Bonds Hits 756

Did what? This is all news to me!?!

i was 11 years old when aaron broke the Babe's record; watched it on tv. about 3 weeks later, the braves came to st louis, and i went to the game. he was playing left field in those days, and when the braves ended an inning in the field he sometimes saved himself a few steps by jogging over to the visitors' bullpen on the left-field foul line, instead of going all the way back to the dugout. obviously he'd go to the dugout if he was due to bat, but if he wasn't due up in the first 5 or 6 hitters he'd just hang out in the bullpen.

at the old busch, the bullpen benched back right up onto the box seats; if you were sitting in the firs row, you could talk to the players. it was 1974, and 20,000 was a large crowd; the crowd on this april night was announced at 15,996. i know exactly what game it was, because aaron hit a homer in the game i'm thinking of, and he only homered once in st louis in 1974 --- on april 30.

with a crowd of that size, the box seats down the outfield lines were largely empty. so in one of the innings where aaron took a seat on the bullpen bench, i left the family seats in section 158 and went down to talk to the new HR king. i had taken a buddy from school to the game with me that night; he came along.

it was pretty obnoxious of us to go bother the dude in the middle of a game, but we were 11 --- we didn't know any better. we marched down through the empty rows of box seats right up to row #1 and said to his back, "hey hank." he glanced over his shoulder and sized us up and said "hey" or something and went back to watching the game, doing his job. we started asking him questions, the sort of stuff star-struck 11-year-olds would ask, and he patiently and cordially bantered with us. didn't much want to talk about himself; he turned it around and asked us about ourselves. you guys play little league? what position do you play? who's your favorite player on the cardinals? he also asked us: what grade are you in? what's your favorite subject in school? how come you're out here at the baseball game instead of doing your homework?

as i look over the log of that game, i'm guessing this exchange took place in the top of the 5th inning --- he was due up 8th, and surely spent the frame down in the bullpen. a couple of innings later, he led off the 7th inning with a home run --- the 720th of his career, off lynn mcglothen --- to cut the st louis lead to 7-1.

so that's my hank aaron remembrance. that's my reaction to the bonds homer last night.

i am just damn glad it is over, and i am sure that you will not hear stories about barry like the one larry told above about hank, two very different classes of men

If anyone hasn't already read it, drop what you're doing and read Roid Monster by BG, formerly of Redbird Nation.