Observer Online | Viewpoints

Posted Aug. 10, 2007

Home Run Dreamers

Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik had an interesting quote this week after Barry Bonds blasted his pitch over the wall and into history, collecting his 756th home run and capturing baseball's most prized record.

Bonds hit his record-setting home run Monday night in San Francisco and claimed his spot in history from the legendary Hank Aaron. And Bacsik boldly became the pitcher who will go down in the record books as the man who gave up the hit. After things settled down a little, Bacsik said he had imagined the moment all his life. "I dreamed of this as a kid," he said. "Unfortunately, when I dreamed about it, I thought I'd be the one hitting the home run, not giving it up."

I'll bet there are few boys, and some girls too for that matter, who didn't grow up with that same dream at some point in their childhoods. Even children who didn't play on baseball teams and who had never been taught how to swing a bat or field a ball have had that same dream. All it takes is a stick and something to hit, and for a 9-year-old, you're a home run hitter.

Baseball has never been a big sport for me. I grew up in a world where soccer was the only sport. At school, recess and gym class were just euphamisms for playing soccer.

But I had my baseball glove, a great wooden bat slightly spoiled from being left out in the rain once too often, and a pitching net that returned the ball when you threw it right in the strike zone. When I couldn't find a buddy, I would pitch at that net, and I never gave up a home run. When we got a group together, each one of us set the record, day after day, every time we played.

Barry Bonds may have reached a new high in his career, and baseball may have a new record-holder, but I suspect the true measure of the accomplishment is that another generation of children will grow up with the same dreams so many of us have had for decades.