What, were you leaving it in the queue until it happened?

What, were you leaving it in the queue until it happened?

Nope. I'm quick!

Selig didn't exactly look happy.

Selig didn't exactly look happy.

Yeah; that was about the most obvious "aw ####" look I've seen.

Will this be the steroid thread to end all steroid threads? Or is everyone all talked out by now?

What, did Selig think he would go the rest of the season without hitting another one?

GO BARRY! 756 TODAY!

Will this be the steroid thread to end all steroid threads?

I don't get it. What does steroids have to do with Barry Bonds hitting #755?

Yeah; that was about the most obvious "aw ####" look I've seen.

There better be a still shot of that Selig face floating around by tonight. The cut to Selig was absolutely histerical -- jaw sagging, mouth agape.

Tell Kevin that everyone was cheering, not booing.

Just hit the next one tonight and get it over with. I'm glad Selig was there to see it.

Alex Rodriguez takes his place alongside Rickey Henderson in the Pantheon of Overshadowed Accomplishments.

I think I would have boo-clapped, that was a missle.

About time. Of course, it's one of the few at-bats I wasn't around to see.

As I wrote elsewhere, I did not hear any boos, but the announcers stated that some existed. What was certainly obvious was a goodly portion of the San Diego crowd standing and clapping afterward. Which was most gracious of them.

Since Dunn will eventually pass Bonds in career HR..)...I'm dumping here, cause me ticked.

Dunn hits an absolute 2-run bomb to dead center to put Cincy ahead 8-6 in the top of the 10th...and George Grande-Chris Welsh quickly gave all the credit to Brandon Phillips for being a "distraction" at 1B.

OK...back to Bonds.

Alex Rodriguez takes his place alongside Rickey Henderson in the Pantheon of Overshadowed Accomplishments.

Didn't Lou Gehrig hit 4 HRs the same day McGraw retired?

Jason:

Yes.

Repoz:

It was actually 9-7. But point taken

i had JUST changed the channel in time to see it (after this crappy lefty lost the game - astros, of course - on TWO wild pitches in a row)

GO BARRY!!!

and it sure sounded like a whole LOT of cheering to me. you could SEE a lot of the crowd clapping and cheering. cameras trying to find the boo-ers

and i REALLY liked selig looking like he suck a lemon. serves the sanctimonious &(*$%^! right

Alex Rodriguez takes his place alongside Rickey Henderson in the Pantheon of Overshadowed Accomplishments.

As Jeter quietly passes over Lara Dutta's phone number to Bonds.

Sorry, Associated Press wire, but "Bonds was NOT booed as he headed to left field at the end of the inning." It was easily 80% cheers, and that was down from the reaction to the home run itself.

After Bonds swings, you can see people in the crowd wearing Padres jerseys leaping up in excitement. And another meme bites the dust... has the media predicted anything right on this story?

This is the most anticlimactic moment I've had since I turned 21 and was now legally granted the freedom to drink -- which I'd been doing since I was 17 anyway.

@20

Yeah, GB...I dunno what they were seeing. I'm watching the game and it was cheering and clapping. I couldn't hear a boo.

That's journalism for you. It's the same way that no politician has spoken in front of a non-handpicked audience for decades.

Were you guys watching the ESPN feed? I thought AP got it right. Seemed to me there was more than 50% booing as opposed to cheering when he hit the HR and then even more booing when he headed to LF.

Heh, I heard nothing like that, Haven.

So, did ESPN add a boo-track, or did FSN add cheers?

I watched on the San Francisco feed and I didn't hear any booing. Whenever they showed the crowd, everyone was cheering and clapping. When he walked out to left field after the half-inning ended, all I heard was cheering -- although the SF announcers did say there was some booing, so maybe it just didn't come through on the audio as well.

And there's something derangedly appropriate about him tying the record with Ted Leitner on the opposing team's call. I hope robinred will give us a report so I don't have to listen to it myself.

Alex Rodriguez takes his place alongside Rickey Henderson in the Pantheon of Overshadowed Accomplishments

Well, both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963.

"I don't cheer for numbers." -- Bill James, 1984

Ole Bud won't speak to ESPN for an interview about Bond's homer.

