Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 10, 2007
Bonds on Rodriguez

If Barry Bonds becomes the all-time home run king, he doesn't think his reign will last long:

Bonds, who turns 43 on July 24, entered the All-Star break with 751 homers, four shy of Hank Aaron's record. Rodriguez, who turns 32 on July 27, leads the majors with 30 home runs this season, raising his total to 494.

Asked whether A-Rod would make his reign short, Bonds quickly replied: "Oh, definitely."

"His talent is unbelievable. I don't think people really appreciate his talent. His eye-hand coordination, his actual strength, his actual recognition of the ball, those are things you can't teach," Bonds said. "It's great because I know what he knows and I can see what he sees. I'm just older and can't do it as often. Willie (Mays) told me 'I see what you see, I just can't do it anymore."'

In the past, the players who hit tons of home runs in their twenties faded in their thirties. The three players who reached 700 had three of the great late career surges ever. Given the year he's having at age 32, A-Rod would probably need 250 home runs to break the new record. That's still better than 30 home runs a year for eight seasons. It's certainly within his reach, but there's plenty of room for him to fall short. You just need to look no further than his former teammate Ken Griffey to see how a great young home run hitter can fall short of the record due to injury.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:21 AM | Sluggers | TrackBack (0)
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