Bonds Hits 715

Congratulations to Barry Bonds as he hit his 715th home run tonight. He surpassed Babe Ruth's total to move into second place all time. It was a blast over San Francisco's center field fence off a fastball delivered by the Rockies pitcher, Byung-Hyun Kim.

Bonds now sets his sights on Hank Aaron's record of 755. As Hank Aaron is my all time sports hero, I hope Bonds falls short of that total. At any rate, the steroid question would always leave Bond's accomplishments accompanied by a buff asterisk with zits and atrophied testicles.

As Babe Ruth nows falls to third on the all time home run list, I would like to highlight some of his lesser known career statistics.

Ruth PITCHED in 163 regular season games totalling 1,221 innings. He PITCHED 107 complete games with 17 shutouts. He was 94-46 with an E.R.A. of 2.28. In post season games he was 3-0, with 2 complete games, one shutout, and an E.R.A. of 0.87.

In addition to his 714 career home runs, George Herman batted .342, with a slugging percentage of .690 over his major league tenure. (Post season, .326, .744)

No wonder Thomas Sowell considers Babe Ruth the best player ever, by far.