I like how ESPN continues to stir the pot, this time, noting Bud's declining to join them in the booth.

HAH

Buddy boy declines ESPN's invitation to go into the booth to speak about the homer

i am LUUUUVVVVVING this

GO BARRY LAMAR!!!!!

The only time I heard real booing on the televised LA games was when Little intentionally walked Bonds.

I'm not tuned in to tonight's game, but if the AP guy was in the pressbox, he probably did hear mostly boos.

More than 50% booing, for the home run? No way. It was a wave of cheers, 90/10, with an underlying layer of Hans Molemans saying "Boo-onds."

San Diego just booed ball four to Bonds louder than the AP's alleged trot to left field.

Were you guys watching the ESPN feed? I thought AP got it right. Seemed to me there was more than 50% booing as opposed to cheering when he hit the HR and then even more booing when he headed to LF.

I'm watching it on Extra Innings, and there was virtually no booing, and significant cheering. Not as much as if a hometown player had done it, obviously -- but you'd never know it was Barry Bonds rather than a non-disliked player like A-Rod.

I really don't think you guys hear too well...... Guess you hear what you want to hear.

With two runs scored in this game, he needs 37 to tie Ty Cobb for 2nd and 86 to catch Rickey for first.

You are a troll, haven.

That's no argument, the same could be said of you.

I just rewatched it.. Virtually no booing, lots of jumping up and down and clapping.

I'll boo from here. Sorry, Hank.

Other views on boos vs. cheers:
SF Chronicle put up their story from their Giants beat writer (Henry Schulman):

Bonds stood and watched the record-tying home run leave the yard, dropped his bat and ran around the bases with no pump of the fist and no histrionics. A capacity crowd at Petco Park, on its feet, reacted with an almost even mixture of cheers and boos, a fitting symbol of the divisiveness Bonds' chase for this record has engendered.

The cheers reflected people's appreciation for the difficulty of Bonds' feat, matching a record that had stood for 34 years. The boos reflected the anger of many baseball fans who believe Bonds achieved this milestone only because he took performance-enhancing drugs.

San Diego - UPI - SF Chronicle Beat Writer Prewrites Copy, Eats Hot Dog

I know they can't cheer in the pressbox, but there's no rule against booing, is there?

In other news, this Misch kid has 7 Ks in 4 innings.

correctamundo.

orel and whatshisname keep trying to show all the supposedly booing people but i am not hearing it.

except when barry got walked

With two runs scored in this game, he needs 37 to tie Ty Cobb for 2nd and 86 to catch Rickey for first.

Will Bud stick around for that?

Glad you saw it, BBC. You're Barry's # 3 fan* (and #1 fanette) and you deserve this moment. I got my kick out of A-Rod's 500th, if only to see him get that particular monkey off his back.

* after his agent and Mr. Anderson, of course

I do hope that someone out there has an official booing/cheering measuring machine that can measure the actual ratio.

The ESPN cameras showed a lot of people waving little asterick signs when he went out to LF. I'd say the characterization of the reaction as mixed was a pretty good one.

I don't care how many times the Giants re-sign Barry, they desperately want to be rid of him.

I don't care how energized other teams' fans are, nobody cares about the record outside San Francisco.

I don't care how many people were cheering, I heard a "mixed reaction."

Agree with posts 34 and 35, much more cheering than booing. Lots of applause with scattered boos for the 755 HR.

You rewatch the homer on espn.com and judge the applause/boo mixture for yourself.

NY Times: (RR)

As soon as Bonds’s ball caromed off a red advertising sign in left field, there was an interestingly mixed reaction. Bonds did not hear relentless boos, as many people had suspected he might. Bonds heard some cheers and some boos, but, at some points, the cheers seemed to be louder in a park where Bonds had been booed for the last two nights.

Because Bonds has been linked to investigations into the use of steroids, he has routinely been booed at opposing ballparks. But, when Bonds hit Hensley’s 91 mile-an-hour fastball into history at 7:29 p.m., there was a portion of the enemy crowd that celebrated with him.

a non-disliked player like A-Rod

Good one, David.

At any rate, there obviously was a lot of cheering. And quite a bit more booing of the walks than the HR.

