There's a First Time for Everything

Well here it is, my much anticipated, widely heralded, first ever post for the Bullpen Catcher. Sorry it took so long, but my agent advised me to wait a few weeks so I wouldn't have to split headlines and media coverage with David Beckham's arrival in the States.

I was heavily recruited to cover such Page 2 topics as golf, racing, soccer and tennis, but I can't pass up the timing of A-Rod's 500th and Bonds 755th coming on the same day, so baseball it is!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a Yankee fan and have been so since my brother who's 11 years my senior sat on top of me on the couch in the mid 80s and wouldn't budge until I pronounced my allegiance to the Bronx Bombers. Although at that time, the only thing they were blowing up was themselves. I distinctly remember sitting through scores of Yankee visits to Comiskey Park only to watch the likes of Danny Tartabull, Steve Sax and Roberto Kelly kick the ball around the field. My favorite memory of course being July 1, 1990 in which Andy Hawkins dominated the Sox, pitched a no hitter and lost 4-0. Go Yankees!

Fast forward 16 years and we have six more pennants and four more titles, now that's what I signed up for. We also have the most enigmatic power hitter in the game. A-Rod became the youngest player to reach 500 home runs and at this pace will eclipse Hank's record of 755 in six more short seasons. There's no telling what the very large headed Barry Bonds will have at that time (or whether the HGH will make his head continue to grow to at least the size of the rest of his body).

I'll be watching with the rest of the sports world as Waterhead goes for the record setting 756, but very much for the same reasons Rich mentioned earlier ... I am sick and tired of the Chasing Aaron crap on ESPN and "let's go live to some Podunk National League town to watch Barry's next at bat". Then we can finally get back the to purity and innocence of sports that is the X Games. Speaking of which, I wonder if Barry's muscles are eventually going to explode much like Jake Brown's shoes did when he bit it hard in the Skateboard Big Air Trick on Thursday night.

So there you have it ... first post, first 32-year old to hit 500 homers, first to hit 756 (hopefully sooner rather than later), and the first to lose their board 40+ feet in the air, slam to down to the half pipe and walk off under their own power less than 10 minutes later. Now if that's not enough to offset dogfighting, gambling referees and the tour de farce I don't know what is.

And we didn't even talk about my Yankees being 1.5 games out of the AL Wildcard. Gotta save some fodder for the next post though right?