Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Deal With It, Barry


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't stay up last night to watch No. 756 sail over the fence, and I'm glad I didn't. By not seeing last night, my memory of watching Hammerin' Hank in his home run trot in April 1974 remains untainted.

In April 1974, I was 8 years old, and I remember my dad keenly following Aaron's pursuit of 714, and making sure I followed it, too. And of course, my dad also made sure I was in front of the tv to watch 715. There was a sense we were watching something that mattered unfold before our eyes.

Funny thing, I am now the father of an 8 year old (girl, not a boy), but I didn't lift a finger to make sure she was aware of Barry's pursuit, nor did I make sure she stayed up late to watch it. Safe to say she's wholly unaware of it. Maybe that's reflective of the overall decline in the relative prominence of baseball in the American psyche, or maybe I'm just a shitty parent (a distinct possibility on any number of issues). But I suspect the reason that Barry's pursuit was not a big deal in my house was the same reason it wasn't a big deal in a lot of households in America -- a giant, collective "so what?" based on knowledge of the fraudulent (or at least highly suspect) nature of the new record.

When an MLB player has hit in 55 consecutive games, or it's Labor Day and somebody is hitting .400, then I'll sound the alarms and make sure everybody in my house is actively aware of the importance of it all. Assuming, of course, the back acne isn't visible through the uniform.

Vinny said...

Peeps,

You definitely deserve a first-rate headstone. I'll get Little Paulie Germani on it right away.