Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I must confess that I grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals fan; and then after moving to Illinois, I became a White Sox and a Cubs fan. But on Sunday, October 7, I think everybody who loves baseball was a San Francisco Giants fan, because it was on Sunday, October 7, 2001, that Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants outfielder, hit his 73rd home run, a Major League record, and shattered the slugging percentage record that Babe Ruth held since 1920. 16 years ago, Bonds started out as a Pittsburgh Pirate, when he was sixth in Rookie of the Year. Today, Bonds has passed some of baseball's greatest legends on the career home run list. Bonds finished the season with a .328 batting average, career high 137 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of .863, easily surpassing the mark of .847 that Ruth set in 1920. Bonds also broke Ruth's major league record by walking 177 times this season, ending up with an on-base percentage of .515, best in the majors since 1957, and tops in the National League since John McGraw's mark of .547 in 1899. Bonds homered every 6.52 at-bats this season, beating the Major League record of a homer each 7.27 at bats that Mark McGwire set while hitting 70 home runs in 1998. Voted Player of the Decade for the 1990s by the Sporting News, Bonds was the first player ever to win the league's Most Valuable Player award three times in four seasons.”