Big Column O' Stuff

Matt Bruce

Yes, Bobby Bonilla was a 1997 Florida Marlin. Yes, that means every team in this year's National League playoffs has an ex-Marlin with a World Series ring. Yes, last week's chart was wrong--but thanks for all the e-mails, guys!

Stop and consider how much more Barry Bonds deserves a World Series ring than Bonilla. It's not even that Bobby Bo is that bad a player. I'd certainly take .280 AVG/.359 OBP/.475 SLG over a 15-year career. The man has 1,971 hits, 282 home runs, 400 doubles and over a thousand runs scored and RBI. Just think: Had he made it in New York, people would be talking about his Hall of Fame credentials the way they talk about Don Mattingly's.

The first problem with this is that he clearly didn't make it in New York. The man once known for wrecking baseball's salary curve lost his 1992 season to a downward spiral of errors and temper tantrums on the Worst Team Money Could Buy. The only remarkable thing about his return engagement at Shea last year is that he managed to make a worse impression than the first time around.

For what it's worth, Bonilla's problems were not limited to the Big Apple. Remember the 1996 Orioles, when he got into it with Davey Johnson over how often he'd be the DH? Okay, so Davey still has a bit of a Met aura to him. All the same, the man needs to grow up.

When people used to say that about Andy Van Slyke, they had a different sort of childishness in mind. If Van Slyke were available and quotable today, Jayson Stark could write three columns a week and still never return "bullpen coach-witticist" Rich Donelly's calls. Wait, hold on, flashback. Now I have stuck in my head Van Slyke's line about Len Dykstra and the tobacco stains at Veteran's Stadium.

If you're wondering, the Weatherman barely missed out on a Ring, breaking in a year too late for the Cardinals' 1982 title. All the same, a blast from the past for any Pirate fans out there:

Player	Games	AVG	OBP	SLG	Hits	HR	Runs	RBI	WS Years	WS Titles
Bonds*	2138	.289	.411	.567	2153	493	1582	1403	0	0
Bonilla*	2016	.280	.359	.475	1971	282	1067	1151	1	1
Van Slyke	1658	.274	.352	.443	1562	164	835	792	2	0

*-- Through 9/25

Two of these players had fine careers and deserve a tip of the cap. One of them deserves a lot more than that. Barry Bonds has been the best player in baseball for most of his career. With apologies to Alex Rodriguez, he may still be the best if you consider only the present rather than the future. He has no World Series appearances.

His post-season reputation is well known and arguably unfair. Yes, he had a couple of terrible series against Atlanta and yes, he was the one who could not throw out Sid Bream. (Someone in the bleachers pointed this out last week.) All the same, with a sample size that small--while the "law of averages" does not mean that he'll somehow be able to make up for it all, one can still reasonably expect numbers in line with his season to date.

Switching back to the very good among the great, does anybody know how Ellis Burks has done in the post season? Sure, his teams are 3-15 (1988 and 1990 Red Sox, 1993 White Sox, 1995 Rockies) but what about him? When he won the Willie McCovey Award (and hit a two-run homer) the night the Giants clinched, karma sure seemed to be with him.

Want to see a scary line? Through September 25, Burks stood at .347/.421/.613 this year. He had 24 homers and 92 RBI--in just 377 at-bats. Pray for his knees to hold out, if you want him to get his props. Start talking about his Hall of Fame credentials if he can get two or three more good seasons in. His career counting stats are comparable to Bonilla's right now, though he's far out ahead in the numbers statheads like.

Speaking of grizzled vets still short of the Hall--for that matter, speaking of Willie Mac award winners--a good break or two for St. Louis could give Shawon Dunston his first World Series appearance. While it's hard to feel sorry for someone with a .297 career OBP (that's 198 walks in 5,587 at-bats!), he was fun to watch for at least a decade.

For someone that so many Cub fans will remember as a lifer, it's bit disturbing how many other teams Shawon has come to call home. You may remember how heartbroken he was when the 1997 Cubs (the year they stank, before their Cinderella year) tossed him a life-preserver by sending him to that year's feel-good Pittsburgh Pirates.

(Hey, another Kevin Elster sighting! It was Elster whose season-ending injury forced the Bucs to deal. Well, I suppose they could have stuck it out with Kevin Polcovich. There have to be people out there who remember these guys--at least I think you do, and I want to go out drinking with you if I'm right.)

In any case, the tears of sorrow didn't ring quite true given his self-imposed stint with the 1996 Giants. But after that, he's cycled through Cleveland, San Francisco (again), St. Louis, New York, and St. Louis (again). That's six teams in three years for the onetime Ernie Banks protégé.

All the same, best wishes to you, Shawon! The same goes for your kids, the ones whose initials you had on your batting helmet. Maybe this will be the year for you too, Will Clark. (At some point after the Clark deal last July, did he and Dunston ever go have a drink and a laugh about their 1989 NLCS skirmishes?)

That about wraps up another one of those "old man pulling out random memories" columns. Admit it, you like these. Or at least you'd rather read this than wait until Monday's Baseball Prospectus update or plow through another round of unfounded rumors about proven winners.

Parting thought: Of all the 2000 Yankees without World Series rings, which one is most deserving? Justice and Polonia got theirs in 1995, Canseco in 1989, Gooden in '86. Even Denny Neagle was a September call-up for the 1991 Twins. Who does that leave? Chris Turner? Glenallen Hill? Jose Vizcaino?

There's a scary thought. Humor me, dear readers: I have an entire Jose Vizcaino column up my sleeve, and I'm not afraid to use it.

about the author

Matt Bruce is the host of the new Fox TV series, "We Have the Next Seven World Series." Ask whatever happened to "The Keith Olbermann Holier-Than-Thou Hour" at mb@strikethree.com.