7:29 PM. 2-1 count. Fastball away. Swing. That full, rich thwap. High. Deep. Opposite field.
And that awed gasp heard 754 times before.
Hours before the game, Bonds was taking batting practice. He and Bochy were trying to simplify his swing. Strip it down the barest essentials. He took over 100 practice cuts, 19 of them going high and deep.
Bonds gave something to the fans at Petco Park at 7:29, or perhaps took something away. Number 755 stripped away the controversy, the allegations, the hate and indifference, and created one moment of baseball. The Padres fans were no longer Padres fans, but baseball fans who were witnessing one moment of greatness. The cheers and applause were spontaneous, but came from the inherent nature of baseball fans to appreciate history.
That's all number 755 is. Baseball. And that's all it ever will be.
Congratulations Barry.
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