I do hope that someone out there has an official booing/cheering measuring machine that can measure the actual ratio.

Great, what we need is more stats in baseball. Check with Elias.

They are going to have to start on Bonds's Sadaharu Oh chase now. This chase has been a serious cash cow for not only the Giants, but the road teams as well.

I can't understand why the Giants wouldn't want Bonds back next year.

Without taking a particular side in this compelling debate, am I the only one who thinks it would seem difficult to get an accurate gauge on the cheer/boo mix from TV audio?

It's fine for people to not like Bonds, but for the media to be inaccurate, god, they suck.

Also: All of his teammates, who we are told repeatedly don't like him, came out of the dugout to greet and congratulate him.

On the ESPN radio feed, during his next at bats, the announcers were saying that the crowd was no longer ambivalent -- they wanted to see him hit 756.

hank had all the hating racists

barry lamar had all the hating media - i heard that there are like 200-300 media and more people following him like ALL the freaking time. one more homer and he can relax and play baseball.

I want to see Barry hit 756 in San Francisco.

My understanding is that the plan is for him to rip up first base, second base, third base and home plate as he rounds the bases, then hold them up as trophies of the ultimate 4-bagger, as he screams at the top of his lungs "I'm Number One! I'm Number One"

He will then disappear into the clubhouse, where he will strip naked as MLB places official holograms on the bat, ball, cleats, bases, bags of dirt from the batter's box, uniform, underwear, jockstrap and cup. Barry will then re-appear butt-naked on the field -- partly to demonstrate his smooth, non-bacned physique and un-shrunken testicles -- and proceed to personally auction off all of the memorabilia to the crowd, telephone and on-line bidders.

I am expecting the jockstrap to receive the highest bid.

GO BARRY!

am I the only one who thinks it would seem difficult to get an accurate gauge on the cheer/boo mix from TV audio?

It could be difficult to gauge precisely. I don't doubt that anyone sitting right smack in the middle of the few dozen LF asterisk wavers, or behind the Bonds family, might get a distorted perception.

But the booing for the pre-game announcement of Barry Bonds' name, and for the two walks, was lusty and obvious. The reaction to the home run was nothing like that. The only "mixed reaction" was from Bud Selig, grimly playing pocket pool and doing his best Bugs Bunny impression: "I'll do it, but I'll hate myself in the morning."

There was a solid minority of fans booing the home run, maybe a tenth of them. But any reporter looking to hang his hat on that splinter reaction as THE story is probably trying to justify his own preconception of what was supposed to happen.

Isn't it peculiar that this sort of audio controversy hasn't come up before in televised sports, until Barry Bonds came along?

I am expecting the jockstrap to receive the highest bid.

But who could carry his jockstrap?

But who could carry his jockstrap?

I know someone who can legpress 450 lbs, perhaps we should ask him.....

Henry Aaron: admitted amphetamine user. Dirty player. Home run record shouldn't count.

43. DrStankus Posted: August 04, 2007 at 11:28 PM (#2471545)

In other news, this Misch kid has 7 Ks in 4 innings.

Yeah, signing Zito was a great idea. Let's see ...

Cain / Lincecum / Zito / Lowry / Misch

or

Cain / Lincecum / Lowry / Misch / Sanchez and $126 million

Of course, this is the same team that thought Mike Matheny + Michael Tucker > Vlad Guerrero.

But who could carry his jockstrap?

I know someone who can legpress 450 lbs, perhaps we should ask him.....

You know Pat Robertson?

bernal

i would pay perfectly good money to see THAT - mr no guy in his 20s would get into a fistfight with a guy in his 40s because the old guy would win



- and as for all the teammates and the rest of ballplayers are supposed to hate him - i been watching barry in houston for a long LONG time. he has always been friendly to baggy, biggio, berkman (not kent, duh) and ausmus. during the allstar game in 2004 he was in a great mood and was chatting happily to bout every guy there (not kent, duh)

Okay, so the fans boo when THEIR TEAM'S PITCHER won't pitch to Bonds and then they give him a standing ovation when he's taken out of the game. But all that will be reported is the "chorus of boos" that Bonds purportedly received after he hit the homer.

