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identify7I dunno Jason, do you really think Bonds has accomplished much? I think that he may, but time will tell. I remember Mantle sacrificing his career .300 BA in his quest to surpass Foxx in total HRs. What a futile effort! Mantle was no where near the slugger that the Beast was, unless Foxx had to hit lefty; and even then I am not sure. I wonder whether Bonds will make a similar sacrifice in his yet unidentified quests. He is a borderline .300 hitter now, and he just recently has been knocking on the door of the .600 sluggers club.
So far, Greenberg, Foxx, Williams, Ruth and Gehrig are not answering the door.
As far as sluggers, you have got to like a guy like Cravath. There is a player who averaged over 20 HRs a season for (I think) three straight years; back when no one was hitting HRs - the early teens.
Not similarly, it is difficult (for me, anyway) to like McGwire. But that he is the most productive home run generator ever is a matter of record.
Certainly home runs are marks of a slugger, but how about triples? You have to recognize that Crawford and Cobb are in the top three lifetime in both triples and inside-the-park homeruns. Come on now, tell me that is not impressive!
Of them all tho, I've always liked Musial and Medwick who hit doubles, triples and homeruns freely. I guess that I prefer them because their statistics are fairly recent. Bur I know that Jackson and Hornsby were better hitters.
Out of this pile of talented athletes, only McGwire I consider in the same vein as Bonds (pun intended). Barry may end up among the .600 club, but he will have to stop playing before he qualifies. Or maybe he wants 800 lifetime HRs more. It will be interesting, even if he quits before the '06 season. That is probably his best move.