The Diamond's Dynamic Duos
Slugging Teammates Dot Baseball History
Barry Bonds is a free agent, and wants to keep playing. Will he and Sammy Sosa form an historic combo in Texas?
The San Francisco Giants released all-time home run leader Barry Bonds at the end of the 2007 regular season. Bonds, however, says he still wants to play. Going to another team will no doubt involve a huge pay cut for him, but if he accepts that, he can still hit. In part time duty on a bad Giants team in 2007, Bonds batted over .270 and clubbed 28 home runs.
He can still hit, but his skills as an outfielder have seriously declined. Once a Gold Glove left fielder, age, weight, and possibly other factors have made Bonds a below average defensive major league outfielder. Logically, therefore, he might move to the American League, where he could be a designated hitter. Going to Oakland would allow him to stay in his beloved Bay Area, but a more intriguing choice could be the Texas Rangers.
Sluggers
Babe Ruth is almost certainly the single most dominant player in baseball history. A large part of his legend rests on his power hitting. Ruth swatted 714 home runs in his career, most of them with Lou Gehrig standing in the on-deck circle. Gehrig himself crashed 494 career hpmers, which is one reason teams continued to pitch to Ruth.
Ruth and Gehrig, with over 1200 career home runs between them, powered the early years of the Yankee dynasty, and set the standard for power-hitting duos. Since then, there have been many such slugging combinations in many major league batting orders. A few have paired eventual Hall of Famers over several seasons.
Dynamic Duos
One of those pairs of sluggers actually smacked more homers than The Bambino and the Iron Horse. Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews were the principal pounders on some very good Braves teams in the 1950s and early 1960s. Aaron, of course, beat Ruth's all-time home run record, finishing with 755, and Matthews also edged Gehrig's career homer total. Matthews, indeed, might be the least heralded player in the 500 home run club.
Another pair of eventual Hall of Famers formed the core of the San Francisco Giants offense through the 1960s. The thumping Willies, however, did not lack acclaim. Willie Mays-- the first man to seriously challenge Ruth's home run record, finishing with 660-- is often said to be the greatest all-around player in the history of the game. Willie McCovey, who crushed 521 homers, was one of the most feared sluggers of his generation.
Bonds-Sosa?
If Barry Bonds moves to Texas, he could be paired in the middle of the Rangers order with Sammy Sosa, who has also said he wants to play next season. Together, they would have over 1300 major league homers. Unfortunately for the Rangers, both men are well past the prime years. Unfortunately for baseball, both have clouds over the most thunderous years of their careers. Still, having two such historic power hitters back-to-back in a home run hitter's ballpark could be quite interesting.