Now, I disagree. Bonds leaving the game got the described "mixed reaction" that his HR did not. Loads of boos, morphing into cheers.

68. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: August 05, 2007 at 12:45 AM (#2471739)

Now, I disagree. Bonds leaving the game got the described "mixed reaction" that his HR did not. Loads of boos, morphing into cheers.

Well, I would argue that the boos were because they were pissed he was coming out of the game and thus wouldn't be breaking the record tonight. And then they cheered him as he was going into the dugout to show their appreciation.

But then again, I'm a massive Bonds fan, so I do have my own biases here.

I am sick of people talking about Selig. He always has a blank look on his face.

Last time Michael Barrett drew a walk Bonds only had 746 home runs.

Harold is at the game, and he said (I called him) it was more cheers than boos, and specifically said they cheered him when he went to his position in a hugely different manner than the first inning when they booed him alot.

Congrats to Barry.

And WTF was Selig doing even attending the damn game if that was the extent of his reaction. Just have the courage/decency to stay away if you're just going to piss on the parade.

This reminds me of when Michael Moore won an Oscar, called out a 'fake' President and the media said that he got heavily booed... while he was busy getting a standing ovation, and the cameras refused to pan the crowd.

Holy mackerel!

While I haven't really cared about numbers for decades now, it's still nice having someone from my generation with a share of that record. It would be nicer without the cloud over his head, however.

Congratulations to Barry! One more milestone homer to go this season. Get it soon!

Well, here's one eyewitness perspective. Got this e-mail from my mother-in law just now:

"Thomas had 6 tix to the Padres game last night, and had only 3 people lined up to go, so he treated me
to the game. It was fun. Watched Barry Bonds tie Hank Aaron's record, to a chorus of boos. I have
mixed feelings about it. He is a good player, but the steroid controversy will always cloud his
achievements. The game has definitely changed because of it."

I have a hard time remembering minor league suspensions for PEDs, but wasn't Clay Hensley - the hurler who allowed #755 - one of the folks punished for steroid use?

Indeed he was:

In April 2005, Hensley was one of four Padres farmhands who were suspended for 15 games for using performance-enhancing substances, either steroids or steroid precursors.

Would have been an interesting angle to play up during the broadcast, no?

Hope the URL works this time.

try again

or maybe this time

NPR played a clip on Weekend Edition this morning that seemed to have been recorded from the stands. There was a lot of applause but there was a significant amount of booing as well. I was surprised because I watched the game on ESPN last night and couldn't hear much booing.

Oh come on, you can;t bring up Hensley's suspension, that is like driving with a broken taillight, Bonds is driving the tractor trailer 75 in a school zone, hit the deaf kid, backed up and hit him again just to make sure he is dead. Bonds is history's greatest monster and should be put in PMITA prison for 50 years for what he has done.

Well, here's one eyewitness perspective. Got this e-mail from my mother-in law just now:

"Thomas had 6 tix to the Padres game last night, and had only 3 people lined up to go, so he treated me
to the game. It was fun. Watched Barry Bonds tie Hank Aaron's record, to a chorus of boos. I have
mixed feelings about it. He is a good player, but the steroid controversy will always cloud his
achievements. The game has definitely changed because of it."

That can't be right, because all the people posting here (a great number of whom seem to be friends & loved ones of Mr Bonds') who weren't at the game know soooooo much more about the crowd reaction than anyone who was actually, y'know, there. Apparently, your mother-in-law is an AP reporter &/or Haven (has anyone ever seen any of them in the same room at the same time?).

