Who doesn’t like a 40-40 season? I’m going to test that this week.
This week, I am featuring Barry Bonds’ card from 1996. This should elicit some comments, I’m sure. There’s no doubt this is a great card though.
Of Bonds’ 159 hits in 1996, 42 were homers. He drove in 129 runs and almost equaled that amount in runs scored with 122.
The most impressive stat for Bonds that year was his number of bases on balls. He walked 151 times. Thirty of those were intentional but as far as APBA is concerned, they still count toward the 14s.
Playing for San Francisco, Bonds hit .308 and slugged .615 in 1996. He won the Silver Slugger award and a Gold Glove.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 Totals | 158 | 151 | 675 | 517 | 122 | 159 | 27 | 3 | 42 | 129 | 40 | 151 | 76 | .308 | .461 | .615 |
First, let me say that this is one of my least favorite card formats that APBA published (I’d love to hear Steve Stein’s opinion on this). The asterisk seems to seal my opinion with a kiss.
That said, Barry Bonds will hit well and do it often as he is a J-0. He contributes as a fast baserunner and OF-3.
Bonds’ power numbers are impressive (1-1-4-6) due to his second best 42 homeruns. He still had speed with a 15-11 and a 25-10 plus a 13-14* and a 45-14*.
What makes this card though, are the 14s. He has seven including odd places like 21-14 and 26-14. The 12 was placed on the 42 in 1996 (which probably pi–ed off a lot of APBA dicerollers that year) so he won’t have one there.
My APBA memory of Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds was on my buddy Chuck’s team in the Illowa APBA League. One year, his hit won the All-Star Game for the Chicago guys. Afterwards, Chuck and the rest of the Chicago guys broke out in a out-of-tune version of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”.
Barry Bonds, like Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby, has about 8 seasons of “Monster” cards.
Okay, I’ll bite. It’s a shame because he didn’t need them. He’s an automatic Hall of Famer without them. He doesn’t pass the true home run king, Henry Aaron, The Hammer, without them.