Baseball

More than anything else,

what adheres me to baseball and always has

is this sense that I am essentially watching the same game

that somebody saw in 1860.

The history of it. It is the only sport

that goes forwards and backwards.

Other sports have some interest in their own history

and will occasionally make reference to it.

But baseball, it's there.

You come in at the start of the game

or the start of the season or the start of your own fandom,

you feel as if you are joining the river midstream.

And all that has gone before,

you can enjoy as much as if you were there.

It's as simple as that.

That's it! Number 7 is in the books.

The remarkable Ryan has done it again.

Now the 2-2.

Well hit down the left field line.

Way back and gone!

Joe Carter with a 3-run homer.

The winners and still world champions,

the Toronto Blue Jays.

As the tumultuous 20th Century drew to a close,

and a new millennium began,

the game of baseball, now more than 150 years old,

remained remarkably unchanged.

3 strikes still made an out.

6 outs an inning.

The distance from home plate to first base

was still a perfect 90 feet.

Ballplayers, managers, and even fans

continued to cling to their cherished superstitions,

hoping against hope to intervene in outcomes

actually determined by talent and preparation,

accident and error.

Superstars continued to retire as heroes

in the full glare of the spotlight,

while lesser players continued to quietly disappear,

their statistics the only residue

of their existence in the game.

But baseball was changing.

New franchises would spring up in new cities.

Interleague play would be instituted

during the regular season,

as the lines between the American and National Leagues

began to blur.

One team would even change leagues,

something that had never happened before.

And baseball would expand the playoffs,

allowing "wild card" teams into the postseason.

It would now be possible for a second place team

to win the world championship.

Salary levels, attendance, and home run totals

would all be shattered,

while new stadiums and new television networks

brought in new fans.

Latin and Asian players would transform the game,

just as new waves of immigrants continued to enrich the country

that had created it.

A trio of remarkable pitchers would lead the Atlanta Braves

to 14 consecutive division titles,

while a hard-luck, old-school manager

would guide the New York Yankees,

who had made the playoffs only once since 1981,

to the World Series 6 times in 8 years.

Baseball had never seemed so healthy,

but in a time of unimaginable wealth

and unbridled speculation throughout the country,

the age-old battle between the owners and the players

would bring the national pastime to its knees.

The game would have to go through its own Dark Ages

before it would emerge stronger than ever before.

And behind the scenes-- in secret--

players on every team found themselves

making life-altering decisions about how far they were

willing to go to succeed.

Meanwhile, an unstoppable assembly of free-spirits,

playing for one of the sport's oldest teams,

would do the impossible,

erasing decades of despair for their followers.

Red Sox are 3 outs away from being swept.

Through it all, baseball,

still the best game that's ever been invented,

managed to create some of the most vivid memories,

and provide some of the most dramatic moments

anyone had ever seen.

Roberts going. Posada's throw. Roberts is safe.

The idea that you can walk into a ballpark,

whether it's Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium or wherever,

and sit down and watch a game

played by boys who have become men.

So you can imagine yourself still playing this game

no matter what age you are.

And when you sit there, the door to your past life,

which occurred 15 minutes ago at the office, on the bus,

in your home,

that door closes and you get lost in the technical details,

the intricate details of baseball as it's played out.

There's always a surprise in baseball.

God, I never thought he'd be able to get to that ball.

That's part of baseball's magic.

Unbelievable!

On October 14, 1992,

the Pittsburgh Pirates were in Atlanta facing the Braves

in the seventh and deciding game

of the National League Championship Series.

With 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth, Pittsburgh led 2-1.

But Atlanta had the bases loaded.

A pinch hitter, Francisco Cabrera,

who had had only 10 at-bats all season, was at the plate.

And now the Braves season hangs in the balance.

He hacked at the 2-0, now the 2-1.

Line drive and a base hit!

Justice has scored the tying run.

With the tying run in,

most assumed that the runner on second, Sid Bream,

hobbled by 5 knee operations,

would be held at third.

But the third base coach sent Bream anyway.

Bream to the plate.

And he is safe! Safe at the plate!

The Braves go to the World Series!

For the next decade and a half,

Atlanta would dominate the National League,

returning again and again to the postseason.

The once-promising Pirates would go in the opposite direction,

often finishing at the bottom of the standings.

And their supremely talented left fielder,

who had almost thrown Bream out,

would never again play for Pittsburgh.

During the off-season, he would sign

the most expensive free-agent contract the game had yet seen.

He would go on to become one of the greatest--

and most controversial--players in the history of baseball.

He is a very complicated character.

He is brilliant.

He is blessed

and yet he gave the impression that his life was a burden,

that the gifts that he had somehow just wore him down

and that he couldn't stand for people to be in his space.

I've come to believe that we should never

get to know anybody too well.

And I think that we got to know him too well.

Back in the spring of 1986,

a slender young outfielder named Barry Lamar Bonds

had been called up by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

His promise as a baseball player was undeniable.

He was the son of Bobby Bonds,

who had signed his first professional contract

11 days after Barry was born in July of 1964.

Bobby was sent to North Carolina to play in the minors,

2,500 miles away from his wife and infant son

back in Riverside, California.

In the south, Bobby came face to face

with the vestiges of Jim Crow.

Fans called him unspeakable names--darkie, coon, nigger.

He was lonely and humiliated.

But on the field, Bobby Bonds

hit lots of home runs and stole lots of bases,

and before long he was promoted to the San Francisco Giants.

He played in the outfield,

alongside the great Willie Mays,

to whom Bobby was often compared.

Mays took Bobby under his wing

and agreed to be young Barry's godfather.

When he was just 2 years old, Barry hit a Wiffle ball so hard

he shattered a living room window,

and at 5 began accompanying his father to Candlestick Park.

He followed his godfather everywhere,

seeing that Mays, after years of celebrity,

seemed tired of the demands of stardom.

Barry heard Mays advise his father not to trust anyone,

to look out only for Number One.

As Barry began to develop his own skills

on Bay Area Little League diamonds,

his father became a star,

twice stealing 30 bases and hitting 30 home runs,

and winning 3 Gold Glove Awards.

But after games, he often downed a few beers in the clubhouse,

and then moved to a nearby bar for more.

His drinking, and the controversies that sometimes accompanied it,

frustrated the Giants organization,

and after the 1974 season, they traded him to the Yankees.

Bobby Bonds would hit 30 home runs

and steal 30 bases 3 more times,

but he was unable to outrun his own demons

and was traded from club to club, 7 in 7 years.

Embittered and increasingly estranged from his family,

he came to resent the fans, the press,

and those who ran the game.

No one in baseball ever supported Bobby Bonds;

the owner, the general manager, the press, the teammates,

nobody in the game stood up for the father.

So what Barry learned about baseball was:

great talent matters,

great scholarship about the game matters,

but you can't count on anybody in this game

to stand up for you,