Two pariahs, 1161 homers, one peculiar distinction

David Pinto just pointed out that Barry Bonds now has 11 straight seasons with at least 30 homers. While there's nothing special about the number 30 as a cutoff point (as opposed to 25, or 28, or 34), there are two reasons immediately obvious to me why this stat is a testament to Bonds' greatness:



1) It shows that Bonds has been hitting balls out of the park since the days when only two middle infielders (Ripken and Sandberg) playing the game had that of power, as opposed to some of the bums knocking out 30 the past few years (Ed Sprague, Jay Bell, Tony Batista). Look, the last thing I'd want is to commit the crime of overrating the players from my baseball card-collecting days, or romantically wax about the fonder days of baseball, but perhaps 30 really is a good benchmark. I mean, just eight or nine years ago, if a player hit 30 homeruns, that was a hell of a year. Forty was something reserved for the best of the best — Frank Thomas, Bonds, and once in a while someone like Jeff Bagwell. At least that's how I remember it. Compare that to just last year, when Shawn Green connected for 49 and you wouldn't have known about it unless you checked the leaderboards yourself. Last season, three players in one league hit 57! That's insane! Bottom line, Bonds is one of the few modern power hitters who I feel has earned his place among the all-time leaders.



2) It's REALLY HARD to sustain such a level performance for this many CONSECUTIVE seasons. Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here, but consider: many players have hit thirty home runs in a season. We talk about them all the time. "Oh yeah, he'll getcha yer 30 homers, 100 RBI, etc...) Raul Mondesi, Eric Karros, Larry Walker, Tim Salmon, Gary Sheffield, Paul Konerko, Moises Alou, Cliff Floyd... I could throw out a dozen more. But these players don't really churn out 30 homeruns a year. They might do well enough in their most productive seasons to average thirty a season, but they don't really hit 30 every season. Walker's "only" done it four times. Mondesi's done it three times. Alou? Klesko? Twice. And this isn't even talking about consecutive seasons. Matt Williams? Yeah, he hit 30 six times. But never more than two seasons in a row. Ditto Ron Gant, Jimmy Edmonds and Dante Bichette. Hell, Reggie Jackson never hit 30 homers in back-to-back years. As the man says, "You could look it up." Therefore, for Bonds to have performed this consistently, he's had to avoid serious injury, and also compensate for minor injuries and minor inconveniences to do so. Just thinking about how many promising seasons and careers have been derailed by injury and war brings me an even greater appreciation of what Bonds has done.