Baseball Beat was live from All-Star Fan Fest in San Francisco, California today. Chuck Wilson and Joe Castellano hosted. The following guests joined The Beat today:
- George Will, Washington Post; Newsweek
- Jon Heyman, SI.com
- Tim Purpura, General Manager, Houston Astros
- Dale Petrovsky, President, National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Monte Irvin, Hall of Famer, Former New York Giants Player
Quotables:
“First of all, the neutral site is a horrible idea. Fans go through this 162 game slog, and at the end of it, the vocal fans who supported the winning team deserve to be rewarded. Otherwise, you’re going to have a Super Bowl kind of occasion, where, everyone there is going to their first game of the year as far as I could tell: It’s a shrimp eating, guacamole dipping, corporate, calorie fest, and it’s not a sporting event. The World Series remains a sporting event. Second, you are going to have “the boys of November,” if you do this with nine games. Seven (gaes) is fine. Seven (games) set the statistic for baseball from which we compare one World Series to another. You have just another rupture in baseball, complicating what makes baseball so special, which is the ability to make these comparisons over the years.”
George Will on the proposed 9-game World Series
“He certainly has had months, and talked to all of his staff and advisors, and they all weighed in. Some of them were probably telling him not to go to make a strong statement, but, barring cold hard evidence, I think Bud has decided he needs to be there. This is a major record being broken, obviously, in Major League Baseball; he’s the Commissioner, he has been the Commissioner for a majority of Bonds’ Home Runs. If he doesn’t go, I think what would happen then is that he’d be called on by a lot of people who say well, “if you are not going, you are obviously not legitimizing this….” I think he is opening himself up to more trouble if he didn’t go."
Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman on Bud Selig’s decision making
to be there for Barry Bonds record breaking Home Run
“Other than the World Series, it was probably one of the most emotional things I have ever gone through in a game. I was sitting with Jeff Bagwell, and Nolan Ryan, and they were emotional. Here are two guys who have seen everything, done everything, and it was emotional for them, and everyone sitting up in our box. Just to see that, to know what Craig’s been to this organization, and he will be in the future, in some role, Craig will be an Astro the rest of his life.”
Houston Astros GM Tim Purpura on his feelings during Craig Biggio’s 3,000th hit
"Jeff Idleson, our VP of Communications, was out here (In San Francisco), and met with Barry (Bonds) about ten days ago, and Barry was very nice, very gracious, and will give something from (HR) 756. He is not sure what yet, Barry wants to hold on to some of his stuff and look at it for a while after his career is over, and soak it all in and get a little perspective on it, and then after that, he’ll be very generous with us."
Dale Petrovsky, President, Baseball Hall of Fame,
on Barry Bonds donating items to the Hall
Baseball Beat will return to its regular format tomorrow with Chuck Wilson hosting solo on Wednesday. Charley Steiner returns on Friday from San Francisco.
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