MLBeat

There is little to add to the maelstrom of commentary around what the Braves announcers have been derisively calling "Bondsapalooza," unless you want to see what someone actually thought of, you know, the games themselves. Let's not forget, folks: I lived in St. Louis during the madness of another certain steroid-tainted homer chase, and I know how the baseball experience can be cheapened. Not by the specter of PEDs mind you, but by fans who came to see one thing and one thing only. I remember that scene well, I'm as put off by it today as I was then, and I won't fall victim to the same level of madness.

Fair warning, I tend to have a bare-bones style of score-keeping as you may see, but I like to think the important thing is that I tend to have any style at all. This is a lost art, I tell you.


And for the home side:


(Click on the images for magnified versions.) Some notes:

-Julio did not score a run in the fourth inning; as a potentially tipsy scorekeeper I am allowed one egregious typo per game.

-Speaking of tipsy, a Blue Moon at the North Beach stand used to set you back $8.50. Pretty pricey right? Well, they raised the price to an even $9.00 for All-Star Weekend... and didn't bring it back down once the regular season resumed! Anybody else notice this? Sneaky Giants trying to extract every penny they can from their joke of a season....

-The stars denote great defensive plays. Renteria made a sharp grounder up the middle look easy with a pirouette to throw out Molina in the sixth, and Vizquel ended the top of the sixth with a diving stop and ensuing throw to second for the force out - a play so acrobatic that Vizquel was rewarded for the effort although the runner probably was safe. But the best of all came in the bottom 3rd, when Old Man Franco speared a high-bouncing grounder to start an inning-ending 3-6-3 DP and save Smoltz from a two on, one out, Bonds at bat situation. Play of the game probably, not mentioned anywhere in the official recap.

-Ton of Braves fans in attendance, particularly in our section (134). Not the sort of TBS-transplant California natives you might expect either, but real Southerners. At one point I started to make fun of Chipper Jones for sporting the same silly goatee that every player is apparently required to wear, only to realize that virtually every male Brave fan in my section sported the exact same look. As a TBS transplant from Alabama myself, I can say that these are my people... sort of.

-Matt Cain falls to 3-12 despite being the second-best pitcher on the Giants this season after Lincecum. His talent and determination are evident but it seems he gets screwed in a different way each time out. This time he had to labor hard in the first -- going to full counts on the first four batters -- but had a chance at damage control when Brian McCann lifted a medium-hard liner to left with one out. It can only be scored as a three-run double, but let's just say the urgency with which Bonds ran down that ball fell somewhere between "my alarm clock just went off" and "the paramedic is here to check my vital signs."

-But that's what you're signing up for when it comes to Bondsapalooza 2007. What you get in return are three or four flashbulb-poppy plate appearances where everyone in the stadium actually is paying attention at the same time. Also, when Bonds merely singled in the eighth inning the crowd began streaming out of there like it was the fall of Saigon. Never mind that the single had brought the tying run to the plate in a 4-2 game. Have I mentioned my hatred of the entire human race already in this space?

Labels: atlanta braves, barry bonds, game reports, san francisco giants