Live Blogging: Barry Bonds' Home Run Chase

I'm channel surfing tonight, watching the Phillies-Brewers game when I happen upon ESPN, which cuts into its regular broadcast to show the Fox Sports Net feed of the Giants-Astros game in Houston, where the Giants lead 11-3. The reason: Barry Bonds was up, batting against veteran journeyman reliever Russ Springer.

The following happened: Springer throws his first pitch, a slider that slides too much, behind Bonds. To me, Springer looked more like a wild almost has been than a Bruce Kison-like headhunter. To home plate umpire Joe West, who frequently has forgotten during his career that the fans come to see the players and not the umpires, Springer had opened the Astros' missile silos and threatened the diamond equivalent of a global thermonuclear war. What does West do? He warns Springer and his manager, Phil Garner.

Which means either that Joe West knows something that we don't (because the box score doesn't indicate that players had been hit by pitches), he's part of the Barry Bonds' protection detail, or he outlawed inside pitching. So what happens?

Springer continues to pitch inside. He throws a heater so close to Bonds that the it looked like it hit Barry's huge elbow pad when, in fact, it hit the nob of the bat for a strike. A few pitches later, Springer nails Bonds on the square of the back. Bonds gets first base.

Springer and his manager get the gate, courtesy of Joe West.

Now I don't follow Fox close enough, but in the advent of hundreds of current TV channels it's been said that with so much availability, there's so little to watch. The broadcasters took the Giants' side in the matter, saying that the ejection was obvious. Those comments caused a dilemma for me -- what was more idiotic, their broadcasting or the action by Joe West?

Russ Springer is a popular man in Houston now and might garner (no pun intended) serious votes were he to run in the gubernatorial primary as Kinky Friedman's proposed lieutentant governor. He got a standing ovation as he walked off the mound.

I don't think that either he or his manager caused the circus that surrounded this at bat, but they sure brought it to a stunning conclusion.

Why MLB brought Joe West back after having let him go in the great umpire purge of several years ago remains a mystery to me. Russ Springer is hanging onto his career, and the slider he threw behind Bonds' back looked like it slipped out of his hands. He did hit Bonds in the back, but in all likelihood that HBP was a consequence of having a wild pitcher throw inside. The last time I checked, it was okay to pitch legends inside.

Even if you hit them with the ball.