Challenging Bonds Isn’t Worth Risk

This is not an advice column, and I am not a major league manager, and logic may be drowning in the growing sweat stain of this pennant race, but there is something I must get off my chest.

It’s about Barry Bonds.

WALK HIM!

He is the most hated player for this town’s most hated rival, people pay big money to see him strike out, people fill the left-field bleachers to see him boot line drives, thousands joyously curse his name, and I don’t care.

WALK HIM!

I’m not talking about only in the ninth inning with first base open, or only in the eighth inning with a runner on third and two out, or only when it seems like your pitcher can’t handle him.

I’m talking about all of it. Every time. Every plate appearance. Every time he steps out of the dugout during the final two games of this series.

The Dodgers, who fell one game behind the San Francisco Giants in the wild-card race after a 6-4 loss Tuesday, have no choice when facing the Giants’ best player.

WALK HIM!

Manager Jim Tracy needs to do it when he’s leading, when he’s trailing, when he’s filling out his lineup card. Paul Lo Duca needs to stick out four fingers the minute Bonds drives up.

You would have thought the Dodgers would have learned their lesson before this week, when Bonds hit five homers against them in 15 previous games this season.

Then, for Babe’s sake, you thought they would have been reminded Monday night when, allowing him to bat with first base open in the seventh inning, he hit his sixth homer against them and pulled the Giants to within one run in the Dodgers’ eventual 7-6 win.

But no.

Tuesday night, second inning, Omar Daal embarrassingly struggling, runners on first and third with two out, Dodgers already trailing, 2-1.

Instead of intentionally walking Bonds, the Dodgers hope that Daal would pitch around him. But Daal is not precise enough to pitch around him, and leaves a 2-and-0 pitch out over the plate, and Bonds smacks it into left-center field to score two more runs.

WALK HIM!

“As hard as it is for me to say, given the way I’ve managed this time, you’d have to highly consider something like that,” said Tracy, when asked about walking Bonds every time.

Good thinking.

Bonds is a man who, when he has come to the plate, a graphic has appeared showing his place on the all-time home run list. In case you’ve forgotten, the list goes like this:

Hank Aaron. Babe Ruth. Willie Mays. Barry Bonds.

This is a man who may not only be the best baseball player of our generation, but any generation, a Hall of Famer who is having a second consecutive MVP season.

This is a man who every other other team has determined should be walked at all costs. On Monday, he broke his major league record for walks in a season with his 179th. He also extended his major league record for intentional walks with 60.

This is a man who another team once walked with the bases loaded, and then showed the statistics to prove that it was a smart move. This is a man batting in front of 80-year-old Benito Santiago.

WALK HIM!

Some feel that, by walking Bonds on every plate appearance, they would be chicken. I say they would be courageously foolish.

Claiming that Bonds should be engaged in the competitive spirit of the game is like saying that a hitter should swing at a 3-and-0 pitch for the same reason.

Baseball is a sport where batters can take first base on strikeouts, and runs can score on fly outs, and every year somebody gets nailed with a hidden ball trick.

So even if it doesn’t seem sporting to give a guy first base, if it helps your team, you swallow your pride and you do it.

Last season, one study showed that Bonds reached base 1.1 times per plate appearance. Meaning, if you played by the book, you would walk him every time.

After Bonds’ second-inning double Tuesday, Tracy had apparently seen enough, and intentionally walked him in the fourth and sixth innings with nobody on base.

But in the eighth, with Jeff Kent on first and the Giants clinging to a 5-4 lead, Tracy ordered Paul Quantrill to pitch to him. With 40,000 breaths held, Bonds flied out.

The Dodgers won that time. But is it a battle worth fighting at least eight more times? Is it a battle worth losing a playoff spot over? If you can beat Barry Bonds with your wits, do you have to also prove you can beat him with your arm?

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected].