Earlier this season, I commented that I just couldn’t figure when or if Barry Bonds would tie Hank Aaron’s all time home run record of 755 and go beyond to immortality until fellow Leo Alex Rodriguez comes along in a few years. I still wonder about the timing and horoscope of the record breaking moment and I’ve been wondering each night with the endless onslaught of games covering the hapless San Francisco Giants - though like a Leo, they seem to play better with all the attention. Of course, I have to watch. I’m a baseball fan and an astrologer. I want to know the exact time that ball departs the yard.
Yesterday while wondering, I got a call from a USA Today reporter, who prompted my speculative hand. A couple of background comments first. I am not convinced that tying the record shows any extraordinary astrological pattern. It would certainly be full of Saturn’s endurance, discipline and time in the game. It may not be full of patience. Conversely, it seems to me that a record-breaking pattern should be full of Jupiter and Uranus for sure - possibly with a dash of Pluto in this case for the added power (and/or juice). Honestly, I see the Saturn, but I don’t see the other. While Jupiter in Sag will oppose his Venus-Mars conjunction in Gemini, which comes in the off season and is more likely to be the blow up that surely follows if he does break the record.
To be fair to Barry, his Venus-Mars conjunction sextiles Mercury and provides his hitting instincts. Venus is the feel of things, Mars the swing and Mercury offers hand-eye coordination. Bonds’ swing boggles the mind. It’s fast, compact and on the ball an amazing amount of the time. Next to Tony Gwynn, he’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever watched play the game. To put the ball on the sweet spot of the bat requires amazing skill; he does that all the time. When other players accomplish that feat, the ball rockets off their bats, too, but not with the power and distance of Bonds.
Over the past several years Bonds’ shoe size increased three sizes. Not bad for a guy not enjoying the surges of puberty. As well, he has one of the largest batting helmets in baseball - and that’s not just because he’s a Leo. The physical evidence that Bonds used illegal performance enhancing substances mounts with every time he steps on the field - or so it seems. He has that Venus-Mars-Mercury pattern thing going on with Saturn in Leo on his Mercury. That transit demands forthright communication - as well as providing impact on his stroke at the moment. It seems to me that if Bonds would fess up and honestly indicate he used the drugs - assuming he did, of course - baseball fans will move on and get over it. But if he stonewalls, as he has, the cloud of doubt and “say it ain’t so, Barry,” will persist forever. It’ll be worse than an asterisk attached to this home run record. When Jupiter reaches an opposition to the Venus-Mars, that’s when attention surges regarding the record. After all, if he continues to play the remaining fifty something games, remaining healthy and barring four intentional walks per game, he will break the record.
Now USA today wanted to know when. This weekend, Jupiter goes direct in Sag (the 7th) and Saturn clears his Mercury on the 6th. It makes sense to me that he could tie the record on the 6th and possibly go ahead on the 7th. At this point he’ll be back in fan-friendly San Francisco instead of hostile southern California and up against a team with some of the worst pitching in baseball - the Nationals. If he responds favorably to Saturn, he might be able to exceed this time frame. But let’s consider other factors. The next three games, of which he’ll likely play only two, occur in San Diego. Padre pitchers will not give Bonds the time of day, let alone a pitch to hit. It might have to wait - to the delight of hometown fans.
Bonds has another surge of energy starting mid-September courtesy of Mars in Gemini coming upon his Venus and Mars. I could see a couple of scenarios for this: one, he holds out until then (oh no!), two, he goes on another home run rampage; or three, inflammation or being hit by a pitch shuts down his season, and presumably at this point closes his career.
This is an important time for baseball. With football and basketball seriously wounded by scandals, baseball needs to restore its pristine America’s pastime vibe. Unfortunately, a sullen hero with the cloud of drug use hanging over his head does not help. It’s no secret I’m not a Bonds fan. I’ve seen him during games and watched how he disregards fans. He inflamed the sensibilities of all Diamondback fans by hanging with the Yankees during the 2001 World Series - on D’Backs turf and with a team in the same league and division. His defiance and divisiveness and the Aquarian Moon, “I am an island unto myself” attitude does not make a clubhouse cozy. As another article in USA Today noted, Bonds has become his own Ty Cobb, which assures he’ll not have a role in the remake of “Field of Dreams.”
755 - 05 Aug 2007
Somehow Barry Bonds took an astrological hint and payed homage to Saturn. Saturday before the Giant-Padre game in San Diego, he took extra batting practice to discipline his swing. It worked. At 7:30 P.M., according to my cable system provider’s digital recorder, he swung and drove a pitch to left center field. It was home run 755, tying him with Hank Aaron for all time home runs in major league baseball.
