Barry Bonds 71st homerun 2001 ESPN Telecast 

That's what roids can do bro

@@monstamonstas2274 nah that's a good eye. He only swung at shit he could crush. That aint roids.

@@jakev4191 sure

@@monstamonstas2274 lol if you dont think pitchers and everyone else was on something. Then have fun at your unicorn ranch.

@@monstamonstas2274 eyes are what made him different.

Never NEVER

Aaron Judge.

@@916Smoke I'd go look at those stats on Bonds, looking silly on the net last forever (rhetorical).

@@johnathonhiner3015 you mean his steroid stats don’t count man

@@johnathonhiner3015 his starts have * next to them.

Any time before 2010 was good.

Yessir..That is the absolute truth. To me 1990 to 2005 were the best years in my opinion. After that baseball just wasnt the same to me. Same with the NBA and the NFL. The NBA in the 90s was the best hands down!!! Sports have just changed too much for my liking. Guys dont play for the love of the game anymore. Its all about money. These guys will play anywhere as long as they offer them a dollar more. There is no team or city pride. The rivalries are pretty much dead. Its not fun and exciting anymore. I miss those classic rivalry match ups, Yankees vs Red Sox Cubs vs St Louis Dodgers vs Giants Bulls vs Pacers Pacers vs Pistons Knicks vs Heat/Bulls Cowboys vs 49ers Dolphins vs Bills Steelers vs Ravens Packers vs Bears Giants vs Eagles...I mean some rivalries still stand but they definately dont feel the same

MANCHESTER UNITED fucking idiot

@MANCHESTER UNITED F.C played soccer for 12 years....nobody cares. Fun to play but if i want something to make me fall asleep, its futbol.

"because I grew up in this era the best was the 90's." We all agree Jarit. The 90s are the best because you grew up in it. So nice to finally run into you online... and thank you for making it such a good era.

What?

Agreed don’t care about the peds accusations honestly

With so many walks, it would not surprise me if Bonds hit 75 or 76 home runs that year!!

Yes it was!!! Best ever! I was a teenager in the 90s

I know what you mean. This video clip that I recorded on videotape 20 years ago looks and feels so much more authentic to me right now than the pristine HD NLCS game on my tv right now. The colors and detail (on the current NLCS game) are perfect, so much so that it feels fake somehow. And not alive. This video to me just sounds and feels so much more alive and that's the best way I can put it.

@@billny33 I was not expecting a response so fast! I think what really does it for me is that vintage sound. I reminds me of old Venezuelan baseball calls of insane plays and big hits and since most of the audio sounds pretty old it makes me so happy just listening to it. So glad I found someone else that sees my point of view!

Mike trout way better. All around could be the best player ever

dawkinfreak20 Stop it. It’s obvious you never saw Bonds play.

Mike trout is all clout. Bryce Harper will have more career home runs.

Z lol sorry my friend if you think harper is better than trout you really dont know baseball

You never watched The Kid play?

Too bad he wouldn’t play due to steroid testing. I believe if he didn’t do sterilize he still would have hit 60.

He was walked 2558 times in his career. Thats about 5 seasons of ABs. Think how many homeruns he would have had if they just walked him half of that

@@bakermob29 the majority of the pitchers he faced were juicin as well

The fact that he still hit 73 despite the walks is amazing!!! You have to have amazing plate vision and discipline to do that

Ball's not juiced anymore

Great call, right? No one else seemed to have this version of it. It was always Jon Miller's call on local SF tv or the SF radio announcer who always says "It is...OUTTA HERE!" This is the national telecast that most people in the US saw live so I thought it needed to be on YT.

@@billny33 I appreciate you uploading this! This brings back amazing amazing memories!!

@@billny33 I thank you for this. I never heard this one from Thorne before.

His eye was unreal. I honestly don’t care if he did peds or not others did it too as pitchers it kinda evens the playing field. Even without the suspected ped use he still would be the only member of the 500/500 club

I felt bad for Barry for one reason that nobody remembers. The Dodgers won that game by 1 run I think, and it eliminated the Giants from playoff contention. So after the game was over, Barry couldn't really revel in his accomplishment.

Cheaters! Nah but as a Dodgers fan bonds is the one guy who struck fear to major league pitchers.

Those were the days lol.

With so many Walks, Bonds could have hit 76 or 77 home Runs that year.

He did his damndest in 02 it wasn’t because of him they didn’t win the series that year he did his patt

Then they would go on to win 3 World Series titles in the following 7 seasons after his departure

Maybe, but Aaron Judge does perhaps have a chance of doing so this season! We'll find out before long!

