Bonds Joins Aaron and Ruth at 700

It's no secret that Sports Amnesia's runaway choice for NL MVP, Barry Bonds waited until he'd left the doldrums of Selig-land and Milwaukee to return home to hammer number 700 last night thereby not only making history, but leading his SF Giants to a 4-1 victory over San Diego in the process and keeping the Giants ahead of da Cubbies for the NL Wildcard chase.

It was his 42nd homer of the season which seems almost Herculean considering how often he is walked most games (207 times in 133 games). And still, as Dale Hoffman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal pointed out yesterday, Bonds' 700th doesn't put him in Ruth's and Aaron's company, he's already been there:

"As home runs become more common, they seem to be getting less exciting and clearly less marketable. The ball that Mark McGwire hit for his 70th in 1998 fetched $3 million on the memorabilia market, while the one that Bonds crushed for his 73rd had a garage sale tag of $450,000 three years later. His 600th got pulled off the market when it couldn't draw a minimum bid of $50,000.

Maybe the collectors are getting thriftier, or maybe the public's paying closer attention to detail. It's not as if Bonds would have stepped into the company of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron by hitting his 700th here.

He has been with them since April, when he became only the third man to hit 661. Not that he seemed to notice."

Perhaps more importantly, it was also the Giants' sixth win in a row and while they still hold the WC lead over the Cubs, they are fast closing in on those damned Dodgers as well, now only 2 1/2 games out of first with several 6 more games still to play against those Dodgers, including the last series of the regular season.

In fact, Bonds will have to continue to be Herculean for the rest of the season because the Giants don't get any breaks the rest of the way. This Padres series is followed by a series against the Houston Astros, then the Dodgers, then the Padres again before closing out against the Dodgers again. Their destiny is, as they say, all in their own hands.

*****

Lost in the excitement was the Yankees last inning loss to the Red Sox last night which dropped their lead to 2 1/2 games. Realistically, this series and the one to follow it next weekend, barring any major disasters or meltdowns, is probably not all that important in the scheme of things. Even if the Red Sox overtake the Yankees, there is slim to no chance that someone like the Angels will catch up to them and snatch the wildcard spot. The Red Sox can take all the revenge they want in the regular season and it won't mean anything if they can't do it again in the postseason when it counts.

That said, it is perhaps somewhat ominous to note that Mariano Rivera's meltdown last night was not his first against the Red Sox this season. Two months ago, in their last meeting, he blew a save against the Sox on a Bill Mueller homerun in the bottom of the 9th. So in his last two outings against their biggest rivals, Mariano hasn't lived up to his name. It is something certain to be pondering in great outpourings of hysteria and concern by Yankees fans in the weeks to come. Over the last three years, Mariano has had 17 save chances against the Red Sox and has missed five of them. In fact, over that same period of time, the Red Sox are Mariano's biggest nemesis of all the AL teams with a chance to face the Yankees in the playoffs.

Against Boston, he sports a less-than-glittering ERA of 3.34 since 2001. Comparatively, he's not allowed an earned run by the Twins in those same three years, he has a 2.08 ERA against the A's and a 2.84 ERA against the Angels.

Of course, only five teams have scored on him all season and of those five, only the Angels and the Red Sox are teams with any prayer of the postseason.

Mariano doesn't seemed too concerned though. "They beat me tonight," Rivera said. "But I will be back."

Indeed he will but the aura and fear factor is swiftly dwindling.

Besides the race for the AL East and the AL Wildcard, this series is also showcasing what is arguably, the two strongest AL MVP candidates in Gary Sheffield and Manny Ramirez. Oddly, both of them seem more recognisable by their respective histories of controversies than they do by their output, but these are the two best players on the two best teams (statistically anyway) in the American League. Their numbers on the season are tightly similar,(Sheff .298-34-113-.402 OBP,-.547 Slugging and Manny .311-41-118-.402-.623) so if we're boiling the water into steam to find who is more valuable of the two, you might have a look at how each performed against their other half thus far this season:

Sheffield is hitting .240 with two homers and 10 rbis in 50 at bats against the Red Sox. For the season, Sheff is hitting .333 with runners in scoring position.

Manny is hitting .281 with six homers and 12 rbis in 57 at bats against the Yankees. For the season, Manny is hitting .326 with runners in scoring position.

