Steroids are no longer the only controversy surrounding Barry Bonds breaking the all-time home run record.
Mike Bascik, the former Nationals pitcher who gave up home run No. 756 to Bonds in 2007, may have thrown Bonds a proverbial meatball in an effort to get his name in the record books. At least that’s what former teammate Tim Redding thinks.
During the night Bonds made history, Redding was preparing to pitch the following game and thus charting pitches in the dugout. He told Sirius XM's MLB Home Plate that every ball Bonds hit was "center cut, right down the middle, fastball."
"I mean, the guy that gave it up, I never want to speak ill of anybody," Redding told the radio station. "Mike Bascik is a stand-up guy. He's a little quirky, but he's a nice guy, means well. I think he wanted to give it up. … You know, I think maybe inside he was thinking he was going to get a little bit more publicity. Maybe publicity and some money out of it, appearances, stuff like that."
Bascik did not take kindly to Redding's assessment. The lefty said via Twitter:
"I didn't try to give up the homerun. I was crappy enough to do it without trying."
The Nationals apparently sided with Bascik in that argument as he has been out of the league since the end of the 2007 season. He later went on to fire back at Redding:
"If somebody would have asked me, what teammate will say you tried to give up a homerun? After laughing my answer would have been Tim Redding."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Redding as a teammate. Aside from Redding's personal observations, the evidence points toward Bascik just getting beat by one of the game's great home run hitters.
In the latter half of Bonds’ career, the ball looked as big and inflated to him as his own head appeared to outside observers. The fact that a man who went yard 762 times in his career was able to get a hold of one off a pitcher with a 5.46 career ERA is not unfathomable.
Had Bascik been able to keep the ball in the park, who knows, it might have been Redding (who allowed a home run to Bonds the following night) who could be looking to cash in on his infamy.