There is a sad sidenote to this game that nobody talks about. Bonds hits 71 and 72 on the same day late in the season against the Dodgers. The Giants are still fighting to try and make the playoffs. The Dodgers win this game something like 11-10 through no fault of Bonds, and the loss eliminates the Giants from the playoff picture. So after the game is over, Bonds, who just broke one of baseball's most hallowed records, can't really enjoy it because his team just got knocked out.

I was ready and watching for both. The difference was the McGwire one brought me great joy and felt like a celebration and coming together for everyone who loved sports and baseball. The Bonds one felt like a historical event I needed to watch out of obligation but brought considerably fewer joy across the sports spectrum. For me it was a more begrudging acceptance that someone new I wasn't crazy about had topped the record. And you can see in the way the teams and the fans reacted in these 2 situations that this gap was apparent.

To be fair this was kind of overshadowed by 9/11

@@SteaksauceandRob it was, but prior to 9/11 it was clear this record was about to be broken and there was not nearly the same level of excitement built up about it. I was very much hoping he did not break it because 98 and McGwire's 62 moment meant so much to me that I did not want to see someone invalidate it 3 years later. Especially a player I didn't like nearly as much. But in the end all 3 of em were on substances so its whatever I guess.

billny33 yeah it was a weird time in American history so it’s so hard to even think back to but I do remember Bonds record chase not having the same buzz as 98. Also the truth was in 98 you had 3 if you count Griffey extremely likable superstars chasing a 50 year old record. In 2001 you really only had Barry chasing McGwire’s record and everyone seemed to hate Bonds. I always found it weird that the 98 and 01 seasons parallel with 3 guys hitting over 55 homers, the single season home run record being broken, and the mariners breaking the Yankees single season win record.

@@billny33 he's black that what bothered you

Nah, I really don't see how you can credit him for any of those titles.

@@billny33 I know that's what Brian Sabean said Bonds is still a champion no matter what happened.

I knew he could no doubt but I honestly didn't think they would let him

🤦‍♂LOL

You hit the nail right on the head. McGwire sparked a nationwide celebration. This was more like "hey this was a notable achievement that happened" you felt obligated to watch bc of the magnitude of the record and the greatness of the player but for me it was kind of joyless. Although props to Gary Thorne for going crazy when the moment came. He sure tried his best to pump it up.

@@billny33 not for the Bay area.... This was HUGE!

@@taydafranklin7800 so no one over there cared he was doing it with steroids?

@@billny33 we felt about him how the Cubs felt about Sosa and the cards felt about McGwire. Oddly enough he never tested positive for anything ever. Was he on steroids? More than likely? Did he lie in court or have dirty tests or loaded bats definitely not. Fact is he still had to hit the ball... Steroids don't help with hand eye coordination. And they don't help you steal 514 bases. And get you 8 golden gloves.

@@taydafranklin7800 so then why did the Bay Area buy into that way of thinking so much harder than the rest of the country that generally didn't buy it at all? It just goes to show that the team you are rooting for can easily affect your ethical sensibilities more than many of us would like to admit. I will say this much. I was beside myself when A-Rod became known as not only a steroid guy, but a guy who protected biogenesis from MLB and I have never looked at him the same way since. He was a Yankee and I rooted for him until that came out but wrong is wrong. Bonds never got caught but some things are just so obvious. EDIT: I gotta be careful and say that in 2001 at the time of this video, the steroid stuff wasn't clear or known yet I don't think. That may have come a couple years later. In 2001 he was just seen as a harder-to-like superstar but maybe just misunderstood.

I've always wondered that. I thought when I first saw it happen that it was a missed fan interference call and yet nobody on the telecast or in history has ever brought this up.

🧐 💉

My favorite stat of the steroid era: Sammy Sosa eclipsed Roger Maris 3 times and never even led his league in HRs while doing it.

@@HereForAStorm Lol

Maybe, got off to a great enough start.

I think people hate on Bonds more than McGwire or Sosa precisely because he was already SO good without steroids. McGwire, for example, could hit for power but not average, wasn't an all around player and was injury prone.

Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay were still free men.

Isn't that kind of giving someone credit for stuff they are supposed to do though? I think that sets quite the low bar.

Lol wtf is that even supposed to mean? We’re giving out awards to pple for not raping molesting and murdering anyone? We shud applaud him for not being an animal? Dude was incredible. But he cheated. That’s the beginning and end of it. Give Juice to Aaron Judge and he’ll hit 80 hr in a season. In 2022 he missed 15 HRs by 5 feet or less.