Last night, Manny went 0-2 with 2 walks while Sheffield had a hit and a walk in 4 trips to the plate. At this pace, Manny should get the nod over Sheff but if the Yankees were to win the AL East and the Red Sox fail to make the playoffs, well, there would go all of Manny's votes in the rubbish bin.

Something worth keeping an eye on. That, and the fact that A-Rod, the coup of the offseason for the Yankees, is still hitting a pathetic .238 with runners in scoring position this season and Jeter is hitting only .286 with runners in scoring position.

And then of course, the forgotten MVP, David Ortiz, whose stats for the season are frighteningly similar to Ramirez's (.298-37-125), against the Yankees, is hitting .340 with a pair of homers and and 7 rbis in 53 at-bats and hits .331 with runners in scoring position. Not to mention a fat .370 average at Yankee Stadium as the enemy this season.

Oh the choices! Oh the excitement! At this rate, the fans in both cities may suffer a collective aneurysm before the postseason even begins. To pass the time before the first pitch of the next game in about 5 hours, have a glance through the Yanksfan-Soxfan Stretch Drive Quiz.

And amid all the hullaballoo, I stand back and think about how lucky I am to be a Mets fan. Look how calm, cool and collected I can be, counting down the days to the end of the Art Howe Era. No pennant race jitters. No agonising games to die little deaths over, inning by inning. No post season fears. No worries about anything but the latest trend in Mike Piazza's facial hair and whether or not the Expos, a mere two and a half games behind the Mets for second-to-last place, (oh irony! the same number of games that separate the Yankees and Sox!) can claw their way out of the basement and kick the Mets down there, down in to that Saddam-like spider hole of futility and mediocrity, the Mets home away from home, the NL East cellar.

*****

Since today is Saturday, that means college football, none of which, unfortunately, I can watch over here. However, I can see images and this one of 20th ranked Fresno State head coach Pat Hill leads me to question if he looks more like Satan or just another HILLbilly.

The idiocy that is the BCS does not sweat the Fresno States of the world, nor should they. The more silent Coach Hill is kept, the better, as far as I'm concerned, so I'll be rooting for Division 1-AA Portland State to end this absurdist gobbing before it has a chance to take root by knocking off Fresno State tonight. I mean, who is kidding who here? Fresno State? For the NCAA beach volleyball championship, maybe. For the NCAA frisbee football championship, sure, why not. But the BCS will not come calling.

Three games of note this weekend:

LSU (2-0) at Auburn (2-0).
Maryland (2-0) at West Virginia (2-0)
Florida (1-0) at Tennessee (1-0).

All six teams are ranked in the top 25 in the country and all three games will have a significant bearing who is getting knocked out of consideration by the third week of the season. Sports Amnesia's betting pool has Auburn, Maryland and Tennessee winning and carrying their seasons further.

*****

No!No!No!

Imagine my shock and awe and horror at reading the NY Post this morning and finding out that the Mets Idiot Collective already have placed Jim Fregosi near the top of their wish list.

Jim Fuckin Fregosi for crissakes! The corpse of failure that was Art Howe's managerial stint with the Mets hasn't even finished decomposing yet and already, they are confounding the Laws of Extreme Stupidity and Failure To Learn From Past Mistakes by even DARING to consider a lifetime loser like Jim Fregosi.

Jim Fregosi, let's make this loud and clear so even the addled brained twats in the Mets front office can hear us: HAS A LIFETIME LOSING RECORD AS A MANAGER!!!!

That's LOSING RECORD as in, 1028 wins and 1095 LOSSES or what is otherwise known as a sub-.500 winning percentage, generally recognised in most circles, as being a LOSING RECORD.

Why would the Mets replace a manager with a losing record with another manager with a losing record?

Consistency is my guess. Keep expectations low. Then if they make another miraculous run near .500 next season and manage to spend more than a day or two out of last place, we can all get all goose pimply again about the illusion that the Mets will ever be anything but losers whilst the Wilpons destroy the team with their crass stupidity and appalling lack of baseball acumen.

There are only two legitimate names to be bandied about when mentioning the replacement for Art Howe. Lou Piniella or Wally Backman.

If the Mets hire Jim Fregosi to run the ship into another two season long iceberg, I'm renouncing my support for good and jumping ship to the Washington Expos (or whatever the hell they'll end up being called).

*****

Last note: The View From the Bleachers has moved. Click on the magical name and you will find it. So when you're looking for insight on the next Cubby Collapse, look no further than here.