Former Three-Time All Star Recalls Story About San Francisco Giants' Legend

A former player tells a story about a San Francisco Giants legend.

Tom Szczerbowski-Imagn Images

Major League Baseball's biggest advantage over any other professional sport is it's history. Even though baseball season is here and spring training games are being played, it's still fun to look back on occasion.

San Francisco Giants' legend Barry Bonds had one of the most productive careers in the history of the game. He's the all-time career leader in home runs with 762 and his 73 long balls in 2001 are the most anyone has hit in a single season. He's won the most MVP's with seven, which is four more than any other player has in history.

He was a 14-time all star and an eight-time Gold Glover winner. He's the only player with 500 career homers and stolen bases. He even has the most career walks with 2,558 free passes. That list of accomplishments may never be approached by another player.

Some view Bonds as the greatest player of all time, which includes Sean Casey who was a .302 lifetime hitter over his 12 MLB seasons.

On a recent episode of his podcast, The Mayor's Office, Casey told a story of when he and Bonds were the two league leaders in batting average late in the 2004 season.

Casey had been checking up on Bonds' box score after every game to see if he was gaining any ground. The former three-time all star noticed the abnormal amount of walks the San Francisco icon was routinely taking.

The Giants played Casey's Cincinnati Reds in a late season contest while he was still chasing Bonds. Casey started off with two hits in his first two at bats, while Bonds walked in his first two. After the second, while Bonds was taking his lead, he turned towards first baseman Casey and said "Hey, you ain't catching me dude."

Casey replied "I know I'm not, you walk every freakin at bat. How can anyone catch you, no one pitches to you?"

Casey finished the year with a .326 batting average, while Bonds' .362 average and 232 walks both led the league by a sizeable margin.

Casey also recalled a game where Bonds went two-for-two with two walks on 15 pitches. The only strikes Bonds saw in that contest, he hit both of them out of the ballpark.

Casey talked about how Big League hitting is largely about taking advantage of mistakes when they happen. Bonds accumulated so many walks because few pitchers had any real interest in pitching to him. So when the all-time home run leader actually saw a strike, he had to take advantage of it, and he often did. In fact, no one has ever done it better than the Giants' icon.