If Major League Baseball ever institutes mandatory drug testing, I would suggest they start with Bobby Cox:
Barry Bonds leaves the ballpark as quickly as possible these days — not because he doesn’t love the game, but because he has somewhere better to be.
And when the Atlanta Braves dared to throw a hittable pitch to him in the 10th inning Thursday night, Bonds sent everybody home for the second time in three dramatic nights.
Bonds hit his 652nd career homer on the first pitch he saw from Trey Hodges, giving the San Francisco Giants a 4-3 victory Thursday night and a three-game sweep of baseball’s best team.
With his second extra-inning homer in three days, Bonds moved within eight homers of his godfather, Willie Mays, for third place on the career list. He’s climbing the chart with a heavy heart while spending most of his free time with his cancer-stricken father, Bobby.
“I was just trying to hit the ball, but I’ve got to go somewhere now,” Bonds said as he left the clubhouse.
Barry Bonds for the year is batting .337 with a paltry .519 on base percentage and a miniscule .755 slugging percentage. Clearly, when the game is tied, it is the bottom of the tenth, there are no men on base, no outs, and Bonds is batting, you pitch a meatball to him. Right, Bobby?
Idiots. WALK HIM. Maybe the San Fran home crowd will boo you for the decision, but shouldn’t that be a BIG HONKING HINT?
I know managers like to stick to the way they have been doing things for years, but it should be abundantly clear that the rules of baseball do not apply to Bonds. And I am starting to feel that way about Pujols.
Moe Lane
“Clearly, when the game is tied, it is the bottom of the tenth, there are no men on base, no outs, and Bonds is batting, you pitch a meatball to him. Right, Bobby?”
Oh, yeah. Especially when you know that Bond’s got a really, really good reason to want to finish up and get going…
mark
My favorite is Dusty Baker. When he managed the Giants, he whined about Bonds being walked all the time. So, what does he do when the Giants play the Cubs, he WALKS him!
Reality set in for Baker. Bobby Cox needs a dose.
M. Scott Eiland
In a tie game, walking Bonds with the bases empty and no one out is a pretty good way to lose the game, too. The man can still steal a base (7 steals, no caught stealing this year), and the guys behind him ain’t bad (it’s the guys hitting ahead of him who blow chunks). Earlier that same game, Bonds was walked with no one out and the bases empty and ended up scoring a run. Now, with two out and no one on, walking him is a much better strategy–it’s much harder to bring him around with no outs to spare than with two.
Also, in fairness, Cox did intend to pitch Bonds carefully–another paragraph from the same article:
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“We have a plan to pitch Bonds down,” Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. “I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the plate. I don’t know if it slipped out, or what. When I saw where the pitch was going, I knew where it was going (to end up).”
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The funny thing about this game is that I turned it off when it was 3-0 Giants going into the ninth–I had no idea the Braves had tied it up until I spotted the blurb on the MSN homepage this morning about BB’s long ball.
M. Scott Eiland
Just looked at the game log, and it turns out that there was one out when Bonds came up in the 10th, which would have made the IBB a better play than with no out. I can’t second guess Cox–he had a decent strategy, and the pitcher made a bad pitch. It happens.
M. Scott Eiland
“And I am starting to feel that way about Pujols.”
Pujols has scary hitters behind him–walking him more is just going to let Edmonds knock in 150 runs a season. There’s a reason Lou Gehrig won all of those RBI titles–Babe Ruth was being walked 120-160 times a season ahead of him.
redheadedstepchild
The flaw in Cox’s strategy was made abundantly clear last night. Either try to get him out, or intentionally walk him. This pitch to him but don’t throw it anywhere near the plate idea is idiotic. It is much more likely that the pitcher is going to make a mistake and Bonds is going to crush it than Bonds is going to get himself out on a bad pitch. If it is me deciding the strategy, I walk him without a second thought and take my chances with the next guys.
RW
In one of sports’ most overlooked (but what I consider to be one of the most remarkable) statistics, Lou Gehrig knocked in 175 runs in 1927.
That year, the Babe cleared the bases 60 times before he ever came to bat.
BTW, the pitch wasn’t supposed to be close to the plate to Mr. Bonds. And Cox deserves manager of the year for the best record in baseball despite losing two cy youngs, a 20 game winner and half his middle relief crew before the season began.
And Pujols should walk away (pun inted) with the MVP.
Has anyone checked A-Rod’s 2nd half numbers, or Todd Helton’s overall numbers?
M. Scott Eiland
“BTW, the pitch wasn’t supposed to be close to the plate to Mr. Bonds. And Cox deserves manager of the year for the best record in baseball despite losing two cy youngs, a 20 game winner and half his middle relief crew before the season began.”
Not to mention Greg Maddux having his worst season since the first Gulf War.
“And Pujols should walk away (pun inted) with the MVP.”
He’s making a credible argument, but Bonds is tearing up the league since the All-Star break. It’s going to be one of them.
“Has anyone checked A-Rod’s 2nd half numbers, or Todd Helton’s overall numbers?”
A-Rod Post All-Star Game: .358 BA, .466 OBA, .769 SLG with 15 HR in 134 AB.
Rather impressive, to say the least–particularly for a shortstop.
Helton’s numbers are nice, but there’s a lot of Coors inflation there (.413/.496/.791 at home, .311/.412/.494 on the road–those power numbers really take a hit). The writers know this–he won’t be contending for MVP.
As a bonus, Bonds’ numbers since the All-Star break:
.414 BA, .598 OBA, .886 SLG, 9 HR in 70 AB.
Ricky
What hurts Bonds is that he’s extremely low in RBI and he’s Mr. Chik fil A (doesn’t work on Sundays).
Ricky
Low in RBI as it pertains to MVP candidates (and in comparison to the league leaders & such), of course.
redheadedstepchild
Bonds is low in RBIs because most managers are smart enough to pitch around him in key situations.
And once again, if the pitcher wasn’t supposed to throw a pitch anywhere near the plate, then WHY NOT JUST INTENTIONALLY WALK HIM? The chance that Bonds will smack a mistake is much better than the chance that Bonds will get himself out. In the last several years, I can only come up with a handful of times that I have seen Bonds get himself out in big situations (barring the playoffs, of course). I don’t watch all of their games, but I do make a point of tuning in for a lot of his at-bats.
Ricky
FYI, the AJC today was filled with remarks on the game & how the pitcher (Hodges) was *not* supposed to have the pitch within a foot of the plate. Obviously, it was just a case of putting it in the wrong place.