Baseball between the numbers

Mariano will not pitch well if he rarely pitches.

Anyway, I know many readers roll their eyes, scroll down, or click on one of the fine bloggeristas to the right when the subject of baseball comes up, but if you want to hear an enjoyable conversation of why "everything you think you know about baseball is wrong," Jonah Keri and Steve Goldman were on the Leonard Lopate program the other day.

On a side note, Barry Bonds is 42 and looks as though his extremities are twice as old as he is. Yesterday, he sat on the bench for about five hours and then faced Billy Wagner's high 90s fastball.

David Wright, a 23-year-old budding superstar, made a crucial throwing error with two outs in the ninth inning, allowing the Giants to close to 7-5. That brought up Bonds, the most dangerous hitter of the generation, to pinch-hit, representing the tying run. Billy Wagner relished the chance to face Bonds. He pumped fastballs of 97, 96 and 96 miles an hour — the fans chanting, "Barry, Barry" — before throwing another one exactly where he wanted: high and outside, at 99 m.p.h.

Bonds was waiting. He jacked it over the Yahoo! sign in left-center field. The crowd of 34,454 at AT&T Park was delirious. No. 711 for Bonds; Mets and Giants, 7-7.

"My strength is his strength," Wagner said. "I can't worry about what-ifs."

Asked if anyone else could have hit a pitch in that location, traveling at that velocity, Wagner shrugged and deadpanned, "I don't know, Babe?"

Anyone who claims Bonds shouldn't be in The Hall of Fame when he retires -- or should have an asterisk alsongside his accomplishments -- is an ass.