Giants: Five things to know
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It's a little early yet to start hollering "Tim-brrrr!" in the direction of one of baseball's most hallowed records, but Barry Bonds appears locked and loaded this spring.
Just 22 homers from surpassing Hank Aaron as baseball's all-time home run king, Bonds is moving better than he has in the past couple of springs. Scouts say the thunder is back in his bat and the flash back in his wrists.
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| Barry Bonds will certainly pass Hank Aaron. It's just a matter of time. (Getty Images) |
"It's probably the most coveted record in sports history in this country, man," new Giants pitcher Barry Zito says.
And, once -- before small ballparks, chemical enhancements and elbow armor the size of North Dakota -- it was thought to be one of baseball's most unbreakable records.
"It's one of those records you grew up hearing about," San Francisco outfielder Randy Winn says. "From Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak to Hank Aaron to the single-season home run record, anything like that is a big, big milestone."
Times change, players grow and perspective changes. Babe Ruth becomes more folklore than real and even the great Aaron fades into the background.
Which got us to thinking: With Bonds on deck to take Aaron's mark, what do baseball people think is the game's most unbreakable today?
Over six weeks of travels this spring, I put the question to 20 different people. Of those, eight are Hall of Famers, and six others likely will have their ticket punched to Cooperstown sometime in the next several years.
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The other six are baseball lifers who played, coached or managed and are among the best thinkers in the game today.
And just as you might marvel at the kid who has never missed a day of school or Bob over in the next cubicle who hasn't missed a day of work in 25 years, the overwhelming vote went to Cal Ripken Jr.'s Iron Man streak of playing in 2,632 consecutive games.
Perhaps it's a commentary on our times, that so many people are looking to cut corners today that we've reached the point that simply showing up for work consistently is viewed as somewhat superhuman.
I would have thought, for example, that Cy Young's 511 career victories would have received more than three votes -- though, as Ken Griffey Jr. said, "That's a Bugs Bunny record." Translation: It's become so cartoonish, with fewer and fewer pitchers approaching even 300 wins, that Griffey opted to look elsewhere.
Anyway, given the heavy leaning toward Ripken's record, maybe there's some kind of symmetry in the fact that in a summer that could see Bonds pass Aaron, Ripken will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Baseball's most unbreakable record? Survey says:
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| Griffey (AP) |
"Just think, you're getting a hit almost every day for two months. Pete Rose reached 44 and he still was almost two weeks away.
"I think I've got a 16-game hitting streak as my high? I was a month and 10 days away!"
Junior is correct: His career-high 16-game hitting streak came in 1999.
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| Larry Bowa (US Presswire) |
"Because so many agents are involved in guys' careers now. They don't want players to play if they're hurt. I think the 56-game hitting streak is right up with it because of the specialists in the game today -- set-up men, closers, and hitters are seeing three different starters in each series (because of the five-man rotation).
"But with Ripken, the mentality is different today with agents involved. I'm not saying it's a bad mentality -- you've got to protect your guys from getting hurt. But even with that, how many guys do you see go hit and break a finger?"
Billy Williams, Hall of Famer: Ripken's streak.
"I think that will be the record that stands as long as there is baseball because of the travel and because of the number of games played. I just think no player would want to get into the streak.
"In past years, you said Hank Aaron's home run record wouldn't get broken, or Joe DiMaggio's 56 games. But a lot of guys are getting close to that, like Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. So I'd say Cal Ripken's streak. I don't think anybody wants to go through tearing down their body like that. When I got to 1,117, that's a lot of games played."
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| Thomas (AP) |
"There are so many relievers today to come in and get outs. Plus, it's hard to get a hit every day, period. Some days it just doesn't happen. Some days, you hit three or four line drives and they're all right at somebody.
"I think Ichiro can do it, if anyone. He's speedy, he can get infield hits, he can lay down bunts. It will take an Ichiro-type guy to do it because it will take more than just getting true hits to do it."
Dennis Eckersley, Hall of Famer: Ripken's streak.
"Who's going to play 2,500 consecutive games? Who wants to? I don't want to."
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| Curt Schilling (US Presswire) |
"Randy Johnson is probably the last guy who's going to have a shot at it, and he's still too far away (Johnson enters the 2007 season third all-time with 4,544 strikeouts, behind Ryan and Roger Clemens' 4,604)."
Nolan Ryan, Hall of Famer: Ripken's streak.
"The odds of somebody doing that, I just don't think are very great. Just within the games, the way they substitute people now. I think the phenomenal thing about it is the position he played. He wasn't just sitting in the outfield."
