental asterisk beside his name with or without the commissioner's approval. And this time it may be indelible.

Let Steroid Use

Be One for

The Record Books

There is no asterisk on Maris's record and there never was.

BY ALLEN BARRA

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Asterisk, asterisk. Everybody wants to talk asterisks.

For instance, here's former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent replying to a question in a recent interview:

Q: Should he or other players found to have used steroids have an asterisk next to their names as Roger Maris did after taking more games to pass Babe Ruth's single season home-run record?

A: I took the asterisk off. . . .  Baseball should leave it as is. . . .  I think to get involved is wrong, and you're opening a Pandora's box.

And so the talk of steroid use and how it should affect Bonds's breaking the single-season home-run record in 2001 has brought one of baseball's most enduring myths full circle. There never was an asterisk next to Roger Maris's name nor a record book to enter it in. Commissioner Vincent couldn't remove Maris's asterisk because it never existed.

How did the myth of the asterisk come into being? Apparently it was born in 1961, a combination of the efforts of then-Commissioner Ford Frick and the controversy-making New York Daily News sports columnist **** Young. Frick was one of Babe Ruth's closest friends and considered himself a personal guardian of the Babe's legend. In mid-July of 1961, when Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle were threatening Ruth's 1927 record of 60 home runs, Frick, fearing that the American League's new 162-game schedule would give someone an unfair advantage, called a press conference and announced, "If the player does not hit more than 60 until after his club has played 154 games, there would have to be some distinctive mark in the records to show that Babe Ruth's record was set under a 154-game schedule."

It was Young who gave Frick an ingenious idea, proposing to the commissioner, "Use an asterisk on the new record. Everybody does that when there's a difference of opinion."

The problem was that baseball had no official record book. There were numerous record books, the most popular of which was printed by the Sporting News, but the commissioner had no authority to qualify any player's record with an asterisk or anything else. In any event, Frick wrote in his 1973 autobiography, "Games, Asterisks and People," that "No asterisk has appeared in the official record in connection with that accomplishment."

Scarcely anyone noticed Frick's statement. Ironically, the opposite happened: The title of his book simply confirmed the asterisk in most people's minds. It's possible the asterisk idea would have died a natural death if not for Commissioner Vincent, who announced in 1991 that he was behind the "single-record thesis" and ordered baseball's committee on statistical accuracy to remove the asterisk from Maris's record. And so, one commissioner of baseball came out in favor of removing an imaginary asterisk supposedly put there by a previous commissioner, who had no authority to place it in an official record that in any case didn't exist.

The mythical asterisk was resurrected in 2001 by Billy Crystal's critically acclaimed television film, 61*, three years after Mark McGwire broke Maris's record. By using the asterisk in the title of his film, Crystal reinforced the belief that the asterisk ever existed in the first place (though the film never actually indicated that it had). At the same time, the popularity of 61* had an unexpected effect: By vividly depicting the pressure that Maris faced in 1961, the film earned some belated and much deserved sympathy for Maris's achievement. Talk shows and Web sites were littered with fans saying, "It's time to take the asterisk off Maris's record."

Bob Costas put it best, "The asterisk was real because the majority of fans believed it was. When they stopped believing, it vanished." In Billy Crystal's words, it was finally time to say, "Come back Roger, all is forgiven."

No matter what the outcome of the investigation into Balco and their alleged involvement with baseball players, it's too late now to give Barry Bonds a drug test for the 2001 season, when he broke Mark McGwire's record by hitting 73 home runs. It appears that Bonds and other players who have been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs are safe from having put asterisks besides their names in the official records.

As Roger Maris's experience shows, though, an asterisk doesn't have to be official to be real. If the majority of fans become convinced that Bonds or any other player had an unfair advantage in setting a record, the public will put a mental asterisk beside his name with or without the commissioner's approval. And this time it may be indelible.

Let Steroid Use

Be One for

The Record Books

There is no asterisk on Maris's record and there never was.

BY ALLEN BARRA

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Asterisk, asterisk. Everybody wants to talk asterisks.

For instance, here's former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent replying to a question in a recent interview:

Q: Should he or other players found to have used steroids have an asterisk next to their names as Roger Maris did after taking more games to pass Babe Ruth's single season home-run record?

A: I took the asterisk off. . . .  Baseball should leave it as is. . . .  I think to get involved is wrong, and you're opening a Pandora's box.

