Bonds takes his place in history
Published: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 3:41 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 2:51 a.m.
SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds swung the bat, thrust his arms in the air, and suddenly it was over.
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Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's 33-year-old home run record with a blast into the right field bleachers at a sold-out AT&T Park in San Francisco on Tuesday.
JOHN BURGESS / The Press DemocratFifth inning offThe embattled Giants slugger obviously knew from the moment he made contact that the most hallowed record in American sports was finally his, that homer No. 756 was in the books.
Bonds ended Hank Aaron's 33-year reign as baseball's all-time home run king when he swatted the record-breaker in the fifth inning of the Giants game against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night before a sellout crowd of 43,154 at AT&T Park.
After years of climbing the sport's most famous leaderboard, leapfrogging legends like Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth, Bonds finally reached the top when he passed Aaron.
There are no more names to pass. No more countdowns.
"It's been fantastic," Bonds told the crowd after the homer. "I want to thank you all. I gotta thank my teammates. You guys have been strong and given me all the support in the world. I'll never forget it as long as I live."
The Giants showed a recorded congratulatory message from Aaron on the video board.
"I would like to offer my congratulations to Barry Bonds on becoming baseball's career home run leader," Aaron said. "It is a great accomplishment which requires skill, longevity and determination. Throughout the past century, the home run record has held a special place in baseball and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of those years.
"I move on now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family for this historic achievement. My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams."
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who was not at the game, congratulated Bonds on the phone after the slugger was removed from the game.
"I congratulate Barry Bonds for establishing a new, career home run record," Selig said in a statement. "Barry's achievement is noteworthy and remarkable. . . . While the issues which may have swirled around this record will continue to work themselves toward resolution, today is a day for congratulations on a truly remarkable achievement."
The homer triggered a 10-minute on-field celebration, as fireworks blasted above the ballpark, streamers came down from the upper deck and fans waved signs with the number 756.
There was a small melee in the bleachers for the valuable souvenir, which was eventually retrieved by 22-year-old Matt Murphy from Queens, N.Y.
Just as the ball caused chaos in the stands, it drove a symbolic wedge through the nation's baseball fans.
On one side are the Bonds supporters, like those who gleefully rooted him on for the past 14 years in San Francisco.
On the other side are the detractors, who perhaps mourned the moment that the game's most treasured record became property of the player who is -- fair or not -- the face of the Steroid Era.
The theoretical debate about whether Bonds' record would be legitimate can now cross into reality.
The record is indisputably his, but it up to the fans, the media, the historians and Bonds' fellow players to determine for themselves just what to make of it.
Although Bonds has insisted at every turn that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs, and while there is no evidence that he ever failed a test for steroids, Bonds has lived under a cloud of suspicion for years.
The cloud grew to a storm in 2003, when he was publicly connected to BALCO, an alleged steroid lab investigated by the federal government.
On this night, in this ballpark, there were no reservations. The 43-year-old slugger was showered with love.
Bonds tied Aaron's record on Saturday in San Diego, setting him up to come back home to try to break the record in front of the adoring fans he has treated to so many milestones.
The fans stood each time he came to the plate Monday, only to be disappointed as Bonds came up empty. In Bonds' first two trips to the plate Tuesday night, he hit solid line drives for base hits, but they did not clear the fence.
Finally, in his third matchup against 29-year-old pitcher Mike Bacsik, Bonds got a fastball over the middle of the plate and he hit a searing line drive an estimated 435 feet, about five rows deep into the bleachers.
As the celebration began, even the Nationals players applauded. Bonds' 17-year-old son Nikolai, one of the team's batboys, greeted him at the plate and the two hugged.
Bonds' wife, two daughters and mother joined him on the field.
Then Mays, Bonds' godfather, emerged from the Giants dugout, to even louder cheers.
"I think he deserves it," Mays had told the New York Times this week. "It's his time. I think that every generation has someone like him. When I played it was me and Aaron. Now it's his time."
You can reach Staff Writer Jeff Fletcher at 521-5489 or jeff.fletcher@pressdemocrat.com.
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