Sunday, June 21, 2015

I'm confused. I thought Alex Rodriguez was Lance Armstrong.

"Clearly it wasn’t just a practical matter that brought Alex Rodriguez to Barry Bonds for hitting instruction during the last baseball winter. It was destiny that brought the two of them together. Because they are the same."

Untrue. One of them bats left-handed and one of them bats right-handed.


"Bonds, who once was one of the best and most gifted all-around players in baseball, who seemed to have the same skill set when he was young and with the Pirates that his godfather, Willie Mays, once had, finally made the decision to change his body with baseball drugs — and ultimately alter his place in baseball history — because he wanted to be the home run king of baseball. Which he became, finally hitting more home runs than anybody ever had in one season and more career home runs than anybody, Babe Ruth or the great Henry Aaron, had ever hit."

Run on sentence, dude.

Quick tip: it helps if you read the sentence out loud.


"Rodriguez came along with the Mariners as a teenager when Bonds had already gone to San Francisco, back in 1994, when Rodriguez got the first of his 3,000 hits at Fenway Park for the Mariners. And when Rodriguez arguably had his greatest season in baseball, for the Yankees in 2007, the one that earned him the most famous contract extension in all of sports history, Bonds was still playing for the Giants, at the age of 43."

I see the connection!

No, wait.

I don't see the connection.

The careers of two baseball players intersected? Yeah, that happens when people on Earth, you know, do things? ... and those things occur in the same general time-space continuum? ... so ... yeah.

In 1994, I was starting a job in Central NJ. I stayed there for four years. Some people joined the company during that time and some people left the company during that time. Some baseball players were starting their careers during that time and some players were ending their careers during that time.

All of us are connected in the ocean of life.

Thank you, Mike Lupica.


"When Jeter hit a home run off David Price to get to 3,000, Michael Kay’s wonderful call was this: 'History . . . with an exclamation point!' With Rodriguez it was history with a question mark, and even those who worship him with the fervor of One Direction fans have to understand that."

Sweet Michael Kay reference.

Sweet play on words.

Sweet cultural reference ... "One Direction."

Top. Of. His. Game.


"So he has officially become Bonds of the Yankees, still hitting home runs, probably thinking if Bonds was still hitting them at 43, he can still be hitting them at 42; maybe thinking that 762 is still in reach for him. And if there are enough people who will always wonder how much of a stink there is to the home run numbers, for any of them, he doesn’t care. Bonds never did.

They both were blessed with a gift for baseball. Only it wasn’t enough for either one of them. It’s no longer worth wondering why they made the choices they made, or the lies they told along the way. They both got rich. They both figured out there are all sorts of ways to be famous. They’re the same."

In the final analysis, we are all the same.

Ebony and ivory
Live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard
Oh, Lord, why can't we?

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