756: You Make The Call
TOWER GROVE — He’s sitting on 714 …
Milo Hamilton’s call of Hank Aaron’s historic home run No. 715 echoes through my head tonight even as it echoed through my childhood. I didn’t hear it live, but I’ve heared it so many times on tape and in highlights that I’ll never forget it — its tone, its cadence, its measure, its beauty.
He’s sitting on 714 …
One of the calls made tonight of Barry Bonds’ No. 756 will probably do the same — reverberate through time to capture the moment a hitter became the new Home Run King. The several that I’ve heard this evening were surprisingly tame. There were no qualifiers and not a reference to the cloud above Bonds that I heard. On the subtly beautiful call of 755 by San Diego’s voice Ted Leitner – who said he didn’t want the record to happen “on my watch” — he was deadpanned and qualified galore. It was, for many, pitch perfect.
This past Sunday on KMOX I asked Ron Jacober what his call would be for No. 756. We had some fun. I figured if you’re going to say the home run is gone, then you have to say something like “questions remain”. Ron said the home run had to go into McCovey Cove because that would be fitting. If the ball splashed down, the call could say: The ball is clean, but is the record?
Or do you play it straight?
There didn’t seem to be much of that this evening. Nothing snarky. Mostly sober. Colorado manager Clint Hurdle had a striking comment on the record, reinforcing his belief that Babe Ruth and Aaron are the kings. (”I’m indifferent,” Hurdle said. “My home run chase was Hank Aaron and the Babe. I’ll congratulate him professionally, but that’s about it for me.”) Jim Edmonds, an hour or so after the Cardinals’ game was over, was still in the clubhouse and told reporters a paraphrase of what Bonds said during the All-Star festivities: “Like people say, this is a fraternity and some of these guys have let that slip.” In restraint’s stunning upset against loose lips, Curt Schilling had very little say, claiming: “No comment. None whatsoever.”
A sharp lead came in The Associated Press article out of San Francisco:
SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds raised both arms over his head like a prize fighter in victory, fists clenched — and then he took off. It was over at long last. Like him or not, legitimate or not, he is baseball’s new home run king.
Here’s your chance. Open forum. Write your calls below. Be sassy. Be reverential. Be sarcastic. Be, best of all, subdued. Be wary that it has to be something that will be replayed. Just please, keep it PG.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Here’s the 3-2 pitch. It’s a long one! It’s gone! Bonds is rounding the bases and fading into the background. Our long national nightmare is over.