Category: MLB (Page 395 of 448)

I think it’s funny how the fans in San Francisco have been hammered recently for cheering Barry Bonds’ chase of the all-time home run record. Numb nut Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun Times even went as far to call San Fran fans, “unconditionally glorifying sheep” for essentially willing Bonds to the record.

Does Jay or the rest of the people hammering Giants fans really think that if Bonds played in another city it would be any different? What if he played 14 seasons with the Red Sox or Yankees – would New York or Boston fans really boo him? Hell no, they’d probably stand and cheer louder than any other fans.

Come on, the fans in San Fran have acted no differently than any other baseball city would. So bashing them – or worse yet, going as far as calling them “unconditionally glorifying sheep – is freaking ridiculous. Discredit Bonds, not the city who supported him well before he cheated.

Barry Bonds hit his 756 home run last night and whether or not you cheered, booed or simply didn’t watch, there’s not much you can do about it.

Personally, I’m indifferent on the actual record other than that I feel for Hank Aaron. By all accounts, he did it the right way – the honest way. He didn’t need the record like Bonds did, at least, not the way Bonds did. Hank had to deal with so much more as far as racial tension in the game, so much more than Bonds would ever know. But Hank still played the game and it so happened that he hit a ton of home runs. He would never have tried to hit the long ball for the sake of himself like Bonds obviously did the past month or so. Henry Aaron was all about the team – he seemingly cared less about personal records.

What’s interesting in all this is that every single baseball fan could have celebrated this amazing feat as one of the single greatest moments if Bonds would have just stayed clean. The frustrating thing is that Bonds was already an amazing athlete, an amazing baseball player. I don’t know if he would have hit 756 home runs, but he certainly would have been a respected figure and really, shouldn’t that carry more weight than a personal record? It would have for Hammerin’ Hank, but I guess not for Barry Lamar Bonds.

Mets starter Tom Glavine became the 23rd pitcher to earn his 300th win in an 8-3 victory over the Cubs Sunday night. That’s quite an accomplishment for such a classy player, but winning 300 games isn’t why anyone should respect him.

At one point during ESPN’s broadcast of the game last night, the network showed Glavine’s very first major league appearance. The appearance was against a very slim, very non-roided Barry Bonds and Glavine drilled him right in the wrist.

Awesome, well done Tom.

How did your team do at the trade deadline? If you’re a Braves or Red Sox fan, you’re probably pretty happy right now. But instead of doing an analysis on all the trades, in my latest column I decided to look at how past deals involving Grady Sizemore, Hanley Ramirez and Brad Penny played out.

SPORTSbyBROOKS.com blogged an article that stated Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s health is dramatically failing.

In an (unauthorized) brief visit with the turtlenecked-one, Lidz writes of Steinbrenner: “His body is bloated; his jawline has slackened into a triple chin; his skin looks as if a dry-cleaner bag has been stretched over it. Steinbrenner’s face, pale and swollen, has a curiously undefined look. His features seem frozen in a permanent rictus of careworn disbelief.”

It’s no secret Steinny’s health has been poor for a few years now, but it appears that it’s getting extremely serious. But the speculation of the Yankees being on sale is just that right now, speculation. However, eyebrows were raised after the YES Network – Steinbrenner’s cash cow cable association – was put up for sale. Speculation or not, Steinbrenner won’t be the Yankees owner forever, so the question is: will the next owner of the Yankees be as free-wheeling spending wise as Steinbrenner has been? Yankee fans love it, but the rest of baseball followers curse their ever continuous spending as much as they curse the ground Barry Bonds walks on. Can anyone envision Mark Cuban – who’s in the mix to be the next Cubs owner – taking over in the Bronx? Holy crap.