Last night, against the Washington Nationals, Barry Bonds made baseball history:
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7 — Seven fifty-five, the most cherished number in baseball if not all of American sports, lived a good, long, noble life. Spawned from the powerful bat of an aging slugger named Hank Aaron on July 20, 1976, it grew in stature over the years, surviving the occasional challenge and ruling over the record book even as other, lesser records fell. But on a cool Tuesday night near the shores of San Francisco Bay, 755 finally perished at the hands of a relentless, controversial invader from the west named Barry Lamar Bonds. Seven fifty-five is gone. Behold, 756.
The time was 8:51 p.m. PDT, under a wind-swept sky, when Bonds, the San Francisco Giants’ left fielder, crushed an 86-mph fastball from Washington Nationals left-hander Mike Bacsik over the wall in right-center field, the deepest corner of AT&T Park. It was a 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning, and when the ball cleared the fence some 435 feet away, Bonds was alone atop the sport’s all-time home run list. It was homer No. 756, one more than the great Aaron hit.
And, of course, there was a celebration in San Francisco:
The game was stopped for roughly 10 minutes as Bonds circled the bases to the accompaniment of fireworks over the bay, touched home plate with both hands pointed toward the sky, then hugged his teammates and family members who had been whisked onto the field.
“I’ve got to thank all of you, all the fans here in San Francisco,” Bonds told the crowd from the grass near the Giants’ dugout before also thanking his teammates, his family and the Nationals. “It’s been fantastic.” When it came time to thank his father, the late Giants star Bobby Bonds, the hulking slugger broke down. “Thank you,” he said, “for everything.”
And then, in a stunning twist that brought gasps from the crowd, a taped message of congratulations was played on the giant video board in center field from, of all people, Aaron himself. Much had been made of the fact that Aaron had chosen not to show up in person for 756 — a fact many attributed to the widespread belief that Bonds’s record was tainted by alleged steroids use — but the video tribute left no doubt that Aaron had given Bonds’s record his unqualified endorsement.
“I move over now,” Aaron said on the screen as everyone, including Bonds, stopped to watch, “and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement.”
As always, Hank Aaron is a classy guy.
Here’s YouTube video of the historic home run, the celebration afterwards, and Aaron’s message:
