Welcome to Day Ten of the auction! Today brings us one of the greatest leadoff hitters of all-time, Bobby Bonds. He was also the guy whose name was on my boyhood glove. I was a shortstop in Little League, and would have preferred an Ivan DeJesus glove, but those just didn't exist. There was just one, and DeJesus was using it. I remember being disappointed in junior high when the Cubs traded DeJesus for Larry Bowa. They did manage to get a young third baseman at the time, named Ryne Sandberg. He turned out OK, when they finally moved him over to second base. Back to Bonds, though. He finished his career with the Cubs in 1981, in that crazy year where the players took about six weeks off in the middle of the season. It was his eighth team in eight years, so you never seemed to know what he'd be wearing on his baseball card each year. He hit a record 35 lead-off home runs, including 11 in one season. Both of those records have fallen since then, but they were impressive while they lasted. Rickey Henderson broke the record of 35, and Brady Anderson broke the record of 11. What I didn't remember about Bonds was how often he struck out. When he retired, he was only behind Reggie Jackson and Willie Stargell for all-time whiffs by a big leaguer. I guess I didn't realize that, because he always seemed to be on base, trying to steal second off Steve Swisher. When he came to the Cubs, I thought maybe that was the piece we were missing. Just like I thought with the previous San Francisco outfielders who showed up in Wrigley in the years before him, Bobby Murcer and Dave Kingman. But it wasn't to be, and Bonds retired after that year. I remember being shocked to hear that he had died of a brain tumor, at the young age of 57, because I just remembered him as the perfect combo of power and speed, like nothing could stop him. But that silly brain tumor did, where an army of catchers never could. Whenever I see a Bonds card now, it always takes me back to Little League, with that Bobby Bonds glove. RIP, Bobby.