He did Flyers games? I just knew he did national ESPN hockey games and a lot of big playoffs and Finals games, did not know he did games for any one team in the NHL.

In 1961 Roger Maris had an asterisk placed on the HR record by the commissioner of baseball at the time when he broke it from Babe Ruth because it took him the full 162 games in the 1961 season to tie and pass the record. In Ruth's day, they only played 154 games (I think they had just recently added the 8 extra games). The asterisk was to acknowledge he did not break the record in the same kind of timeframe that Ruth had. Maris was not a very popular player and the asterisk brought about controversy. Some liked it while others thought it was cruel and unfair, picking on Roger and belittling his accomplishment. He was not accused of any cheating or unnatural means. Eventually, another commissioner removed it, and the prevailing wisdom is that that was the right thing to do. I think since then, there has been a great hesitancy to put an asterisk on any other baseball record because so many remembered how much it felt like it was picking unfairly on Maris. It's a heavy anchor to put on a record. Bonds is more deserving of having an asterisk than Maris, because he used a supplement, an illegal drug. However, there was no drug testing at the time and it is known that SO many other players of his era juiced. The fact that Bonds is black in a sport with fewer black players each year might play a role in it. The black community as a whole might take it personally and turn away from the game for good. You could make the case that they are picking on Bonds for being less than ideal with the media during his career, for taking a substance that many others took, and yes, for being African-American. So I think baseball hesitates to add the asterisk. Also worth noting, Pete Rose, the all time hit king, banned from baseball for betting on the sport, he did not get an asterisk placed on his records though. I am fine with no asterisk. Those who care enough about the history of the game will dig up the circumstances and come to their own conclusions. I think the idea of removing the asterisk on Maris and not adding one for Bonds or Rose is that the people who know about the record can come to their own conclusions and the record books are not made to take sides, just to denote the most or least amount of anything in a sport.

@@billny33 There was never an asterisk next to 61.

Me neither, dude coming to the plate has already hit 70 HR... not many would want to pitch to him... and not many did after 2001, lol.

Forgotten fact, this was a high scoring close game and the Giants lose a heartbreaker in this one to the hated Dodgers. Further, it eliminated the Giants from playoff contention. So now Bonds goes back to the clubhouse and every reporter wants to talk to him about the record HR and then the one he hit next at-bat (72) but Bonds is still upset/disheartened that they got knocked out of the playoff picture and can't even enjoy what he did. But he's not going anywhere because there's too much press for him to get out of there quickly. He's gotta sit there and field all those questions. That's a long day.

@@billny33 hated dodgers?! My friend I take great offense to that :P dodgers for live!!

@@mattfortheguinn4037 I mean Giants fans always hate the Dodgers. I don't hate them, I was just referring to the Giants-Dodger rivalry.

@@billny33 dude I’m messing around, I’m well aware of the rivalry

Idk about that, that record still stands today.

I will say this. As a kid I thought Griffey was the best. I knew Bonds was great also but I got more exposure to Griffey. Over the years, I realize Bonds had a greater career and put up greater numbers. You can certainly make the case for him being the greatest hitter of all time. You can also say he is the greatest but it's also kind of tainted because of the steroids. That's where I fall into. I don't think steroids helped everyone, there are a lot of guys named on the Mitchell Report who were average players who took substances and it did not help them. But there's a few that it definitely did help. McGwire and Sosa and Brady Anderson would never have reached their HR totals of 70 and 66 and 50 respectively without some juice and I think Bonds is a similar case. Yes it's still the greatest hitting career ever but it's also still got a question mark or a cloud or an asterisk floating about it so I kinda think it's both but I understand both sides.

.298 career average. Not sure he's the best hitter of all time

Nah

Are you referring to Jon Miller who called it for the local Giants broadcast?

@@billny33 yes

And racists like you make the world worse. Barry never tested positive for any prohibited substance, the media and disgusting people like you only hate Barry for his skin color, instead Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids and yet the press and racists like you do not attack him as they continue to do. against Barry. Racists like you don't like black or Latino athletes to be better than their white, blonde, blue-eyed athletes. To the pain of all of you stool racists, Barry Bonds is and will forever remain the greatest baseball player of all time. Cry little girl and tell your mommy to change your diaper and prepare a bottle for you.

Rodger, huh?

Buddy, you could take all the steroids in the world and not hit a damn homerun in the MLB, much less 73 in a season.

@@HereForAStorm true but steriods gives a huge edge to an already talented all star in professional sports nano seconds on a swing is often the difference between an all star and a hall of famer