And so the talk of steroid use and how it should affect Bonds's breaking the single-season home-run record in 2001 has brought one of baseball's most enduring myths full circle. There never was an asterisk next to Roger Maris's name nor a record book to enter it in. Commissioner Vincent couldn't remove Maris's asterisk because it never existed.

How did the myth of the asterisk come into being? Apparently it was born in 1961, a combination of the efforts of then-Commissioner Ford Frick and the controversy-making New York Daily News sports columnist **** Young. Frick was one of Babe Ruth's closest friends and considered himself a personal guardian of the Babe's legend. In mid-July of 1961, when Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle were threatening Ruth's 1927 record of 60 home runs, Frick, fearing that the American League's new 162-game schedule would give someone an unfair advantage, called a press conference and announced, "If the player does not hit more than 60 until after his club has played 154 games, there would have to be some distinctive mark in the records to show that Babe Ruth's record was set under a 154-game schedule."

It was Young who gave Frick an ingenious idea, proposing to the commissioner, "Use an asterisk on the new record. Everybody does that when there's a difference of opinion."

The problem was that baseball had no official record book. There were numerous record books, the most popular of which was printed by the Sporting News, but the commissioner had no authority to qualify any player's record with an asterisk or anything else. In any event, Frick wrote in his 1973 autobiography, "Games, Asterisks and People," that "No asterisk has appeared in the official record in connection with that accomplishment."

Scarcely anyone noticed Frick's statement. Ironically, the opposite happened: The title of his book simply confirmed the asterisk in most people's minds. It's possible the asterisk idea would have died a natural death if not for Commissioner Vincent, who announced in 1991 that he was behind the "single-record thesis" and ordered baseball's committee on statistical accuracy to remove the asterisk from Maris's record. And so, one commissioner of baseball came out in favor of removing an imaginary asterisk supposedly put there by a previous commissioner, who had no authority to place it in an official record that in any case didn't exist.

The mythical asterisk was resurrected in 2001 by Billy Crystal's critically acclaimed television film, 61*, three years after Mark McGwire broke Maris's record. By using the asterisk in the title of his film, Crystal reinforced the belief that the asterisk ever existed in the first place (though the film never actually indicated that it had). At the same time, the popularity of 61* had an unexpected effect: By vividly depicting the pressure that Maris faced in 1961, the film earned some belated and much deserved sympathy for Maris's achievement. Talk shows and Web sites were littered with fans saying, "It's time to take the asterisk off Maris's record."

Bob Costas put it best, "The asterisk was real because the majority of fans believed it was. When they stopped believing, it vanished." In Billy Crystal's words, it was finally time to say, "Come back Roger, all is forgiven."

No matter what the outcome of the investigation into Balco and their alleged involvement with baseball players, it's too late now to give Barry Bonds a drug test for the 2001 season, when he broke Mark McGwire's record by hitting 73 home runs. It appears that Bonds and other players who have been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs are safe from having put asterisks besides their names in the official records.

As Roger Maris's experience shows, though, an asterisk doesn't have to be official to be real. If the majority of fans become convinced that Bonds or any other player had an unfair advantage in setting a record, the public will put a mental asterisk beside his name with or without the commissioner's approval. And this time it may be indelible.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110004791

[smazza]

bonds haters-time to grow up

[smazza]

dont mess with mr boonds

[smazza]

Five more to Hank

Bonds moves closer to Aaron's record with 750th HR

Posted: Saturday June 30, 2007 1:02AM; Updated: Saturday June 30, 2007 2:16AM

   

 

Barry Bonds' 750th home run came moments after a fan slipped onto the field while the Diamondbacks were up to bat on Friday.

AP

  RELATED

• BOX SCORE: D-backs 4, Giants 3 

 

 

 

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds is going to have a harder time enjoying his home runs if the Giants keep losing close games.

Bonds hit his 750th career home run, an inning after getting a startling hug from a fan in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to Arizona on Friday night. The homer pulled the San Francisco slugger within five of tying Hank Aaron's record, but Miguel Montero hit a solo homer off Brad Hennessey (1-3) in the 10th for the Diamondbacks and San Francisco lost its third straight.

"Everybody in that clubhouse knows he's going to get a lot of attention reaching this milestone, as he should," Giants manger Bruce Bochy said. "It's going to be a big moment in baseball. Right now, we're all embarrassed with where we're at, how we're playing, things that are happening on the field."

