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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (124009)	9/18/2002 2:58:16 AM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

At 38, Bonds is having another season for the ages, one that in some ways is more incredible than his record-breaking, 73-homer season of 2001. He should be a shoo-in to win an unprecedented fifth MVP award. Even if you don't like numbers, these mind-bogglers are worth crunching: With two weeks left in the season, Bonds has more homers (43) than strikeouts (40). If he finishes that way, he'll be the first since George Brett in 1980, and Brett had barely half as many homers: 24 against 22 strikeouts. Entering the week, Bonds had not struck out in 21 games -- a streak of nearly 100 plate appearances. He is hitting .375 and has opened up a lead of more than 30 points in the race for his first batting title. His career average coming into this season: .292. His on-base percentage is other worldly -- .580 entering Tuesday's game, 27 points higher than the major league record set by Ted Williams in 1941. It also is 65 points higher than last season, when Bonds became the first player since 1957 to reach base more than half the time. He is on a pace to walk 190-plus times, and he has already passed his 2001 record of 177. With 179 walks, he has 56 more walks than any other player in the majors. His slugging percentage of .811 is well off his record .863 last season but still 159 points better than anyone else's in the game. "Arguably the greatest player ever," says Padres manager Bruce Bochy, far from the only one to dish out such praise. Bonds insists he's doing nothing different at the plate this season. His swing is as compact and as quick as ever; his hips still the key to his power. There is one very visible difference: his vision. Pitchers swear Bonds sees their stuff so well that he never swings at a pitch outside the strike zone. Just as significant, many umpires have shrunken that zone to the size of a laptop computer. As Giants manager Dusty Baker says, Bonds has earned the umps' respect. When Bonds walked a career-high five times against the Padres last week, the count twice reached 3-2. Padres pitchers pointed out that ball four probably would have been strike three to most hitters. The strategy to pitch around Bonds still paid off that night, as it often has this season. In fact, the Giants had nine walks in that game, but none resulted in runs, and the Padres won, 3-2, in 10 innings. The next night, the Padres walked Bonds once, and he went 4-for-4 with three RBIs. The Giants won 10-3. The only time Bonds walked was in front of Kent, who promptly hit a two-run homer. That broke a 2-2 tie and ignited the Giants' six-run sixth. After the homer, Bonds and Kent shared a few attaboys on the way to the dugout. The public display of affection came one day after Bonds told Bay Area reporters he would be "pissed" if the Giants don't re-sign Kent, a free agent after the season. Kent responded by telling reporters he didn't want to talk about his status as a free agent and that they had no clue about his relationship with Bonds. In that game, Bonds saw 19 pitches and swung and missed just twice. The next night, 18 pitches and zero whiffs. Bonds also started slapping singles to left against the Padres, showing he can beat the defensive shift -- five players to the right of second -- teams have employed against him. In the first three games of the Padres series, Bonds reached base in 13 of 14 plate appearances. "He has gotten better the last couple of years as far as getting pitches to hit and taking advantage of it," says cross-Bay rival Tim Hudson, the A's righthander who has held Bonds mostly in check in their interleague meetings. "He hits everything hard, whether it's an out, whether it's a base hit, whether it's a homer. It just seems when he swings the bat, it's hit hard. If he pops it up, he just missed it. You don't hardly see him break a bat. He gets everything on the barrel. It's unbelievable because he doesn't get hardly anything to hit." Adds an N.L. scout: "I bet if you charted it out, he gets less than two pitches per at-bat he can do something with, and that's not including all of his walks. Most counts go 3-1, 3-2. Very rarely does he get a first-pitch fastball."