The notion of being part of baseball history appeals to Jeff Francis.
“I’d like to look back someday on things I’ve done, maybe be part of the record book,” said the Rockies’ 26-year-old starting pitcher.
But Francis wants no part of a baseball chapter that includes his name, Barry Bonds and 756 homers all in the same sentence.
“I haven’t thought about it much, but I do know that I do not want to give it up – nobody does,” Francis said. “I know I would see that highlight for the rest of my life. Hopefully I’ll be remembered for something, but I’d like to think it’s for something better than that.”
Bonds’ quest for baseball immortality – some would say infamy – continued Saturday night at Coors Field. Bonds went 0-for-3 with no homers, leaving him with 745, 10 behind Hank Aaron’s record 755.
Like Francis, Rockies right-hander Josh Fogg hopes to be in a different time zone when No. 756 is launched. Fogg, however, insists giving it up wouldn’t haunt him.
“Are you kidding, with as many home runs as I’ve given up?” said Fogg, who’s served up six homers this season and 124 in his career, but none to Bonds. “It’s just another homer on my side. It’s an important one for him, but it’s just a bad thing that would have happened to me.”
On May 28, 2006, Colorado’s Byung-Hyun Kim threw a pitch that Bonds drove over the center-field wall at San Francisco’s AT&T Park. That was homer No. 715, moving Bonds beyond Babe Ruth and into second place behind Aaron. The chances that a Rockies pitcher will throw the ball that Bonds turns into the next million-dollar piece of memorabilia are exceedingly slim.
The Rockies host the Giants again today, and travel to San Francisco on May 25 for a three-game series. Bonds would have to go on a furious home-run tear in order to set the record against the Rockies later this month.
Despite the steroid controversy that has become inseparable from the home run chase, it’s clear that Rockies pitchers view pitching to Bonds as one of the ultimate challenges of their careers. Bonds, after all, has hit homers off 438 different pitchers over his 22-year career.
“Yeah, he’s different,” said right-hander Aaron Cook, who’s seen Bonds hit .462 against him with one home run. “I think you guys can even see it from up in the press box. He walks up there with such confidence. You know, and he knows, that he’s rarely going to chase a bad pitch. He goes up with a game plan.”
When Bonds strode slowly to the plate Saturday night, wearing his batting armor and staring holes at Francis on the mound, a buzz went through the crowd, as it always does when Bonds arrives. Francis admitted that facing the 42-year-old Bonds remains unique.
“Yeah, it’s different, he’s the guy in the lineup you have to watch out for,” said Francis, who has surrendered two career homers to Bonds. “Plus, he’s huge and he stands right on the plate and he leans over it.”
The second start of Francis’ career came in San Francisco, and he still remembers facing Bonds for the first time.
“I’m not going to lie, he was scary as heck,” Francis said.
The knowledge that Bonds can change a game with one swing is always on a pitcher’s mind. And his keen batter’s eye still makes him one of the toughest outs in the game. Yet Fogg said that while a pitcher must have a healthy respect for Bonds, it’s a mistake to fear him.
“Barry’s different in the fact that his talent level is a lot better than almost everybody else’s, but you aren’t attacking him any differently,” Fogg said. “You can’t try to throw a better pitch to him than you would Pedro Feliz or Ray Durham.”
But doesn’t Fogg’s heart beat a little more quickly when the future home run king steps into the box?
“No, it doesn’t,” Fogg said. “If it did, it would beat faster against (Albert) Pujols or some of the other guys who have been better in recent years than Barry has been. As a big-league pitcher, you can’t think like that.”
Serving up history
Giving up a famous home run makes pitchers, for better or worse, part of baseball history. Following are a few who served up milestone homers:
Ralph Branca, Brooklyn Dodgers
On Oct. 3, 1951, in the bottom of the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds in New York, Branca, just 25, threw a fastball to the New York Giants’ Bobby Thomson. Thomson promptly hit a three-run homer down the left-field line. “The Shot Heard ‘Round The World” won the pennant for the Giants, who beat the Dodgers in a three-game playoff.
Tracy Stallard, Boston Red Sox
Stallard was a 24-year-old rookie right-hander on Oct. 1, 1961, when he became an integral part of baseball trivia. It was the final game of the season and it was Stallard who threw the pitch that Roger Maris launched into the right-field stands at Yankee Stadium for his 61st homer of the season, surpassing the legendary Babe Ruth’s record of 60 that had stood since 1927.
Al Downing, Los Angeles Dodgers
Downing’s name will forever be linked to No. 715. It came in the fourth inning on April 8, 1974, at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Braves slugger Hank Aaron pummeled Downing’s pitch into the Braves’ bullpen beyond the left-field wall where Braves relief pitcher Tom House caught the ball. Aaron’s homer moved him past Ruth, making him baseball’s undisputed home run king. Aaron finished his career with 755 homers.
Dennis Eckersley, Oakland Athletics
On Oct. 15, 1988, at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, Eckersley threw the pitch that led legendary announcer Jack Buck to exclaim: “I don’t believe what I just saw!” Eckersley, a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, is one of only two pitchers to win 20 games in a season and record 50 saves in a season, but one famous pitch lives on. In the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson hobbled to the plate with a knee so sore he could barely stand. On a 3-2 count, he drilled Eckersley’s backdoor slider into the seats for a game-winning two-run homer.
“It was a dumb pitch,” Eckersley said after the game. “It was the one pitch he could hit for power and he hit the dogmeat out of it.”
Steve Trachsel, Chicago Cubs
On Sept. 8, 1998, Trachsel threw Mark McGwire an 88-mph fastball that McGwire promptly smashed down the left-field line for his 62nd homer of the season, breaking the record set by Maris 37 years earlier. McGwire went on to hit 70 home runs that season.
Chan Ho Park, Los Angeles Dodgers
Park had the distinction of giving up not just one, but two homers to Barry Bonds on Oct. 5, 2001, at Pacific Bell Park (now AT&T Park). The first one was of greater importance because it was Bonds’ 71st homer of the season, lifting him past McGwire for the single-season record.
Byung-Hyun Kim, Colorado Rockies
Early last season, everyone knew that the controversial Bonds would pass Ruth and move into second place on baseball’s all-time career home run list. The moment came on May 28 when Bonds blasted Kim’s fastball over the center-field fence at AT&T Park for his 715th homer in a 6-3 loss to the Rockies. A midgame celebration ensued, prompting Kim to joke, “When the streamers came on the field, I thought the game was over.”
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