Tony Pena (3-1) pitched a perfect ninth and Jose Valverde finished for his 26th save in 29 chances. Valverde got Bonds to ground out to first to end it.

The 42-year-old Bonds led off the eighth inning with a solo shot off D-backs starter Livan Hernandez to tie the game at 3. Watching the ball sail over the wall in right-center, he lowered his head and began his trot. The main center-field scoreboard immediately featured a road sign reading "Bonds 750" in the middle and "Road to History" on either side.

The home run came an inning after a fan gave everybody a scare when he hopped the fence and ran out to Bonds in left field. The seven-time NL MVP calmly greeted the man and walked him off and into the custody of security personnel.

The fan came out over the short fence along the left-field line and scurried to Bonds while Orlando Hudson was batting. Bonds didn't flinch, putting his arm around the man and walking him off the field -- and fans began chants of "Barry! Barry!"

"He just wanted to shake my hand," Bonds told MLB.com while quickly leaving the ballpark. "I told him to come with me so he didn't get into any more trouble."

The Giants said the man, in the custody of San Francisco police, would face charges of public drunkenness and interfering with a sporting event. His name and age were not immediately available.

Bochy credited Bonds for not panicking.

"My first feeling was fear," said center fielder Dave Roberts, who began to move toward Bonds. "Barry handled it like a pro. I'm glad the situation was diffused."

Bonds drove a 3-2 pitch an estimated 380 feet for his 16th home run of the season and first in exactly a week since connecting off Yankees reliever Scott Proctor on June 22. It was Bonds' first homer in 14 at-bats and 23 plate appearances -- and the fourth of his career against former Giant Hernandez, who last surrendered a home run to Bonds on Aug. 24, 2006. It was Bonds' 39th against Arizona.

Bonds also had an RBI single in the first, drew his 79th walk in the third and popped out in the sixth.

He received a standing ovation when he walked to left field in the top of the ninth, tipping his hat to the crowd. Bonds' batboy son, Nikolai, is nursing an ankle injury and wasn't at home plate to greet him with a hug as is their typical routine.

"I tried to throw the pitch down," Hernandez said. "It was low, but Barry is a great hitter. He went down and lifted it over."

Roberts dropped a routine fly ball in center while on the run, committing a two-base error in the seventh that scored two runs to give the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead. It also cost Matt Morris the victory.

"I drop a a routine fly ball to cost us the game," Roberts said. "It's ridiculous. It just can't happen."

Hernandez's winless streak reached six starts since he beat Houston on May 27 despite eight solid innings.

"Livo was unbelievable tonight," manager Bob Melvin said. "He had his best stuff in the sixth and seventh innings. He gave us what we needed."

Ryan Klesko had given the Giants a 2-1 lead with a splash hit home run into McCovey Cove in the sixth after Bonds' hit a high popup for the inning's first out. It was the 44th home run by a Giants batter into the water, where several kayaks were on patrol for a souvenir ball. Klesko hit the water for the second time this year and third in his career. He did it while playing for the San Diego Padres in 2003. Bonds has 33 of the club's splash hits, including one this season.

Stephen Drew hit an RBI double in the third that tied the game at 1. Arizona won for the first time in four tries in San Francisco this season.

Morris hasn't beaten Arizona in five tries since a win June 15, 2006. He dropped his second straight decision overall. The right-hander also took a tough 1-0 loss on June 6 at Chase Field despite eight strong innings.

"You expect to win with that kind of stuff," Morris said. "We've had a hard time doing that. We're wasting a lot of good opportunities."

Notes: Giants SS Omar Vizquel returned to the starting lineup after being held out of games Tuesday and Wednesday because of a strained right groin. Vizquel singled in the second and stole his seventh base of the year. ... The D-backs played just their second extra-inning game in 18, while it was the fourth in the Giants' last six contests. San Francisco's 12 extra-inning games leads the NL.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/06/30/bonds.750.ap/index.html

[SeaBull]

too bad griffey isnt in Boonds' league

Steriods really seperates people.

[Velcro]

Barry is to Griffey

what

Tyson is to De La Hoya

Ass vs Class

[SeaBull]

what an exciting and fun time to be a baseball fan

it is clear most on this board dont even know what an * has been used for in baseball

the education by me will continue

That's more than anyone could ever ask for!!

You do realize you went ahead and same pasted the "opinion journal" blog at least 14 times in your following post, right?