Thursday, September 04, 2003

Before he fades into obscurity

Bobby Bonds died last week at the age of 57, wracked by the onslaught of metastatic cancer.  Most reportage about his final days revolved around how his struggles were affecting the on-field performance of his incomparable son Barry.  But before Bobby’s image disappears entirely into that of mere DNA-provider to one of the true giants of baseball talent, let’s pause for a moment to examine the career of Bonds p�re.

There were major league baseball players before Bobby Bonds who combined power, demonstrated by hitting home runs, with speed, evidenced by stolen bases.  But before Bobby Bonds, no one had ever heard the term 30-30 man, signifying a season in which the player totalled at least 30 homers and 30 steals.  Although that feat had been done previously by Ken Williams in 1922, Willie Mays in 1956 and 1957, and Hank Aaron in 1963, Bobby Bonds put 30-30 man on the map, achieving that mark five times between 1969 and 1978.  It has even been suggested that Bobby Bonds coined the term as a self-description.

Bonds was one of many excellent outfielders signed and developed by the San Francisco Giants as the career of the great Mays was winding down.  Others in his illustrious group included Gary “Sarge” Matthews, brilliant centerfielder Garry Maddox (of whom Ralph Kiner once said "Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water, the other third by Garry Maddox"), George Foster (who became a star with Cincinnati after being dealt away at age 22 in 1971), Ken Henderson, and even Dave Kingman.  But Bonds was probably the brightest star of the entire group, unless you want to count Foster’s brief ascendancy with the Big Red Machine.  He defined the new breed of multifaceted players, embodied not only in the popularization of the 30-30 concept, but also in the record he set for game-leadoff homers.  Not only did he set the career record with 35 such homers—it’s since been taken far beyond that by the nonpareil Rickey Henderson with 81—but Bonds was really the first leadoff man for whom it became meaningful to collect such a measure.  It’s appropriate to say that Bobby Bonds was the inspiration for both of these now well-established baseball terms.

Bobby Bonds was also well known for striking out.  Before he fanned 187 times in 1969, the MLB record was Dave Nicholson’s 175 from 1963; the National League mark of 163 had just been set the year before by Donn Clendenon.  The next year, Bonds set a whiff record that holds to this day, striking out 189 times.  He turned out to be a rather peripatetic player, playing for eight clubs in his 14-year career.

One of Bill James’s measures, Power/Speed Number, is a useful way to assess the combination of homers and steals.  It’s calculated by multiplying HR and SB, doubling the result, and dividing by the sum of HR and SB.  For any given total (HR+SB), the PSN will be highest if the two quantities are identical.  For example, 30 HR and 30 SB calculates to a 30.0 PSN, while 40 HR and 20 SB (or 20 HR and 40 HR) results in 26.7 PSN, and 50-10 or 10-50 is a 16.7 PSN.  The single-season PSN recordholder is Alex Rodriguez, with 43.9 on 42 HR and 46 SB in 1998.  Bobby Bonds holds down the #6 spot on the list, for his splendid 39 HR-43 SB (40.9 PSN) season in 1973; that’s the only season in the all-time top ten compiled before 1986.  Incidentally, Bobby’s son has a pair of entries on this list, tied for 4th (41.0, 1996) and alone in 7th (40.4, 1990).  On the career PSN front, Bobby’s son Barry is the all-time leader, and he continues to build on his 546.5 career mark (613 HR, 493 SB) through the 2002 season.  Henderson, active but very slowly adding to his total, was second on the all-time list at the end of last season with 487.5 (295 HR, 1403 SB).  In fourth place behind Willie Mays is none other than Bobby Bonds (332 HR, 461 SB). 

In baseball history, Bobby Bonds will eventually turn into a footnote in the saga of his preternaturally brilliant son.  Barry is probably the best player I have ever seen and will ever see ... he is unequivocally one of the top five or ten players in the history of baseball.  But we shouldn’t forget the man who contributed mightily to making Barry Bonds the man he is, through both the genetic material he supplied and the solid, loving, respectful family life he helped engender to mold his children into the people they have become.

Rest in peace, Bobby Lee Bonds…