Barry Bonds on Shohei Ohtani Success: “The game has just changed”
The best hitter of his time is impressed with Shohei Ohtani and his dual MLB duties as both hitter and pitcher. It’s just he figures it’s a whole lot easier than it was in his day.
“The pitching and hitting has been outstanding for what he’s done,” Bonds said. “Baserunning. He’s a complete player. There’s no doubt about the type of player he is and what he’s accomplished in his career.”
Speaking on the All The Smoke podcast, a rare Bonds interview, baseball’s all time home run leader definitely had opinions on the current best player in the game.
A different game
Ohtani of course did the impossible last season, getting to fifty or more in both homers and stolen bases. Bonds only topped fifty in each category once, an impressive eleven years apart.
Bonds went on to say that the game just isn’t played the same way.
“Ohtani is not gonna hit two home runs without seeing one go (by his ear) in my generation. I don’t care what he does”.
There’s no doubt that pitchers from Bonds’ days, like Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens, would move you off the plate if you were getting too comfortable. They certainly seemed meaner than today’s pitchers.
“He’s not gonna steal two bases without someone decapitating his kneecap to slow him down”.
This one maybe not so much. Stealing was rampant during Bonds career, and that included him. Vince Coleman, Ricky Henderson, Tim Raines and Kenny Lofton were running wild and all managed to not have kneecap decapitation.
Still Bonds finished his career with seven hundred and sixty-two home runs and five hundred and fourteen stolen bases. So while Ohtani may have had fifty of each in a season, can he reach five hundred of each for a career?
Or this may just be another Dodgers/Giants thing.
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