Bonds just beat out Rickey Henderson for all-time walks...

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Posted By: steve k

Yes, Bonds will be turning 40 years old, but his liver and some of his other internal organs are possibly turning the equivalent of 80 years old.

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Posted By: Gary B.

In an earlier post I said, "Griffey could put up an impressive home run total by the time he's done if he stays healthy, but still catching Bonds would be a real tough go."

Well, he just paritally tore his right hamstring, so at the rate he's going, I don't think he has much of a chance of catching Bonds, even at the age he's at. Don't get me wrong, I want Griffey healthy, but his track record hasn't been too great in that department in the last few years. God bless him and his speedy recovery.

In other news, Bonds had THREE intentional walks yesterday, breaking his previous record of 68 to 71, and there's still about 75 games left this season! He's on pace to get well over 100 IBB's and 200 BB's total. This is copletely virigin territory, and the skies the limits here. We're talking Rickey Henderon's all time stolen base record and Nolan Ryan's all time strikeout record here in terms of putting numbers that are so far beyond anything that's come before, it will take a very special individual to challenge them in the future.

Considering the insane amount of walks he's already received (intentional and not intentional), it's remarkable that he has 23 home runs already. Can you imagine how many he'd have if they actually pitched to him? He already has twice the intentionl walks he had the entire season of 2001 when he hit 73! I also read that of all other teams in baseball, the Cardinals have the highest intentional walk total of 40, for the entire team! Bonds has almost twice that by himself.

Some might say this is not that impressive a stat, that it's not something he even has any control of, and while the last part is true, it really is a testament to how dominating and feared a hitter he is. The National League has been shown way too many times what will happen when they pitch to him, and they're understandable extremely cautious. It's a sign of the tremendous respect that the league has for him (and the American League too in interleague play), that they give him all these free passes. A player has to work really hard to earn that kind of unprecedented respect and fear.

What's next for Bonds - hitting .400? Highly unlikely, obviously, but if anyone in baseball today could pull it off, he could. He's batting .365, and he's got the ability, confidence and coolness under pressure to pull it off. Of course to even be hititng .365 considering he doesn't get too many official at bats is amazing. How he keeps his rhythm under the circumstances is unbelievable. Do I honestly think he will hit .400? Of course not, but it's fun to think about...

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

...but it used to be said that the two unbreakable records were Joe D's 56 and--oh, not a record, just an occurance--
anyone hitting .400 again. Why WAS that, and why is it no more (if it isn't?)

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Posted By: Gary B.

i don't know why it is no one hits .400 ever anymore. some people have flirted with it - george brett, tony gwynn, darin erstad, maybe a couple others, but it just seems a damn near impossible thing to pull off. why did it happen so many times in the early part of the century, and then......nothing?

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Posted By: Chris

I'm just curious how long intentional walks have actually been recorded. I'm not so sure they were counted in Ruth's day. Does anyone know for sure?

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Posted By: Gary B.

The intentional walk record has only been kept since 1955. I would however say it's a safe bet that even if it was kept since Ruth's day, Bonds would still have the record by a long shot. He has 71, and he's on pace to get WELL over 100, and the most walks Ruth ever had in a season was 170. I seriously doubt that even in that season he had over 100 of those walks be intentional ones, or anywhere close to that number. Admittedly, the record would have a bit more prestige if had been kept longer, but I think more than doubling the number of intentional walks any other player has had in a season (by the time Bonds is done this year)in a 50 year period, is still pretty darn impressive. The walk record he's on pace to demolish will be even more amazing. Before Bonds, no one ever hit more than 170, and he's on pace to go WELL over 200 this year.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Part of the explanation for the lack of .400 hitters is the distibution of talent. The overall talent of all players in the league looks like a bell curve. During the Deadball Era, the curve was somewhat flat with the great players being far superior in talent to the worst players in the league. Move forward to today and the bell curve have a very steep slope to it with the great players in the same position on the graph for each era, but the worst players moving closer to the great players because the players today are more talented. If you have any questions or doubts about this, Bill James goes into this in detail in one of historical abstract books. I think Pete Palmer also covers it in one of his books.

Deadball Era hitters benefited from facing the same pitchers over and over again during the season, rarely having to face a reliever, thus giving them a huge advantage in the quest to hit .400.

If anyone read Jason Stark's article earlier this year about Bonds chances of hitting .400, he goes into detail why Bonds can do it. I have to agree. The biggest advantage Bonds has is the huge number of walks he get, thus keeping his ABs down. That, along with his great plate disapline, gives hima good shot at .400 this year. And with having endured the media attention of the HR record chase, he's proven that the media will not be a distraction to him.

As to why DiMaggio's streak isn't considered unbreakable is because it's a streak. Granted, the next best is 44 games, but streaks like that are more a fluke than anything.

Jay