 |
| |
|
 |
 |
Taking the fifth Bonds' multidimensional game fuels another MVP bidPosted: Tuesday September 17, 2002 12:45 PM
On a wall in the office of Giants manager Dusty Baker there is a beautiful framed picture of Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, the holy trinity of National League outfielders from baseball's expansionist era of the 1960s. Together they represent 63 seasons of baseball excellence. Now consider this: Baker's current left fielder will, upon the formality of the announcement of this season's voting results, have won more MVP awards in the past 13 seasons than Clemente, Mays and Aaron did combined in their careers. Barry Bonds need not worry about a Terry Pendleton swiping the honor from him. Bonds is as much the MVP this year as last -- hey, it might even be unanimous this time -- but he will get No. 5 for a whole new subset of reasons. The Barry Bonds I saw last weekend in a series against the San Diego Padres was not the 73-home run monster looking to elevate every pitch. Here were his six hits in 10 at-bats over four games: ground single up the middle, ground single up the middle, soft single to left on a two-strike emergency swing, line-drive double off the wall in left, soft single to left on a two-strike emergency swing, ground single to left. Not one of them was pulled. He hit one fly ball, a 380-foot moonshot of an out to center field in a bases-empty situation that called for a longball. "The difference I see is that it doesn't look like he's trying to hit everything out of the ballpark," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "There's not as much lift to his swing right now." Said Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia, "He's showing this year what a great all-around hitter he is. A lot of stuff about his game got lost last year with all the home runs he hit. But offensively it looks like he can do just about anything he wants, including hitting for a high average. It's a little late this year, but he's a legitimate Triple Crown threat." Only pitchers' rightful avoidance of Bonds with runners on base has prevented him from making a run at the Triple Crown this season. (He still managed to tie Aaron's NL record with his 11th 100-RBI season.) For instance, rather than pitch to Bonds Monday night, the Dodgers intentionally walked him and brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth inning. As it is, his batting title will make him only the third active player to win each of the Triple Crown categories at any time in his career, joining Andres Galarraga and, assuming he holds on as the AL's RBI leader, Alex Rodriguez. As amazing as the 73 homers were, to come back and hit .372 the following year at age 38 is almost as stunning. He has shown such bat control down the stretch that Bochy swore Bonds could find the gaping hole in the left side of the overshifted defense and steer the ball that way. Aurilia noted that Bonds is taking pitches the other way according to the situation, saying, "He's doing whatever it takes to win." True enough. Bonds does need another postseason to try again to renovate that lousy October image. Still, his playoff failures don't diminish how complete a hitter he is. Last year Bonds knocked Babe Ruth out of the record book by breaking two of the Bambino's most prestigious marks (walks and slugging). Now he's about to kick Ted Williams out. Nothing is sacred. Consider some of Bonds' other achievements: "Sometimes, I wish I could strike out," Bonds told reporters last week with a laugh. "That way, I could just go to the dugout instead of having to run to first base on grounders and have to make a U-turn. The strikeouts are no big deal. I never struck out much, anyway. I'm a contact hitter. But I'm shocked as hell to be hitting .360. I haven't done that since high school. I never cared much about batting average." Until this season, Bonds was a career .292 hitter who never had batted better than .336 or finished among the top three in a batting race. Yes, we know it's cool to dump on batting average, a less-than-reliable measuring stick of a hitter's ability. But it's one of those tools that, while improved upon, still holds up over time, like an abacus. We know instantly what a .300 hitter is. And only now do we know the wonder of a 38-year-old power hitter batting .372. The rest of the NL MVP ballot is as tough as filling out the Sunday Times' crossword puzzle. But here is a sneak peek at my ballot (with two weeks left, however, I may still take an eraser to anything below No. 1.) 1. Bonds, Giants. 2. Albert Pujols, Cardinals. A steady performer in a tumultuous season, he ranks second in RBIs and runs while hitting .340 with RISP. 3. Lance Berkman, Astros. Leading the league in RBIs and batting with RISP. The Astros were a different team in the one spell when he didn't hit. 4. Shawn Green, Dodgers. Disappeared in April and July, but did enough damage in the other months (with little protection) to keep a flawed team in contention. 5. Randy Johnson, Diamondbacks. Amazing, but only 35 times. 6. Curt Schilling, Diamondbacks. Ditto. 7. Jeff Kent, Giants. Fierce competitor gets 10 demerits for that lame motorcycle stunt. 8. John Smoltz, Braves. I'm not putting a ton of stock in save numbers, but he did allow the rest of the bullpen to fall in place and, in turn, the starters to ease up on their workload. 9. Eric Gagne, Dodgers. A huge surprise. 10. Sosa, Cubs. Annual must-have. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Baseball Mailbag. |
