Thursday, August 09, 2001
Bonds' patience, performance unrivaled
What separates Barry Bonds from his peers is not power, but patience. He's the thinking man's slugger: compact, controlled, discerning and dangerous. He's as selective as a kid in a candy store who is down to his last dime and as disciplined as a deer hunter awaiting a clear shot.
He is chasing baseball's single-season home run record by not chasing it, by laying off the borderline pitch in anticipation of a better one, by working the count and waiting for the kill.
Like Ted Williams, and hardly anyone else, San Francisco's irascible outfielder is a difficult character who is a revelation in the batter's box. He's one of the few players opponents watch with unconcealed awe.
“He's the unpitchable guy,” Reds third baseman Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “He just sits there and if you don't throw it over the plate, he spits on it and walks. And when you do throw it over the plate, he kills you.”
Bonds struck his 48th home run of the season Tuesday night, surpassing Babe Ruth as the man to reach that total in the fewest games. If the magnitude of this feat has been muffled by our increasingly jaded view of the longball and by Bonds' career-long crankiness, it is still an amazing deed by a remarkable dude.
No Mr. Congeniality >
Bonds won't win any popularity contests -- WLW blowhard Bill Cunningham vowed to approach him Wednesday to inquire, “Why are you such a jerk?” — but fairness demands the Giants' left fielder be given his due as the finest player of his era.
Mark McGwire owns more career homers. Alex Rodriguez carries a heftier pricetag. Ken Griffey Jr. has achieved a higher profile. Yet for sustained excellence in all facets of the game, Bonds may be the best ballplayer since his godfather, Willie Mays.
He is a three-time Most Valuable Player, an eight-time Gold Glove winner and the only man in hardball history to attain both 400 homers and 400 stolen bases. What Bonds lacks in personality — which is considerable — he compensates for with performance.
“To me,” Boone said, “he's always been the most impressive.”<
Willing to walk
Bonds leads the major leagues this year in both homers and walks, which reflects both the respect he is shown and the refinement he has achieved. He has averaged one home run every seven at-bats this season while drawing more intentional walks (24) than the San Diego Padres and seven American League teams.
Unlike a lot of elite hitters, Bonds understands that walks can be both personally and collectively useful. They produce extra baserunners, creating additional stress on the defense, tired arms on the mound and causing pitchers to reveal more of their repertoire and clues to their pitching patterns.
Sometimes, Bonds can process this information promptly. Sometimes, he must file it away for future reference. Wednesday night was a future-reference game.
Bonds did not hit a fair ball in five plate appearances during the Reds' 11-9 victory over the Giants. He drew two walks — one of them intentional — and was called out on strikes three times by plate umpire Jerry Meals. Yet in the process, he saw 29 pitches and demonstrated that he was not inclined toward wholesale hacking just because the most coveted record in American sports is within his reach.
Not many hitters could be that patient. Not many hitters are Barry Bonds.
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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SULLIVAN: Bonds' patience, performance unrivaled
