March 13, 2008

Bonds’ homer No. 762 a bizarre mystery : After Bonds connected on No. 756 to move past Hank Aaron, each of his home runs became the new final home run. Every fan who snagged one became an instant celebrity and, at least until the next one was hit, a potential millionaire. When the season ended on Sept. 30, every home run ball that Bonds had hit after 756 had been accounted for, except one: No. 762.

read story | posted by BoKnows to Baseball at 8:28 PM CDT (15 comments total)

Still beating a dead horse? Come on already, does anyone really care about Pumpkinhead? The guys a joke, and a liar, although, there is a a baseball in my front yard, maybe I'll investigate...

posted by aMAIZEd Mark at 4:26 AM CDT on March 14

Still beating a dead horse? Come on already, does anyone really care about Pumpkinhead?

It sure seems that way. Regardless of what people may think about Bonds, he is still considered to be the homerun king and rightfully so. IMHO, you could have just as easily bypassed this post if you wanted to instead of making the not-so-original claim that Bonds is a "joke" and/or a "liar" without actual proof to prove your point.

posted by BornIcon at 6:01 AM CDT on March 14

Still beating a dead horse? Come on already, does anyone really care about Pumpkinhead?

The proper response when one does not care about the topic of a thread is to move along to something that is of interest. The improper response is to post a comment in the thread proclaiming to the world that "nobody" cares.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 8:16 AM CDT on March 14

If you'd read the story you'd realize it wasn't about "Pumpkinhead", but about the last homerun ball hit by Mr. Bonds.

Thanks for the link BoKnows. Good read. I'd be curious to find out whatever happens if they auction it off.

posted by apoch at 8:38 AM CDT on March 14

I apologize for posting this if the majority of you think I'm beating a dead horse. I actually had never heard this story before, so I thought it was post-worthy.

Anyone here from San Francisco? I'd like to hear more about the homerun ball bully. Is he for real?

posted by BoKnows at 8:40 AM CDT on March 14

Thanks BoKnows.....that was as interesting for the draconian lengths usually taken to authenticate as anything else....kind of a shadow world that most of would never have known about.

posted by smithers at 9:00 AM CDT on March 14

[I'll ignore the troll.]

I find this part of the story to be quite compelling. Like him, respect him or hate him, Bonds is not a simple guy, and nothing about his story is simple, from his upbringing to his early success to his decision to change his physiognomy, to the chase for Ruth & Aaron, to the debris he left behind every step of the way.

Reading that story made me think of Don Delillo's Underworld, the opening fifty pages of which does a similar detective job on the fuzzy and contradictory history of the 1951 Bobby Thomson home run ball.

That ball, and all the others like it, is a place where the pampered-millionaire and the schmoe in the stands meet. This one is especially fascinating given the ambiguous details and the import of the actual ball itself, but I could read stories about what happened to game balls forever.

Also, I get the feeling that the mercenary types in the stands are mostly kind of dicks.

posted by chicobangs at 10:44 AM CDT on March 14

That was an interesting story, Bo. It's nice that some people like Mr. Harmon care enough to do the right thing. The down side of this is that it blows my theory of what happened to the ball right out of the water. You see, I was convinced that Jonathan Paplebon's dog had eaten it. Actually, it would be better if Jonathan Paplebon's dog could be trained to eat people like Jake Frazier.

posted by Howard_T at 11:01 AM CDT on March 14

So let me get this straight. Jake Frazier is in the "medical marijuana business". He gets "stoned to the bone" for every game he attends and indeed was "smoking big weed" before this very game. He also goes to "100 home and away games a year".

I am so in the wrong line of work.

posted by THX-1138 at 11:18 AM CDT on March 14

I am so in the wrong line of work.

Probably in the wrong jurisdiction for his line of work, too.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:30 PM CDT on March 14

Just as well. I don't take the marijuana anymore. I was more interested in the 100 games a year part. I wish I had the luxury of being able to do that.

Smart move, admitting that you are a chronic user of weed and have a license to sell it. I bet they frown on that even in San Francisky.

posted by THX-1138 at 12:41 PM CDT on March 14

Y'see there, what your guidance counselor in high school told you wasn't necessarily true. I was always told that the problem with marijuana was that it makes one apathetic and willing to settle for good enough (or something like that, I was usually pretty high.) But here is a guy who has made a life and a livelyhood from weed who is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Is there an old man who weighs 75 lbs less than you in between you and a baseball? Knock his old ass over! Is there another smaller man with a chance at the ball? Put him on the ground! Then, call attention to your fat nacho-chugging ass by shit talking the old man and the kid for not being borderline morbidly obese! Apathy, my arse.

Thanks for a fun read Bo. Bonds hating or not, this is an interesting story that sheds a light on some of the business of sport.

posted by tahoemoj at 12:44 PM CDT on March 14

Imagine how aggro Jake would be if he wasn't dealing with heroic amounts of chronic.

posted by chicobangs at 3:04 PM CDT on March 14

I'm from the San Francisco area, and while we may appear to be a bit liberal concerning cannabis, you can bet that the jakester will be getting a little unwanted attention from the authorities after his public admission of getting stoned to the bone while violently knocking other fans out of the way.

Not long ago there were some posts on the SF BAY craigslist rants and raves offering a bounty on this guy. I have to be honest and say that only now do I understand what they were ranting about. You can never actually believe everthing that gets posted to craigs, but I have the feeling this guy better have his health insurance paid up.

posted by irunfromclones at 3:25 PM CDT on March 14

What I'm waiting to hear is how long it takes before Denver's authorities look into why he was stoned to the bone at the Mile High stadium, um I mean Coors Field.

While SF may be a bit liberal, I'm not aware of Denver allowing even medicinal chronic.

posted by SupermanTrackCoach at 3:10 PM CDT on March 20

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