This year’s baseball season is slowly coming to a close with a brief but sad interruption two weeks ago. Records are about to be broken in both American and National Leagues. Records that everybody thought would never be broken. 

Last week the San Francisco Giants traveled to Houston and the band box park called Enron Field. Barry Bonds came knocking on baseball history’s door with 70 home runs and counting. Larry Dirker manager of the Houston Astros instructed his pitchers to walk Bonds everytime, do not give him anything to hit. Well, it would have worked two or three weeks ago, but the guy batting behind Barry Bonds got hot. Really hot! Jeff Kent smacked two doubles, four singles, and two home runs, bringing Bonds to home plate each time scoring 11 runs total.   

Houston management continued to walk Barry Bonds and the Giants then proceeded to bounce the Houston Astros right out of the Wild Card race. The Astros preoccupation with trying not to be the team to give Barry Bonds number 70 might have cost them a playoff spot. Bonds got his 70^th with his last at bat anyway. Winning the game should have been more important.                                

The same event occurred in the Japanese Central League last week. Another American player was knocking on the door of breaking Sadaharu Oh’s record. Mr. Oh of the Tokyo Giants, the greatest Japanese home run hitter ever, retired with over 800 home runs in his career. Mr. Oh also has the single season record of 55 home runs. Again they were taking a page right out of the Houston Astros playbook, walking him everytime he came to the plate. The Fukuoka Darei Hawks pitching staff wanted to keep the Japanese home run record Japanese, out of respect to their current manager. Mr. Oh the manager did not instruct his players to do so. This American had only hit 13 home runs in any of his previous seasons in the American Major leagues. Will he break Mr. Oh record? Only time will tell.                                                                                                
Records are made to be broken, even as Mount Everest is meant to be challenged. Why? Because they are there. Because they are goals. Because they are benchmarks for others to shoot at. And because it’s American to achieve the unachievable--the American Astronauts going to the moon in 1969; like Marty Laquiri breaking the three-min. mile; Olga Korbit getting a score of ten on the balance beam. 

This year Barry Bonds will break Babe Ruth’s walk record of 172 walks.

Barry Bonds will break Mark MacGwire’s two-year home run record if they ever pitch to him. [And they did]. Bonds will break the Babe’s slugging percent, which now stands at 847 percent. Barry is close to 900 percent, and if the Los Angeles Dodgers walk him, as I expect them to do, the percentage will not drop. Barry will break the on-base percentage that was held by Rogers Hornsby in the National League. The American League has, of course, Mr. Baseball Ted Williams, at 528; Bonds is currently at 515 and counting. 

Barry will hit over 70 home runs with 250 less at-bats then any other player. That just amazes me to see how patience he is at the plate--to wait for the right pitch at the right time. Could he be this year’s MVP of the National League? I think so, but I don’t have a vote. 

RECORDS MADE, RECORDS FALLING
Ricky Henderson, the greatest base stealer with 1,384 will finally get his 3,000^th  hit and will also break Tye Cobb’s record of total runs scored in a career [achieved]. What a fitting finish to one of the greatest baseball players to ever wear the Oakland Green and Gold. Going to the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, now Network Coliseum, in the late 70’s early 80’s could have been called a party. Seeing Ricky Henderson, Tony Armas, and Center Fielder Dwayne Murphy was the best outfield I’ve ever seen.  

My, my, have times have changed? Now the Green and Gold has somebody named Jason Giambi and Terrence Long playing out there. 

Nine pitchers this year will win 20 or more games. The most in a single season since the pitcher mound was lowered in 1969. Can you imagine Randy Johnson on that pre 1969 mound? Batters would still be running away from the batter’s box for fear of death just like they did when the Saint Louis Cardinal Bullet Bob Gibson pitched. Randy Johnson could set another strike out record on the last day of the season, needing only 10 strikeouts to pass the newly crowned Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. 

Eight players will at least get 40 or more home runs this year. Four players will hit 50 home runs in one season and that has never happened before.

Two could get 60 home runs. Sammy Sosa will get his third 60 home run season in four years--no player has ever done that, and Sammy could do it again next year. Like Mark McGwire, he could reach 350 home runs in less than four years, and ladies and gentleman that’s a feat! 

And of course Barry Bonds with his 70.

Could it be the new ball yards are smaller? Could it be the tighter baseball? Could it be the players are bigger, stronger, healthier, or could it be that players can see with better lighting at night? All that I know is right now we are seeing a different brand of baseball; a different brand of baseball player. 

At season end there will be six teams still vying for the five spots in the National League. Making almost every fan in National League Parks watch the scoreboard. That made a lot of old baseball diehards very happy, because people all over the United States want to know the scores of each day. They want to know what their favorite team has done for that day. I have not been a fan of the wild card, but this year baseball has outclassed itself with each divisional race. 

The Wild Card was a blessing to the National League but a curse to the American League. The Oakland Athletes will win more games than the other two division winners in the American League. The New York Yankees American League East Champions and Cleveland Indians American League Central Champions both will win their divisions with under 100 wins. The A’s could win 100 games and still be behind the Western Division winners Seattle Mariners. The Mariners have already tied the Yankees 114 win season of 1998 and could reach Chicago Cubs 1906 record of 117. There are still three games to go. 

I FEEL YOU! Oakland, I FEEL YOU! Winning 106 games and still being at least 10 games behind Seattle. Oakland will set the record for Wild Card Team wins with over 100 victories.   

ANOTHER RECORD
The Atlanta Braves could win its 10^th straight National League Eastern Conference Title. Being the first team in history to win ten divisional crowns in ten years. 

ANOTHER RECORD 
Hate to say it but this could be the last one Atlanta wins with the improvements of the other members of the National League East Division. 

Of course, the retirements of baseball great’s San Diego’s Mr. 19, Tony Gwinn, eight time batting champion, five in a row. THAT TIES A RECORD.  Tony had the eye of an Eagle and the bat speed of superman--thus, the many National League batting crowns. Watching Tony you just knew he was having fun, watching him run around the bases taking his many, many singles, doubles, and triples driving National League pitchers crazy. Nobody knew how to get number 19 out. They tried everything, but Tony would just outwit them and stroke a single. Could you imagine what it would have been like if he had been on a great team like the current Atlanta Braves or the World Champion New York Yankees? I admire Mr. Gwinn because he stayed in San Diego. He stayed with the team that drafted him; he stayed for the fans of San Diego. 

Cal Ripen Jr., becoming the new iron man. They will now call Cal, Mr. Baltimore, breaking Lou Gehrig’s 2,131 plus game streak. One could truly admire this man, playing hurt and playing tired most of the time in his later years. His goal became the record. Cal could have quit baseball years ago, but the record kept him going. Again, Cal stayed with Baltimore, stayed with the team that drafted him, and he made every look at the Birds when he broke Mr. Gehrig’s record. This is what baseball should be about and some of the younger players should take note of these two fine gentlemen.

Records keep these people MODIVATED. When all is lost or gained, the record stands calling to be broken. Seeking you out, encouraging everyone to at least try.

DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE? DO YOU HAVE THE WILL?  DO YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH? 

Thank you, many players; thank you, coaches; thank you, managers; and, yes, thank you, owners, for a wonderful 2001 baseball season, even though my New York Mets blew up at the beginning and at end of this season. Like a true baseball fan, I’ll wait for spring once again with the sounds of baseballs hitting gloves, the sweet sounds of baseballs hitting wooden baseball bats, the musical sounds of young men and women talking loud on baseball diamonds everywhere.  But now it’s on to the playoffs and World Series.

Home