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Yesterday was the anniversary of Hank Aaron hitting his 715th home run! This, naturally, brought on somewhat of a spate of people pooh-poohing Barry Bonds' accomplishments and saying Hank Aaron was the true home run king. Let's examine the controversy:
Is Hank Aaron The True Home Run King?
I think it's about time we have a serious discussion that covers all facets of this polarizing issue, and that's what Deadspin does here. They certainly provide the argument for Bonds being the home run king, but they also give as much time to the argument for Aaron as it merits. In short, if you can read just one article about who the true home run king is, it should be this one.
It’s not THAT good to be the king
And if you want more words on why it's overly reductive to call Hank Aaron the Home Run King - and it was even when he had more homers than anyone in baseball history - here's Joe Posnanski. I am too young to have watched Aaron play, so I always love to see descriptions like this, so in a small way, I can understand the kind of greatness that he showed every game. One day, I hope to do the same for the next generation with Chad Zerbe.
Let's have some fun with small MLB sample sizes
On any other day, this article would have been graced with a picture of Melky up top. I very badly want him to hit .360, go to the All-Star Game, and get suspended for steroids in August again. Preferably this time, the fake website gets leaked to the press, and we get hours of hilarity out of it.
How the Best Pitching Tools Translate to the Majors
Looking at these lists, I had no idea that Denny Bautista's stuff had been so lauded when he was in the minors. But he DID end up with a World Series ring, so it makes sense. You can't keep talent like that down for too long!
The Toolsiest Player of Them All
I'll just do Grant a favor here and make you all disown Jeff Sullivan for not including Buster Posey. Look at this article! There are TWO DIFFERENT LISTS of baseball players who are good at things and Posey isn't on either of them. Is this unquestionably a sign of anti-Giants bias? I submit that it must be.
MLB umpire Tim McClelland out for season, possibly career with back injury
I mostly know McClelland for being incredibly slow to call strike 3, but he is actually an excellent umpire, always extremely highly rated in players' polls, and with no blatant missed calls that stick out in my mind. That seems like faint praise, but isn't it really what you want in an umpire? All the best to him.