“Barry’s late-career performances and records, not just the homer record but also some of the single-season records … cannot be viewed as authentic.”
More than 30 years ago, a major-league pitcher named Mike Bacsik faced Hank Aaron and successfully prevented the legendary slugger from adding another home run to his record total. Aaron already had 755 homers at the time.
Barry Bonds surpassed Aaron’s mark this week by stroking the 756th homer of his career off Mike Bacsik Jr. — son of the aforementioned pitcher — and the Washington Nationals’ left-hander shook his head with disappointment after the feat. Not because he coughed up the record homer to Bonds, but because of what could have been.
“If my dad would have been gracious enough to give up a homer to Aaron,” Bacsik cracked, “there would have been two Mike Bacsiks to give up a No. 756. Imagine that.”
• Bonds is asking the San Francisco Giants for a contract for next season — even though he’s 43 and generally loathed. Bonds claims he deserves another pact because he has been playing well enough this season … From U.S. sportscaster Bob Costas, one of countless journalists who dislikes Bonds: “He was, on his natural merits, one of the five or six greatest all-round players in baseball history. Then something highly questionable and inauthentic happened in the late 1990s and at the turn of the century, which took him from a first-rate, tremendous, Hall of Famer to a nearly superhuman player. Therefore, Barry’s late-career performances and records, not just the homer record but also some of the single-season records, including slugging, on-base percentage and others, cannot be viewed as authentic.” … Bonds, incidentally, was classy enough to call Alex Rodriguez to congratulate the Yankees’ star on his 500th homer the other day. A-Rod tried to return the favour after Bonds’ 756th, but the home-run king wasn’t taking calls and his voice mailbox was full.
• Pitcher David Wells, 44, clearly is done, which is why the San Diego Padres have unloaded him, but there’s a chance the Arizona Diamondbacks might take the hefty lefty for the stretch drive … Outfielder Rondell White, ex-Montreal Expos star, also is done at 35 and soon will tell his club, the Minnesota Twins, that he’ll retire at season’s end … The Chicago Cubs have claimed ex-Jay Shannon Stewart on recallable waivers from Oakland. The A’s now can either negotiate a trade with Chicago or pull the outfielder back from the waiver wire.
• And, is the quarterbacking career of the B.C. Lions’ Dave Dickenson over? Find out by logging on to www.metronews.ca for my latestCFL Report.
