I just finished watching the Giants win their last game in

Chicago. An unbelievable ending. More and more one becomes enamored

watching Bonds. At the tail end of a career he simply exudes greatness.

One of the unique features of his performance, day in and day out, is

that he doesn’t have a supporting cast which many great players have

accompanying them. He is, literally, the engine that makes this team a

winner. Without him, this is an ordinary ball club.

Fans, this perspective on the game by Ed is one of his best, click below for a truly enjoyable read!Other teams playing

the Giants, constantly are thinking ahead to the moment Bonds is going to be

getting up and trying to envision the moves they are likely to have to

make to counter him. No on else on the club worries them a great deal.

He puts the pressure on them and forces mistakes.

When Durham was interviewed after the game, which you

probably saw, he said that Bonds had told him to get on, and if he did,

Bonds would hit the home run to tie the game. He was asked whether Bonds

said anything to him when he met him at home plate. Durham’s answer:

“He said ‘I told you.'” The drama of this game’s ending was, of course,

in the fact that Bonds had been struck out three times by Colon on fast

balls that ended with swinging strikes. That set the stage for the

heroics. Other players have hit home runs after striking out three

times, and even, I am sure, in situations where the home run was the

winning hit. There is no particular drama present in such cases until

the home run is struck. No one expects the hitter to deliver. Here, the

tension, and the drama, the moment Bonds walked up to the the plate,

existed solely because it was Bonds and he had been challenged by Colon.

I daresay that there were many in that ball park who had the inevitable

feeling that Colon was either going to strike him out or that Bonds

would hit the home run. And I am sure that there were many who had the

strongest feelings that even a good pitcher, and Colon is a very good

one, shouldn’t challenge a player as great as Bonds and expect to

prevail. It was the previous three at bats, the tense situation at the

end, the expectation that always exists when Bonds steps up, which

provided the most dramatic moment I have seen so far this year. That the

Giants went on to win the game by scoring four more runs seemingly was

preordained the instant the ball left the bat.

One of the reasons I started to write this was only

incidentally to write about the game but mainly to mention a very

enjoyable book I picked up after reading a review. It is light reading

by a very good writer, with great humor and some sadness and much

insight into life’s travails. It is called :”Lessons for Dylan” by Joel

Siegel and describes the values of the father and the challenges of

growing up. Serious and very funny at times.

Coincidentally, the book has a chapter which should strike

a very responsive chord, as it did me. The chapter is entitled “I’d give

anything to take you to your first ball game.” I will quote a few words

from it.

“I love baseball because it’s America’s common folklore, a

history we can share that, like the calendar, is renewed every spring

and put to bed every fall, And I love it because baseball, like a

languorous August afternoon, which is when games should be played, takes

it’s own time, not in minutes and hours but in innings and outs. I also

love baseball because, like wine and good music and good theatre and

yes, movies, too, baseball is a serious art form that gets better with

age. Your age. The more you know, the more you enjoy it,”

The game they played today, the Giants and the White Sox,

is why I love baseball, a serious art form.

Ed