When I was recently interviewed for a piece in the JoongAng Daily one of the questions was to talk about the most amazing baseball moment that I’d witnessed in person. Seems like an obvious question any baseball fan might ask themselves at any point in time, but I hadn’t. If you’re like me you even have trouble remembering the individual games you attended unless you save the ticket stub.

Just before I moved to Korea I saw a game at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco — Giants vs. Braves. It was a Thursday night. Two games before, Bonds had ended a game with a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 10th. Our game was the exact same situation…two days later. Score tied, bottom of the 10th. As Bonds walked to the plate they showed the home run from Tuesday’s game on the big screen. The crowd went crazy and as Bonds stepped in the batter’s box the crowd was reacting as though he’d already hit another home run. They weren’t anticipating another home run, they were expecting it. He wasn’t pointing over the right field fence. He didn’t need to. The crowd was doing it for him.

He hit the first pitch into McCovey Cove. My friend and I were sitting down the firstbase line and I could actually hear the ball as it sizzled by us. I got chills.

As someone who hails from the Bay Area, the stepping down of Peter Magowan as managing partner of the Giants rang in my ears. I know it’s a  boring ownership/team control story, and  doesn’t interest many people, but does anyone really think this isn’t related to Barry Bonds and the Mitchell Report?

I don’t know much about Magowan aside from the fact that he ran Safeway and is a lifelong passionate Giants fan. It would be presumptuous for me to guess what went on behind closed doors — what the real story was with Barry Bonds, Magowan, the drugs, and their working relationship. But the fact that both are out of baseball in 2008, a year after the HR record falls and the Report reported, should lead anyone with a working brain to realize this is all connected.

I’ve never been a huge  fan of Bonds. I cheered when Russ Springer threw at him five straight times. But now that he’s gone I find myself missing him. I’ve been reading “October 1964″ by David Halberstam and in it I came across a quote by one of baseball’s most cherished Yankees, Yogi Berra, talking about baseball journalists. The quote reads: “Why do I have to talk to all these guys who make six thousand dollars a year when I make forty thousand dollars a year?”

It’s funny how the legacies of players come to be. It’d hard to find two players with more two more radically different public perceptions than Bonds and Berra. Sure, Bonds cheated, and he broke baseball’s most cherished record by cheating. A lot of people hate him. But is the game better off without him? Does anyone reading this watch baseball these days thinking “Boy, I’m sure glad Barry Bonds is out of baseball. Surely what I’m watching today is baseball in it’s purest form. Sans cheating.”

Today another former San Francisco Giant joined Bonds on the post-steroid allegation unemployment line. That would be the much less famous Jacob Cruz, who like Bonds was a first round pick out of Arizona State, albeit a decade later. Cruz played in 409 games over nine seasons for the Giants, Indians, Rockies, Tigers and Reds, coming to Korea after the 2006 season. Last year he was with  the Hanwha Eagles posting a solid .321/.422/.550 line with 22 HRs and 85 RBI. Strangely, Hanwha didn’t renew his contract and during the winter a story surfaced alleging he’d used steroids. Samsung signed him anyway.

This year the BA is down to .282 and the OBP at .370. Not terrible. But his slugging is down to .372 and he’s hit two HRs. Hmm. Regardless he still, sounds like a usable No. 2 hitter to me. But Samsung is looking to shake things up after meandering around .500 despite having the most expensive team (by a wide margin) in the KBO. I’ve heard Cruz is a nice guy, and has been playing on a very bad ankle for a number of years. Best to him.

Korean pitchers at all levels are very fond of filling up their hand with powder from the rosin bag, then throwing the ball — creating an effect that makes the ball look like it’s exploding out of their hand. I notice it most in high school games, where I’m usually sitting right behind home plate. Is it cheating? I’m not sure if the rules differ in Korean baseball, but something tells me if major league pitchers were doing this in such an extreme way it would be a problem. In fact the MLB rule reads (via Baseball Almanac): “Neither the pitcher nor any other player shall dust the ball with the rosin bag; neither shall the pitcher nor any other player be permitted to apply rosin from the bag to his glove or dust any part of his uniform with the rosin bag.”

It’s a common sight to see Korean high school and pro players with rosin all over their hands and cap. I have to admit, if I were a pitcher today  I would probably do this. It dirties you up — gets you into the game  like a head-first slide. However  I do think it probably creates an unfair advantage for pitchers.

In watching so many baseball games these days I see some unbelievable things. During the past weekend one team, Hyocheon, from a relatively small town in the southeast corner of the country, had a manager that tended toward the unpredictable insane. With the bases full with one out, cleanup hitter at the plate, he put on a suicide squeeze, starting all the runners. The batter bunted the ball straight up in the air toward the pitcher, who caught it easily.

But the pitcher, who probably could have jogged over to third for the inning ending double play, threw what almost looked like an Eephus pitch and the runner somehow scrambled back before the throw. All the runners were safe. Sadly the next batter struck out.

Later, with two outs in the ninth, Hyocheon trailing by a run with a runners on first and second, the manager apparently decided he really needed a guy on third and put on the steal. It was a close play. I thought the runner was out, but he was called safe. Ok, first and third, two outs in the ninth. What an insane risk. Was he looking to tie the game on a passed ball?

At any rate the batter struck out. Game over.