Thanks IE

About the booing: I'm sure some famous scientist said something like 'by observing, we influence what we observe.' Each of us has our own individual biases coloring our observation. I haven't really been much of a part of the Bonds flame wars, but I certainly have my own biases. I rarely watch west coast night games, but my wife and kids had gone to bed early and I wasn't tired, so I saw Bonds' first 3 PAs. What I heard for the homer (ESPN2 feed) was a mixture of boos and cheers; the visual seemed to be more folks standing and applauding than not, a small number of folks holding up asterisks, and a significant volume of boos, but of what proportion, I couldn't begin to guess.

well i KNOW from personal experience that the experience of being a person in the crowd is REAL different from the experience of someone watching what happens on tv

i went to WS game #3 in 2005 and i KNOW how the crowd was but there SURE were a whole lot of guys on this here site insisting it was different

i think that espn/fox fools with the sound to get the sound they want to broadcast. and no i do NOT know how they do it. it's like how they only show people sitting in the lower stands

of course most of us didn't hear the local radio feed neither

i sure wish i could have head ted leitner call the homer
hehhehheh

I was sitting in the section directly behind Barry last night (the ball landed one section over to my left) and Barry was definitely cheered FAR, FAR more than booed, both when he hit the home run and when he came out into left field after the homer. I was actually really surprised - being a Giants fan standing among a sea of Padres fan, I thought they'd give a polite clap, with tons of booes, but it was complete pandemonium out there when he hit the home run, people jumping up and down screaming excitedly, yelling "we just saw history" with huge smiles on their faces, etc., etc. We missed basically the rest of the inning, and most of the next because people were standing and talking about how much of the home run, trot and post-touching-home celebration they saw, taking and making phone calls, snapping pictures of Barry in left with their cell phones, etc. Every single at bat Barry had (and this had been true the night before), was accompanied by as many flashbulbs going off as I had ever seen at a baseball game (including the WBC, Barry's chase for the single season record, etc.). People booed while laughing, took a picture while he was batting and then cheered like crazy when he hit the home run (at least, the people around me and from what I could gauge around the stadium from my seats).

As for when Barry came out to left after the home run, most of the Padres fans around me stood and clapped along with the handful of Giants fans in attendance, and most people holding the asterix were doing it jokingly because they were readily available. (A guy had been handing them out before the game so they were literally stacked all over the place.) Way more people held up asterixes in the first before he hit the home run, with only a handful of die-hard "Barry's a cheater" types keeping it up for the rest of the game. One things for sure, the asterix holders were definitely more active by the ESPN camera situated in the corner of my section near the Western Metal Building. The stadium booed the pitchers mercilessly whenever it looked like they would walk Bonds for the rest of the game (most of the Padres fans surrounding me yelling "pitch to him" and "challenge him!"), and they cheered like a home town should when the opposing team's best player would fly out, etc. The only three times all night that the crowd was mostly boos for Barry were the first time he went to bat, the first time he came to left and when he didn't catch that ball in left midway through the game. (The fans jumped all over him and took a lot of relish in yelling, "too slow!").

I'd have to say that it was a great experience, overall, and that anybody saying that it was mostly negative would be wrong (at least, from what I saw in one left field section, and the overall feeling in the stadium). The guys out in the section I was sitting in heckled this die-hard Padre fan who relentlessly yelled at Bonds more than they yelled at the entire opposing team the entire night.

That can't be right, because all the people posting here (a great number of whom seem to be friends & loved ones of Mr Bonds') who weren't at the game know soooooo much more about the crowd reaction than anyone who was actually, y'know, there.

Well, except fro SantoFan and Harold, who were, you know, there

This headline made me think the article was going to be about Oh or Gibson. He's the second to tie the record? What's that?

here's a report from a giants fan who was at the game - check out the pics

http://mvn.com/mlb-giants/2007/08/05/witnessing-755-firsthand/

Gibson only hit 225 HRs or so in league games. Pick up games obviously don't count - or do we include ST games, playoff games, batting practice?

i went to WS game #3 in 2005 and i KNOW how the crowd was but there SURE were a whole lot of guys on this here site insisting it was different

I can think of at least one guy who played last night and also in Game 3 of the 2005 WS.

Meant to add, my girlfriend and I have season tickets (her a die-hard Padres fan) out in left, and the section we sit in is pretty notorious for heckling whoever the opposing team sticks out in left field, and I can say for a fact that the section as a whole was far, far worse to Manny Ramirez when the Red Sox were in town than they were to Barry last night. The Red Sox games were really bad, with one night in particular being especially brutal, people getting kicked out, fights one shove away from starting, slurs and other horrible things yelled at Manny all nine innings. What Bonds got last night was nothing compared to that (nor, ironically, some things I heard yelled at Holliday, Dunn, Kory Casto, etc. earlier in the year).

i went to WS game #3 in 2005 and i KNOW how the crowd was but there SURE were a whole lot of guys on this here site insisting it was different

How could you hear the crowd through your parka and earmuffs?