Saturn stood 14 minutes short of an exact conjunction to Mercury. Mercury, now in Leo, was a degree and nineteen minutes short of partile with his Leo, “let me shine in the Sun” solar placement. The midheaven of the home run squared natal Mercury, short of the precise aspect by only 41 minutes of an arc. Mars in Taurus recently completed exact aspects to Saturn (by square) and Pluto (via the quincunx), evidently lifting the hold on his batting stroke.
Of course, now there’s just one more thing to do: break the record. Today, August 5th, the Giants would be silly to play Barry. Normally, he does not play a day game following a night game. He’s played nine consecutive games, more than any stretch this year. And he’s not gotten a hit off the starting pitcher scheduled today. Truly, wouldn’t he rather set the record at home. If he does pinch hit late in the game today, I’d bet on an intentional walk.
Last night I was having a baseball extravaganza. I had curried up some Nolan Ryan organic beef and was happily flipping back and forth between my Diamondbacks and the Giants, monitoring the batting order of the Giants game online. I was stunned at my reaction to the home run. I expected a feeling of relief and some praise, but I was struck with a wave of anger, followed by sadness. I guess it goes back to the steroid controversy. Maybe it was Mars aligned with the Pleiades - the weeping sisters. Had Bonds made it to this record without suspicion of illegal performance enhancing drug use, I would have been thrilled.
Watching Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig’s reaction was interesting. Selig’s face looked like he missed it, followed by shock and disbelief. The Commissioner’s face looked as if he had been told the Tooth Fairy did not exist. Selig later issued the obligatory statement of congratulations, but it was fraught with foreshadowing of things to come.
This morning while puzzling over the chart, it finally hit me. Why does this horoscope of a monumental event - and similar energies tomorrow in San Francisco - not speak of blazing, breakthrough and success? Answer: Because it isn’t. During the off season, resolution will have to come to this matter. Jupiter, who ironically personifies honesty and exaggeration, crosses Bonds’ ascendant, and opposes his Mercury and Venus come November, and Saturn in Virgo will excavate the veneer of his Uranus and Pluto. To add one more log to the fire, Neptune, the illusion maker, squares Bonds’ own placement of the justice-seeking Jupiter. I’m thinking by the time Jupiter enters Capricorn and hits his south node in Capricorn (around New Year’s) the asterisk will be attached to the record.
As baseball fans we have to take it - at least until Alex Rodriguez breaks the all time home run record. We took it during the 1994 strike season. We took it during the Pete Rose scandal. We took it during the White Sox scandal. Hopefully we’ll focus on other baseball milestones. Soon, I’ll post a piece on the other milestones achieved this year. Astrologically, we’ll be able to see the signatures of success and accomplishment in other professional milestones.
756 ~ 08 Aug 2007
He did it. We all knew he would. At 8:51 P.M. last night, Barry Bonds took the reigns of the rights to the title of baseball's all time home run king.
Originally, I had intended to rivet myself in front of the tube and watch the moment history occurred. But when tickets appeared for the Diamondbacks game and a chance to see the new hitting phenom, Justin Upton and the newest $30 M dollar man, Eric Byrnes, I went for it. The most interesting about being at the ball park and seeing the blast on the Jumbotron seconds after it occurred, was the fan reaction. I'd guess ten percent, many of those wearing Bonds jerseys and such, gave a standing ovation. Maybe a third of the fans applauded. Keeping in mind that Phoenix is a National League Western Division team as are the Giants, and there is no love lost between any of those teams, boos filled the air - a lot of them. I felt a little like the Commissioner, silently reacting, only I didn't have my hands in my pocket. It was more of “It's over, but it's only just beginning.”
If you put Barry's chart onto the wheel of that of 756, his Saturn sits on the Ascendant and Pluto on square the midheaven. Longevity and immortality, indeed, and with Saturn of the event just clear of his Mercury, lingering questions accompany the historic record. Barry reported in a post game news conference that the record is “...not tainted... Period.” Yet, there's still a man in jail who refuses to tesitify about what he knows in this whole fiasco.
Curious in the event chart is the Venus opposing Bonds' Saturn and the south node directly aligned with his natal Uranus (nodal patterns seem to repeat as a theme in the achievement of baseball milestones - more in the Milestones link below). This speaks louder than the thanks Bonds rendered to wife and family. As Venus repeats her activity in Virgo in a matter of weeks and as Saturn takes on Virgo in September, the debate and controversy likely intensifies.
Meanwhile, fans will believe what they want to belief. It's true about anything. Once a person entrenches in a point of view, it's difficult to provide evidence to alter that point of view. I suspect that'll be the case about Barry Bonds for all eternity.
And for those fans of the King, he says he'll be back next year.