Today's Cool award
...goes to major-league baseball player Barry Bonds, who hit his 756th home run on Tuesday night, becoming major-league baseball's all-time home run leader.
I've followed Barry Bonds for years, from the time he played against my then-beloved Atlanta Braves in those historic NLCS series as a member of the Pittsburgh Anthrocon-Help-Us-Win-Ball-Games Pirates, to the time he signed with the then-Lilliputian Giants back when they still played in a football stadium. Bonds is the only major-leaguer in history to have 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases in his career (indeed, no other major-leaguer has 400 of each.) Yet, so many people wish to bash Barry, because he didn't like the media much--he wasn't lovable like McGwire and Sosa during the Chase for 61*. McGwire and Sosa, of course, got caught up in the midst of the performance-enhancing drug controversy. Indeed, who hasn't? How many middle-relief pitchers have juiced up to try to bounce back quicker from consecutive five-inning appearances? How many closers and set-up men and ace starters, with deliveries ranging from blazing-hot to wicked knuckleballer to pinpoint control to Quizno's submarine, have entered the league over the past years, bringing different arm angles and deliveries that no scouting reports had been written upon? And how many of these juiced-up pitchers has Bonds had to face over the years?
Take it from a former all-state-tournament high school player himself: it doesn't matter how strong you are, how many Hooters' girls you can bench press, or how fast you can outrun the SWAT team, or how high of a prison fence you can scale, when it comes to hitting a 95-mile-per-hour, curving, round ball--with a round bat--squarely.
An honorable mention for Today's Cool Award goes to baseball legend, and former home-run king Henry Aaron, for his congratulatory videotaped message to Barry Bonds after Bonds hit his 756th career home run Tuesday night, breaking the record that Aaron held for thirty-three years. Aaron showed exemplary class in acknowledging Bonds' feat despite the allegations and controversy surrounding the San Francisco Giant, who has been alleged to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that Aaron never touched. Bonds' public struggles were brought upon himself mostly by himself and his callous actions towards fans and the media. Aaron's public struggles were brought upon himself mostly by those who sought to deny a star the chance to live his dream, via racial epithets and death threats. Aaron chased the almost-mythical Babe Ruth for years, never hitting more than 47 home runs in a single season, yet displaying the tenacity and dedication he learned from his father on a sawmill team in Mobile, Alabama.
I've followed Barry Bonds for years, from the time he played against my then-beloved Atlanta Braves in those historic NLCS series as a member of the Pittsburgh Anthrocon-Help-Us-Win-Ball-Games Pirates, to the time he signed with the then-Lilliputian Giants back when they still played in a football stadium. Bonds is the only major-leaguer in history to have 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases in his career (indeed, no other major-leaguer has 400 of each.) Yet, so many people wish to bash Barry, because he didn't like the media much--he wasn't lovable like McGwire and Sosa during the Chase for 61*. McGwire and Sosa, of course, got caught up in the midst of the performance-enhancing drug controversy. Indeed, who hasn't? How many middle-relief pitchers have juiced up to try to bounce back quicker from consecutive five-inning appearances? How many closers and set-up men and ace starters, with deliveries ranging from blazing-hot to wicked knuckleballer to pinpoint control to Quizno's submarine, have entered the league over the past years, bringing different arm angles and deliveries that no scouting reports had been written upon? And how many of these juiced-up pitchers has Bonds had to face over the years?
Take it from a former all-state-tournament high school player himself: it doesn't matter how strong you are, how many Hooters' girls you can bench press, or how fast you can outrun the SWAT team, or how high of a prison fence you can scale, when it comes to hitting a 95-mile-per-hour, curving, round ball--with a round bat--squarely.
An honorable mention for Today's Cool Award goes to baseball legend, and former home-run king Henry Aaron, for his congratulatory videotaped message to Barry Bonds after Bonds hit his 756th career home run Tuesday night, breaking the record that Aaron held for thirty-three years. Aaron showed exemplary class in acknowledging Bonds' feat despite the allegations and controversy surrounding the San Francisco Giant, who has been alleged to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that Aaron never touched. Bonds' public struggles were brought upon himself mostly by himself and his callous actions towards fans and the media. Aaron's public struggles were brought upon himself mostly by those who sought to deny a star the chance to live his dream, via racial epithets and death threats. Aaron chased the almost-mythical Babe Ruth for years, never hitting more than 47 home runs in a single season, yet displaying the tenacity and dedication he learned from his father on a sawmill team in Mobile, Alabama.
