A couple months ago, before the baseball season began, I suggested that we should celebrate Barry Bonds as the best current athlete in a team sport. Despite getting a bit of grief over those sentiments I hold to them steadfastly. A couple folks have asked why I didn’t mention the MVPs more urgently. Part of that is simply because I assumed everyone familiar with the arguments would already be fairly aware however I should mention a couple things. One- Bonds has won 7 of them. No one in else in major team sports has that many. Two- He clearly earned at least one more of them (1991). Tery Pendleton owes Bonds and it was almost immediately apparent that he was jobbed that season.
Beyond the formal achievements are any number of unique or nearly unique elements to his career (intentional walk with bases loaded, more times on base than official at bats, higher than .600 OBP for a season). He’s the best we have. Warts and all.
TP
The WhoDeannyPod 