gatorcast from paul smith

Tonight fear is on my mind. It was recently described to me like a baseball pitched to a batter. What do you do when the ball is pitched?

You step into the pitch. Face your fear.

Many of us don’t.

And you can take it deeper. We can try and watch the nuances of the pitch, like the curve of the ball or speed at which it comes. This helps you recognize the pattern and better deal with the fear.

This is my challenge. To step into the pitch. Face my fear.

I have been following Barry Bonds race to 756.   I have been watching all of the Gaints games.  I think this has got me more intersted in MLB. 

So, last night I was at the HS and decided to dart home to catch his at bat in inning 5 and listened on the radio as he hit #756.   Arrrgg… I missed it!   I was just about home and actually walked in as he addressed the crowd.  I loved that Hank Aaron publically addressed the milestone.

I  found this blog post from James Slusher comparing the different eras in baseball and believe there is something to this. Thanks James!

Affirmative Action Homers

I heard Chris Rock give one of the best replies to the whole “should Barry Bonds’ home run record have an asterisk� question.  He said, sure, if you put one next to Babe Ruth’s name.  He had 714 affirmative action home runs, he never played against black guys.

I think that is brilliant and a perfect encapsulation of my feelings towards the whole thing.  Different eras in baseball have different negative parts of the game.  In Babe’s era it was segregated, in Bond’s era there are performance enhancing drugs.  They both may have benefited from these negatives.  I say “may have� because Bond’s has never failed an MLB drug test.  Babe definitely benefited from not playing against all the best players out there.  So to talk of an asterisk is just silly and simple-minded.

Bonds hits #756