Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Break Out Your Abacus

MLB.com described how this season could be to baseball what 1994 was to movies (Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, Shawshank, Four Weddings, Hoop Dreams, Ed Wood, Red, Heavenly Creatures, NELL!!). Several notable milestones should be reached, hopefully with a little more fanfare than Ichiro received. Biggio's knocking on the Mr. 3,000 door, but he's not alone in keeping the Elias number crunchers on their toes. Read about it HERE. Or if you don't have the patience:

500 Homers - It could be an absolute revolving door into the 500 home run club this season. Frank Thomas, now with Toronto, has 487. Jim Thome of the White Sox has 472, Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox has 470, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has 464, and a bit distant but not out of the question is Detroit's Gary Sheffield with 455.

600 homers - Sosa's countdown to this milestone resumes at 588 after a one-year layoff. Griffey enters the season with 563, and considering that he hit 35 just two seasons ago, this is by no means out of the question. Junior staying healthy is the question.

300 wins - Could Randy Johnson be a 20-game winner again in his second go-round with the Diamondbacks? Now 43, it might be asking a lot, but if Big Unit were to get there, it could mean two in the same year. Tom Glavine, after receiving the win on Opening Night, is only nine away.

500 saves - There is no history here. Record holder Trevor Hoffman enters this season with 482 saves. 'Nuff said.

755 homers - Part of me hopes that large-necked dude hits the historic homerun... and nobody makes a sound. There's just silence as Bonds limps his Balco body 360 feet. The other side of me, however, will be watching every at-bat, just like I did with McGwire back in '98.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess it's too much to expect everyone in the ballpark to stand up silently and turn their backs on him as he trots around the basepath.

Steve Sax said...

Delino, I don't think you will be the only one watching every at bat. I think all the rest of us will have to suffer the same punishment, like it or not, as ESPN will "interrupt games in progress" incessantly for this.

If they're smart, they'll look at the Bonds-testicles-sized ratings for "Bonds on Bonds" and realize that America wishes that Barry would just fade away...

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

If Howard Stern and his shrunken Sirius audience can singlehandedly keep that Sanjaya guy on American Idol, then anything's possible. Maybe we should start a grassroots campaign here!

Steve Sax said...

PS, nice post!

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

BTW Trolley et al, www.turnyourbackstobonds.com is available... albeit a little wordy. Other suggestions for a site to spread the word?

Steve Sax said...

Turnaround?
Every now and then, I get a
little bit lonely. And you're never coming around...

(Ha, now it's stuck in your head, too.)

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

Don't turn around.. uh oh oh oh.. (I'm of course quoting Der Kommissar by After the Fire)

Anonymous said...

Ha! Nothing can destroy the "I Just Can't Get Enough" earworm I caught earlier this afternoon.

www.ignorebarry.com looks available.

If you google "turnyourbackonbonds.com" and check out the cached version of that URL, somebody used to have a page with that very idea. But now the live site is a parked domain.

Steve Sax said...

TD: Geez, we could barely raise the money from the 7 SoSGers to buy this frickin' website. Now you want us to buy another one? Can we at least pass the hat your way, as we're a bunch of cheap bastards?

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

I'll pick up the tab. (Sax, can I borrow some money:-) Maybe I'll start a new thread on this soon. Get all the SoSG-maniacs to make suggestions.