A Weekend of History

August 4, 2007: 755 home runs - B. Bonds

• Side by Side With Aaron
• The Dugout: MLB Official Chatroom AIM Log
• Long awaited No.755 was one to savor
• Fans 1, Selig -412
• Golic Goes to Town
• Homecoming of sorts for Bonds
• Barry Bonds' 755th shot to tie Hank Aaron's home run record begins to sink in
• San Francisco fans rejoice at Bonds' historic homer

August 4, 2007: 500 home runs - A. Rodriguez

• A-Rod finally belts career homer No. 500
• Wait is over for Rodriguez
• Yankees fan who caught Alex Rodriguez's 500th home run ball considers his options
• A-Rod belts historic 500th homer
  

August 5, 2007: 300 wins - T. Glavine

• The lunch-pail magician
• Glavine may be last to reach 300 wins
• Glavine wins 300th; shares weekend spotlight with Bonds, A-Rod
• Glavine wins No. 300, bests Cubs
• For Glavine, winning 300th was a family affair
• Glavine could be last to reach 300 for years

SEVEN FIDDY-FIVE, BABY!

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.

8/3 Link Dump

Lots of things going on around Bay Area sports. Here are some stories and articles that aren't big enough for a separate post, but still very, very, very important.

• Pat Misch will be starting in Morris' spot on Saturday against the Padres. Ortiz, the other candidate for the 3rd slot, has one last rehab start in Fresno before rejoining the team and possibly being part of the starting rotation for the rest of the season. Go Misch!
• The good folks at McCovey Chronicles have a nice list of Misch-related puns. Make no Mischtake, these are so corny that they're funny.
• Bill Walsh remembered: ways to honor him, the decals on the 49ers' jerseys and helmets, and a memorial at Monster Park on the 10th.
• Kosta Perovic and Austin Croshere are officially inked to contracts with the Warriors. Warriors fans everywhere groan at the thought of Croshere in a Dubs' uni.
  

Warriors 07-08 Schedule Released

07-08 Schedule
HoopsWorld: Pree's analysis of Warriors schedule

Definitely go check out the analysis. It's a great read.

Here are the things that caught my eye:

• 2nd round redux: Season and home opener is against Utah. I hope we don't get pounded around by Boozer again. The Deron vs Baron matchup will be especially interesting, seeing as Deron is the only PG who can stop Baron.
• The first 3 months are tough, the last 2 months are tough. February is the month to make the playoff push: there is only one road game.
• 3 games with the Spurs, one away but 2 at home. That's a good thing, because the Spurs are the anti-Warriors.
  
• 20 NATIONAL TELEVISION SLOTS! 20, including NBATV. All of the games versus Dallas and Phoenix are going to be shown on national TV. That's going to generate a lot of buzz and viewer ratings. Who wouldn't want to see us embarrassing Dallas again or scoring a combined 300 points with Phoenix? Where's Tim Donaghy when you need him?

Here are the home games I would definitely attend:

• Oct. 30: Utah. It's the first game of the season!
• Dec. 5: Milwaukee. I want to see how the Yi situation is turning out. If he's even with the Bucks.
  
• Jan. 13: Indiana. The return of the Indiana Warriors. We've missed you Dunleavy.
• Feb. 1: Charlotte. Welcome home, JRich.
• Feb. 11: Washington. The Washington Warriors come to town. It'd be awesome if the game was as wild as last year's.
• Feb. 26: Seattle. I want to see Durant.
  
• Mar. 2: Portland. I want to see Oden.
• Any game versus LAL. We have to make up the 0-4 last season. I'd like to see how the malcontent Kobe gets along with his subpar teammates.
  
• Any game versus Phoenix. 300 points minimum.
• Any game versus Dallas. 1st round redux.

Can't wait? Some hype from last season.

The Dunk Heard 'Round the World


The Greatest Upset Ever

Zito Proves His Worth... Sort Of

$49, 315.07 = How much Zito gets paid by the Giants every day. He (sort of) earned that fifty thousand bucks last night by giving up only one run (which came from a bases loaded walk). Go Zito, keep it up, more strikes please, stop walking the stadium.



On the other side of the ball, the offense has been decent for a while now. They scored 3 in the first inning against a useless Brett Tomko and tacked on an insurance run in the 7th. The bullpen did okay, except it was a nightmare during the eighth and ninth innings. Chulk got one out but allowed two singles and was yanked for Taschner. Tasch proceeded to walk Loney and promptly got yanked for Hennessey. Brad struck out Saenz and got Martinez to ground out. Brad's got brass balls. The Dodgers had the bases loaded and got nothing out of it. Sounds a bit like the Giants.

The ninth inning got ugly. Hennessey allowed a single and a walk, but got Pierre to line out to him. But in his haste to end the game with a triple play, Brad threw the ball behind Omar, who was running toward second. The runners did not advance, but there still was only one out. Hennessey walked the next batter, and then Bochy pulled him for Kline. Kline got the second out, but allowed one run to score. He IBB'd Garciaparra, who hit a 2-run homer off Messenger the day before, and then got Loney to ground out. End game.

Yeah, so the Giants are heading to San Diego, the Dodgers are left wondering why the got suckered by the last-place Giants, and the order is restored.

Matt Cain versus Greg Maddux tonight. This'll be a good matchup to watch. Hopefully Cain's figured everything out. Just pound the zone, kid, and you'll be fine. Bonds has eight HR's off Maddux, but Maddux has not lost to the Giants since 2003. 4 years of ownage. Time to return the favor.

From KG to Croshere

I think I'm gonna tear my hair out.

According to Janny Hu, the Warriors are pursuing free agent Austin Croshere. He's a 10-year veteran forward on the Mavs who put up 3 points and grabbed 3 boards in 11 minutes last year. Everywhere, Warriors fans are saying, "Why?"

Croshere is nothing but a Murphleavy-esque stiff-scrub who shoots 3s but doesn't do anything else. Uh, shooting 3s won't help the Warriors at all, seeing as 5 of the current 12 Warriors can hit treys with relative ease. He did not fit with the Mavericks' gameplan, let alone will he in Nellie's up-and-down style. He may have playoff experience and "veteran savvy" that could benefit the team, but in reality, all he would do is take away valuable minutes from Wright and Lasme.

The glimmer of hope is that Mullin never reveals his signing plans. As Lifelong from Golden State of Mind put it, the best we can hope for is that this is a huge smokescreen for a monumentally better player.

It's deflating for a Warriors fan to drop from a KG to a Croshere. If this is the best Mullin can do, then God save the franchise.

BEAT LA

Fun win yesterday. Lowry gets his 12th W through 5 2/3 innings, and the bullpen didn't allow a baserunner for the rest of the game. It's funny how the Dodgers fans hate Bonds, and yet they take pictures and videos of him at his at-bats. On his morning interview today on KNBR, Kruk said he'd never seen so many flashbulbs lighting up in a stadium.

Tim Lincecum is pitching today. TIM LEROY LINCECUM IS PITCHING TODAY. Whoo! It's good to have hope every few days. If Jeff Kent is playing today, I hope Timmy rockets a fastball near his head. And then strikes him out on 3 consecutive pitches, the last one being a wicked change that breaks Kent's ankles. Like what happened to Nick Swisher. You know, just for laughs.

Go Timmy, go Giants, BEAT LA!

[Edit 1:20 PM] I normally don't read Bruce Jenkins' stuff, but he has a pretty good article today about the Evils and their fans. I couldn't agree more with what he had to say about them. Beach balls (I saw one dropped on TV last night), arriving late, leaving early, and eating their children. Don't say nothin' 'bout no traffic, hear?