Without taking a particular side in this compelling debate, am I the only one who thinks it would seem difficult to get an accurate gauge on the cheer/boo mix from TV audio?

Perhaps, but, as has been pointed out, when the Padres walked Bonds, there was no question that a chorus of boos ensued. Also, forget about the audio: most people were standing up and clapping. Including when he went out to take his position, and when he was pinch run for. It would be odd for people to be giving him a standing ovation and booing at the same time.

And WTF was Selig doing even attending the damn game if that was the extent of his reaction. Just have the courage/decency to stay away if you're just going to piss on the parade.

The official statement Selig released was moronic also. For him to hold his nose as Bonds ties the record is pretty amazing. The focus all along has been on whether Selig would attend the relevant games. But implicit in attending is that by doing so Selig was _respecting_ Bonds's achievement. When he releases that kind of official statement, he's not respecting the achievement at all. Which means that all he's doing by attending is just going through the motions. One wonders, then, why he bothered.

The issue is not whether Selig merely "attends," but whether he respects the achievement.

bernal

you bad BAD boy you need a spanking. i'm gettin my big black boots now

besides, it was just a heavy sweaters and gloves - had to deal with that ice cold wind knifing thru the upper deck you know

I thought that this was a hell of a picture of the moment, especially since it was snapped "frantically".
(from baseball chick's link)

Oh jesus, I forgot your take on Gibson, Dial.

Calm down, it was just on a comment on the sentence structure.

You guys can say what ever you want about the booing.
I have the Padres Fans/game on Tivo, and they are clearly giving him a standing ovation on his walk out to left field in the bottom of the 2nd.

you spin mieters can weave that spite however you want.
I don't care.
I got proof.


Barry, Love ya man.

#755

an opposite filed no doubter.
I gotta admit, I jumped a good foot, fists pumped high, the minute I heard the news.
Some dude next to me made a spiteful comment, and I just turned stared him down for a good 20 seconds, straight in the eyes. I sensed fear in him, so I walked away clapping .. "loud and proud."

You go on with your bad self Barry!!
#760 by the end of the week. I feel a run.

As I wrote elsewhere, I did not hear any boos, but the announcers stated that some existed. What was certainly obvious was a goodly portion of the San Diego crowd standing and clapping afterward. Which was most gracious of them.

Nah. First, a "goodly portion of the San Diego crowd" were SF fans. And there were plenty of boos, as well as "steroids" chants before and after. Don't get me wrong--the crowd was OK, our local announcer was OK. But there was plenty of booing (I talked to a guy who was at the game and the local news played it several times).

And there's something derangedly appropriate about him tying the record with Ted Leitner on the opposing team's call. I hope robinred will give us a report so I don't have to listen to it myself.

Here ya go--I posted in the other thread. Frankly, I would like to be able to trash Leitner more, and he was his usual full-of-it self, post-call, but I can't find too much fault with the call:

As a semi-related aside, I was in the car headed out to the movies when Bonds hit #755, so I heard Ted Leitner's radio call. As much (deserved) grief as I have given Leitner WRT Bonds, I thought he handled the call just fine: he showed enough excitement to indicate that this IS a big story, albeit a compromised one, and he made sure to say something very nice about Aaron while avoiding pissing on or praising Bonds during the call itself. I agreed with that approach and think it was the right one given many people's feelings. A few minutes later, and later in the game after I was back in the car, Leitner made his usual smug-BS-comments, but the call itself, I thought, reflected the whole mood well: controversy, mixed emotions, Giants' fans excitement. In the article from a couple of days ago, Leitner made a point of saying he wouldn't "embarrass the organization" so the cynic in me thinks Alderson, who has been ambivalent at best about Leitner but like all Padres executives doesn't just can his gutless ass, told Leitner to make sure to tone down the Bonds-bashing if 755 or 756 were hit here. But maybe Leitner just stepped up, so credit where credit is due.

****