I personally hate Barry Bonds.
No, it is not because he possibly used performance enhancing drugs. My hate runs much deeper. As a pitcher and believer of playing ball the old school way, I know the only way to pitch well is to own the inside part of the plate.
Owning the inside part of the plate allows a pitcher to pitch to the outside part of the plate without hitters standing on or diving out over the plate.
Pitching inside is only effective if the hitter has some fear. Today's hitters have no reason to fear the inside pitch. Pitching inside inevitably leads to a few hitters being hit by pitches and hitting batters is not tolerated at all anymore. This is a separate topic and one I will probably address soon. This article is really just about body armor.
Case in point is Barry Bonds.
Bonds is one of the best hitters of all time and has some of the quickest hands and best vision ever. However, I argue that his numbers, specifically his homers, would be significantly less if he was not allowed to wear a shield on his right elbow.
Look at any picture of Bonds standing in the box and you will see this mammoth of a guard literally hanging out over the plate. A pitcher simply cannot throw inside. Even an inside strike will most likely result in hitting Bonds.
Bonds has no reason to move because it doesn't hurt to get hit when your whole arm is encased in cement. By standing on the inside part of the plate, Bonds takes away the inside strike and the outside strike as well by increasing his plate coverage. Throwing the ball on the outer half of the plate to Bonds is like throwing the ball straight down the middle to a hitter standing where they should be.
Let me make this clear, I have no issue with where Bonds is standing. If you want to hang your elbow out over the plate or dive out over the plate, be my guest. However, if you are going to do that you should have to pay a price. This price should be the pain of getting a fastball to your elbow. Be a man or get off of the plate.
There are other players, not just Bonds, that are guilty of this, but Bonds is by far the biggest violator. I believe that guards and protection are fine as long as they are not used for a hitter to gain an advantage.
If a player has a history of injuries to a certain area, it would be stupid not to cover that area up. If a player hits with their throwing arm as their front arm then yes they should wear a guard. The guard should not be a bullet proof shield, however. Craig Biggio, the all time leader in hit by pitches, wore a substantial elbow guard and I am okay with it. Biggio's guard was not anywhere close to size or thickness of Bonds' nor did Biggio hang out over the plate. He set the record by refusing to leave the box when a ball came into it.
The batter's box is just as it is said, it belongs to the batter. If a ball is thrown into the batter's box then they have the right to get out of the way or get hit. If they want to wear protection so that they can be hit by pitches that is fine as long as the balls they are being hit by are in the batter's box and not over the plate.
12 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Pasha Mochalin about 1 year ago
You are clueless Heffner. 1) First of all Barry had surgery on that elbow 2) Barry can stand wherever he wants to stand. 3) Most pitchers today don't pitch inside, with or without body armor. because they are scared 4) If you even follow the Giants, how many time had Barry been hit in the armor in the last 5 years? The answer is once or twice. 5) Barry can turn on the inside pitch with or with out the guard so by you saying he will have less home runs is just plain stupid. 6) Finally the guard does not give any advantage for him more home runs because it doesnt have to do anything with his swing.
Go get a life and get off Barry Bonds.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
You are clueless Heffner. 1) First of all Barry had surgery on that elbow 2) Barry can stand wherever he wants to stand. 3) Most pitchers today don't pitch inside, with or without body armor. because they are scared 4) If you even follow the Giants, how many time had Barry been hit in the armor in the last 5 years? The answer is once or twice. 5) Barry can turn on the inside pitch with or with out the guard so by you saying he will have less home runs is just plain stupid. 6) Finally the guard does not give any advantage for him more home runs because it doesnt have to do anything with his swing.
Go get a life and get off Barry Bonds.
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
I understand the frustration, but why would you want to hurt a batter? You tell Barry to "be a man" by taking off the protective pads? Ahh, the old "attack one's manhood" strategy. That's so cheap. What if I were to tell you "be a man" and get the damn hitter out? Or how about "be a man" and hit the batter in his rib cage where he's not wearing "armor"?
Getting hit in the elbow with a 95 mph flying baseball is going to hurt, guard or no guard. The guard is simply there for protection.
If you truly believed in the "old school way", you wouldn't give a shit what the batter was wearing. And you certainly wouldn't spend time complaining about it.
Be a man, Kaleb.
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Pasha Mochalin about 1 year ago
Completely agree
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Pasha Mochalin about 1 year ago
You are clueless Heffner. 1) First of all Barry had surgery on that elbow 2) Barry can stand wherever he wants to stand. 3) Most pitchers today don't pitch inside, with or without body armor. because they are scared 4) If you even follow the Giants, how many time had Barry been hit in the armor in the last 5 years? The answer is once or twice. 5) Barry can turn on the inside pitch with or with out the guard so by you saying he will have less home runs is just plain stupid. 6) Finally the guard does not give any advantage for him more home runs because it doesnt have to do anything with his swing.
Go get a life and get off Barry Bonds.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Surgery on his elbow, waaa waaa waaa. The armor should be illegal. You didn't see Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron hit with this stuff. The roids added a bunch of homers, but the body armor added a few as well. You can't pitch the guy inside because he'll take a HBP off his war armor. The guy wouldn't have had so many surgeries and back issues if he didn't inject all those roids.
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Pasha Mochalin about 1 year ago
You are clueless as well, he doest have back problems.....if your going to say something make sure you can back it up
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Terry Cole about 1 year ago
Stupid prose, designed to continue to beat up Bonds and take away from his accomplishments. Get a life and start writing equally about the white guy, Clemens, if you feel the need to continue to focus on this issue. (AND I AM A MIDDLE AGED WHITE GUY SAYING THAT!) Why not turn your attention to the future and quit rehashing what has been (unproven, still). And one more thing about being a man, perhaps Bonds should do as Ruth and not wear a batting helmet. Then you could use his noggin as a target to prove how much of a man you'd be.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Who cares anyway, the guy needs to retire instead of trying to sucker some team into feeling bad for his old ass so he can get 3000 hits. '08 will be a great year as long as we don't have to hear about every long ball the steroid freak hits.
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Terry Cole about 1 year ago
Who cares? I guess only those that can look beyond all the bull-crap and ascertain the value of what he can still do for a team's offense. Playing hurt last year he still led the majors in OBP and slugging. Not to mention 28 homeruns while still "hobbling" around in left field. It's funny how we look beyond those ropck stars, actors and actresses who abuse drugs and still go and watch their work and buy their records after they emerge from rehab, but we're quick to assassinate a truly gifted, albeit asshole attitude, athlete who hasn't been found guilty of anything. And if he was to be convicted, how do we justify sending him up the river for a potentially greater time than many who have killed another human being. Again I stress, get a life and move on!
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Kaleb Heffner about 1 year ago
I could care less about steriods...if other people were doing them, and they were, you would be crazy not to do them as well. This isn't really a stab at bonds, he is just the best example of abusing protection.
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Pasha Mochalin about 1 year ago
At least there are some Bonds supporters here! Go Barry
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