The Sporting News pieced together a great article getting insight into the minds of great power hitters - Stan McNeal and Ryan Fagan asked the same questions to Harmon Killebrew (right), Ken Griffey Jr, and Frank Thomas and it is a magical piece.Are too many guys swinging for the fences at the expense of situational hitting?Chicks do not dig the sac bunt.
Griffey: The public salivates over the long-ball. When I grew up, hitting the longball was fine, but the most important thing was to get the win. Everybody now is fascinated by the guy who can hit it 500 feet. But look back at the Big Red Machine. Let's go by the order: Pete Rose could bunt, Joe Morgan could bunt, my dad could bunt, Dave Concepcion could bunt, Cesar Geronimo. You had six out of the nine guys coming up to the plate who could manufacture runs. That's what it's about.
You recall that Greg sold his soul recently by picking up Barry Bonds and was quickly rewarded with a horrible slump (Buy high, sell low?).For some, that choice is simple, as is the case with the 11- and 12-year-old Little Leaguers in Albany, a 15-minute drive from San Francisco. It's a Saturday afternoon, and the preteen Giants are warming up for a game, a dozen boys in replica Giants hats and jerseys fielding grounders (sometimes) and firing them back to their coach. They are not of one mind about Bonds. Some, like 11-year-old Joe Franco, believe Bonds cheated by using steroids and shouldn't break Hank Aaron's record because, you see, Hank didn't cheat. Twelve-year-old Clayton Langbein, on the other hand, believes Bonds didn't take steroids on purpose, that maybe his agent put them in his drink. "It would make sense because his agent gets 10 percent," explains Langbein.A particularly dark wrap up to the article tells me all I need to know about how Bonds has treated teammates and staff alike...
Such moments may be rare. A half hour earlier, as he prepared for batting practice, Bonds sat in the dugout, alone. Looking closely, you noticed something: Around Bonds and on the field, every one of his teammates was involved with another human being, whether it was fielding balls, taking swings, joking around or chatting with a reporter. Above Bonds, in the stands, fans stood together and talked, holding beers. But there in the dugout was Barry, a human island. He'd already shooed away the visiting New York media (he would not be talking today), so he fiddled with his bats, then sat on the dugout railing, staring at the field.
For the most part, I enjoy the expressions that are prevalent throughout sports. Today, it occurred to me that much of the sports words comes from baseball.
Take the home run itself.
It's also known as a homer, long ball, tater, dinger, roundtripper and big fly, among other things. Hey, go deep (there's another one) with the bases loaded, and you've got yourself a grand slam, or a grand salami.