Buck Showalter, Cleveland, special assistant to the general manager: Ripken's streak.
"That won't happen again -- even though, with (Mark) Teixeira, it might. But I don't know how smart it is in the long run, to play every day.
"Besides that, I sometimes wonder if anybody will ever win 30 games again. I just don't know. It would be fun to see, but how many people even won 20 last year? (Answer: none). And Hack Wilson (191 RBI in 1930). But I'd say Ripken."
Paul Molitor, Hall of Famer: Chief Wilson's single-season record 36 triples, set in 1912.
"The parks are too small."
Al Kaline, Hall of Famer: Ripken's streak.
"If you play in that many games in a row, you've got to get hit or get hurt. I think it's unobtainable. I think even DiMaggio's hit streak record is more likely to be broken than the consecutive games record. I think it's amazing, to play that many days in a row -- and he played, he didn't just pinch-hit."
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| Rod Carew (US Presswire) |
"You've got to go get hits every day. You can't have one bad day. You might get four at-bats, and you face a long man, a short man, a stopper, the starter who goes five innings."
Carew's career-high hitting streak was 25 games.
"I didn't really want a hitting streak. I'd rather have four or five games with three or four hits. I'd rather get them in bunches. But that's just me."
Lou Brock, Hall of Famer: 25 hits in consecutive World Series, accomplished by Brock in 1967 and 1968.
"Baseball. Baseball is what will never be broken. Other than that, every record is fair game. I'm sure people have said all kinds of things. The World Series record, those kind of records are tough. DiMaggio's 56-game streak, you can say Pete Rose made a run at it."
Leo Mazzone, pitching coach, Baltimore: Cy Young's 511 victories.
"Who's going to ever get that? Tom Glavine might be the last one in the history of this game to get 300. Cy Young, or Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA (in 1968). But after he did it, they lowered the mound."
Don Mattingly, New York Yankees, coach: Ripken's streak.
"For anything freaky not to happen, a rib-cage injury, get hit on his way to work ... too many weird things can happen that you have no control over, and then you can't play with them."
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| Yogi Berra (US Presswire) |
"We were the only ones who have ever done that. Now, guys keep changing teams. It's tough to win. You've got playoffs today, and that makes it tough, boy. You've got to keep winning."
Tom Glavine, New York Mets, pitcher: Cy Young's 511 victories.
"That's never going to be sniffed."
Goose Gossage, Yankees spring training coach: Ripken's streak and Orel Hershiser's 59 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988.
"Drysdale had the record (58 consecutive scoreless innings) and nobody thought that thing would be broken. That's pretty phenomenal, when you really stop and think about it. That's a great record, to accomplish what he accomplished. Today, ballparks are smaller and offenses are what (baseball) has created. They created it by design.
"Ripken, that will never be done. Ever. What he did is almost inconceivable. Not taking a ball off of the wrist and breaking something."
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| George Brett (US Presswire) |
"Not to take anything away from Joe DiMaggio, but pitching is a little bit different nowadays than it was. Your No. 1 and 2 starters, yeah, they go seven, eight, nine innings. But your No. 3 guy goes six innings, maybe seven. And your Nos. 4 and 5 guys, if they have the lead after five innings, they're out of there.
"Then guys come in and pitch the sixth and the seventh, then the set-up guy pitches the eighth, the closer pitches the ninth. It becomes kind of like a spring training game, where they keep throwing different pitchers at you.
"Back in Joe's day, I don't think you heard of pitch counts where the pitcher came out after 100. I think it will be the same thing with Ted Williams' .400 mark. Not to take anything away from Ted, but for the same reason. The game has changed."
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| Johnson (AP) |
"I think after Bonds breaks the home run record, that will be the next record that won't be broken anytime soon. That just isn't in the program anymore. When a pitcher goes out and has a great deal of success doing whatever he does, there's a lot to be said for that. The game isn't made for pitchers anymore. With Questec, the new bats, smaller ballparks ... all those things have slanted the field."
Alan Trammell, bench coach Chicago Cubs: Cy Young's 511 wins.
"I don't know how many starts he had back in those days, but today you get 33 to 35, max."
Answer to Trammell's question: Young made 815 starts during his 22-year career, an average of 37 starts per season. But he appeared in a total of 906 games in those 22 years, an average of 41 per season.
Mark Loretta, Houston, second baseman: Ripken's consecutive games record.
"I think just because the chance of injury is so high. Just from my own experience, knowing you can foul a ball off of your foot and break your foot. Ripken was such a tough guy, but he was still fortunate not to have any of those 'car-wreck' type of injuries."
