Thursday, July 31, 2003
I happened to notice that Barry Bonds was walked twice by the Cubs today. That's not too surprising, the hotter the Giants get the more Barry will get walked, and they are about as hot as you can get right now. The interesting note is that puts him at 2020 walks for his career. Mr. Ted Williams is sitting at 2021. In my book, any time you pass up Ted in a hitting category, that's a big event. But I doubt we'll hear much about it when it happens. No, not because the media is biased against Barry, but because the walk is undervalued by most people who report baseball.
Babe Ruth is at 2062, so while Barry might pass Mays in dingers this year, he is sure to pass Ruth for the #2 slot in walks. Of course, the all-time walk king is still active. Rickey currently sits at 2181... and sadly has an OBP of just .237 (small sample size).
Well, last night I pointed out to Tom Renbarger that Barry was about to eclipse Ted. He responded that it was possible that he could do it in the same game where Sammy passed Ted on the homers chart. And lo and behold...
Here's a copy of the AP report of the game in Chicago. Note that only the editor (who writes the headlines) knew what Sammy's homer meant historically, and Bonds' achievement went unnoticed.
posted by David 8:32 AM
