Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Homerun Chase



As of today, Barry Bonds is four home runs behind Hank Aaron. Barry is at 751 and Hank ended his career with 755. What does this record mean? Does it mean the same now as it did 33 years ago when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record? I don't think it does, for two reasons. First, when Aaron did it there was racial tension concerning the record. I think Hank had to handle more pressure. Secondly, the issue of steroids was not in the picture.

If Barry did (does) steroids I have two thoughts on this. First, I do not condone the taking of steroids for athletic enhancement and quicker recovery. Secondly, that being said, I do think that for any person to reach this plateau in the sports world it takes much more than steroids to get them there. I am saying, in simple terms, that the person hitting the home runs still has to be able to hit the ball a certain way to get it out of the park. If this wasn't the case we would have many body builders, and such, beating the snot out of every home run record known.

I do think, for whatever reason, the issue of steroids will affect Barry Bond's induction into the Hall of Fame. Of course, this is a entirely different issue and I am sure I will revisit it when the time comes.

Will you tune in to see the record broken? I will, simply for the curiosity factor. How will he be received? Will he be booed? Will he be treated as a hero? It is like an ending to a good movie. You just don't know.

5 comments:

Shaun Carey said...

...752, 753

Anonymous said...

Mr. C crushed a few bombs in his day. Nothing like Hammerin Hank or Barry Bonds but still respectable.

Anyway, I kind of wished Barry would have passed the record this weekend in Chicago. I wanted to see the bleacher bums toss it back on the field. That would have been priceless!

I do want to see Barry pass Hank, its fun to see historic events. In away, it helps others remember the past greats. I think it’s a nice tribute to the Babe and Hammerin Hank.

Hey Mr. C, the other day I gave a budget presentation. To give my audience a taste of what we were trying to achieve I equated the amount of cash that my group was projected to save in labor costs to the distance between the bases. On another slide I provided the amount of cash we were saving in non-labor categories and it equaled the weight of 755 baseballs. These fun facts really made my presentation. You have to know your audience when giving a presentation and most of the folks love baseball! You know Ironman loves baseball! So, when your students say they will never use algebra you can tell them that Ironman does even when he is doing presentations!

So, I’m calling out Catherine to see how good her math skills are…… It’s obvious that she knows her English Mr. C you should be ashamed.... However, I know who taught us, so she probably finds the same issues with my writing also.

So Catherine, how much money is my group projected to save next year? Mr. C you can play along if you would like.

- A dollar weights 1 gram and a regulation baseball weighs 142 grams
- A dollar is 0.0043 inches thick and the major league distance between bases is 90 feet.

Now queue the theme from Jeopardy……

Anonymous said...

Mr. Carey and ironman,
If I understood the question, although it was kind of confusing, I guess the answer would be 107210 dollars if you meant that however much monet people were saving equaled the weight of 755 baseballs in grams.Im not really that sure if that is the right answer but oh well.
-Catherine

Anonymous said...

Do u think he shouldve passed hank aaron as home run king?

Anonymous said...

Catherine,

You’re pretty smart... If your science skills are as good as your math skills you may want to consider a career in Engineering. There is a real shortage of women engineers and its one area in the workforce where women can generally make more than their male counterparts due to the demand for women engineers and the requirements related to diversity.