Baseball's Steroid Era

How had it come to this? Once a spindly 185-pound leadoff hitter, Bonds had reinvented himself as the second coming of Babe Ruth. Three years earlier he had been an afterthought in the race between McGwire and Sammy Sosa to break Roger Maris's single-season home run mark. Now he was altering the modern definition of power hitter. Entering the series, both teams had six games remaining. The Giants were two back of Arizona in the National League West, and Houston was tied with St. Louis in the National League Central. No matter. Few thoughts were on the playoff races.

This was about history.

In anticipation of a magical moment, more than 250 media outlets requested credentials for the Giants-Astros series. All three games were sold out. Aware that opposing pitchers were fearful of going down as the guy who allowed a historic homer, Bonds used his pre-series press conference to try to goad Dierker and the Astros into presenting him with hittable baseballs.

"I've played against Houston a long time and I've never known them to bypass anybody," he said. "They have too many quality pitchers on that side, back to Nolan [Ryan] and Mike Scott and all the rest of them. They have pride, too. They have always been up for the challenge. When you look at some of the other teams, you can probably say, 'Sure, they won't pitch to you.' But when you look at a staff like [Houston's], it would be kind of odd if they [pitched around me]."