Lovin' Barry Bonds
I don't much care for Barry Bonds. It's not that I feel great loyalty to Hank Aaron, although I have immense respect for him as a ballplayer and as a man. It's not so much the cloud of suspicion over Bonds' use of performance enhancers, although I think the evidence that he juiced is overwhelming.
It's that he plays in San Francisco. Games there tend to start at 10:15 p.m. EST. That plays havoc with our deadlines for the morning paper. Unless he breaks the home run record in his first or second at bat, we're squirming more than like Bud Selig trying to explain what he's going to do when Bonds takes the record.
We have a plan to feature his 756th homerun above the newspaper nameplate and even using the nameplate itself, and then sending readers to the Sports section. But the timing will be tight and needs some stars to align. It would be nice to have some sports news in the paper that the audience hadn't already seen on television. (And we're prepared for the readers who write in saying that sports stories belong in the sports section, not on the front page.)
There's a decent chance Bonds will move closer to the record tonight. He faces a Braves pitcher who has given up four homers to him in 18 at bats. And it's his birthday. I'm hoping Bonds will hit one or two tonight and tomorrow and break the record on Thursday.
The game Thursday starts at 7:05 p.m. EST.
(And the added benefit is that we won't have to hear/read so much about the guy and the homer chase.)
Comments (5)
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The chances are much greater than Bonds would hit one off of the Braves' bullpen. Tonight's pitcher, Tim Hudson, has been pretty hot lately. The bullpen ... not so much.
In other words, it'll be later in the night rather than earlier.
Posted on July 24, 2007 4:43 PM
Braves fans. Geez. Whatever, as long as he hits one to get him to the precipice on Thursday.
Posted on July 24, 2007 6:01 PM
A hundred years ago, I remember staying up late game after game, listening to the radio, waiting for Mickey Mantle to hit his 500th. (Steroids were made for him; too bad he didn't have any.) The newspapers used the same excuse: if he hit in after the 7th inning of a night game, they couldn't cover it the next day.
Lana Lang used to chide Lois Lane about how slow newspapers were (compared to her TV show).
I'm just old but so is that 'newspapers go to print' meme.
Posted on July 24, 2007 7:00 PM
Old doesn't mean it's invalid, Sue. Were we really comic books, I'd be Superman and turn the Earth on its axis so that I could turn back time. But we're not Superman comics.
Let's say you're on an airplane scheduled to take off at 7 p.m. A connecting flight with 10 passengers is late and is coming in at 7:30. Would you vote to wait so that those passengers could load or would you and the other 90 passengers want to go on and get home? My guess is that the majority would vote to get home.
That's essentially what we face. We have more readers who want to get their newspaper ontime than who want the very latest overnight news. That's because a paper delivered after they've gone to work or after they've "started their day" is no longer useful.
The Mick was my favorite player growing up. I used to be so proud that I sent away and got his autograph...until I read that the team publicity guy would sign them all.
Posted on July 24, 2007 7:43 PM
Pro sports have had a bad week. Quite frankly, I have lost all interest in pro sports.I could care less if my beloved Red Sox,win are lose. Heck I am not sure I still hate the Yankees.Heard a good joke on radio this morning. You know why PETA is not mad a Mike Vick? He just kills dogs, he does not eat them. Have a good day, it off to the golf course.
Posted on July 25, 2007 6:32 AM