714

My old roommate Ashley sent me a text message that read "Guess who just saw Barry Bonds hit 714." It was followed by a second message that read "That would be me." She was at the interleague game between the Giants and the A's at the McAfee Coliseum. I wrote her back and said that she was very lucky, and I was very jealous. When I was a kid, I watched David Cone go eight-plus innings with a no-hitter. It would have been the first in Mets history, and something that I'd remember--to the minutest detail--for my entire life. To this date, no Mets pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter. That was the closest I'd ever been to baseball immortality, and even that would've paled in comparison to seeing the Babe tied at no. 2 on the all-time homerun list. I watched Bonds's press conference, and he was remarkably humble. I don't think it had set in. I could imagine it would be a surreal moment. However, I thought Brad Halsey's press conference was more interesting. Brad Halsey will appear as the answer to a question in Trivial Pursuit for years to come. He gave up the gopher ball to Bonds. Halsey was pretty laissez-faire to being a footnote in baseball history. He said that he was just one of 714 and that the homerun wasn't the first he gave up and certainly wouldn't be the last. Toward the end of the conference, he was asked if all the pomp and circumstance going into a Bonds at bat. Since he's chasing history, the baseball has to be swapped out for his at bat. A special ball is put into play in order to dissuade counterfeiters and profiteers. Halsey said the balls used for a Bonds at bat had a B on them and a number, and a pitcher of Barry. "Barry's face is on the ball?" asked a reporter. "Yeah," said Halsey. "And if you look it in the eye, it winks at you."