From: kubey@sgi.com (Ken Kubey)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Bonds "choke"?
Date: 30 Sep 92 22:51:11 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA

In article <1ad5f1INN4b0@renoir.hal.COM> charly@hal.COM (Charly Rhoades) writes:
>In article <1992Sep30.055359.308@odin.corp.sgi.com> kubey@sgi.com (Ken Kubey) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep29.223917.682@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>>>In article <1992Sep29.005602.528@odin.corp.sgi.com> kubey@sgi.com (Ken Kubey) writes:
>
>>>>How bad will Barry Bonds choke in the 1992 NLCS?
>>>>
>>>>Extra Disclaimer:  I have nothing against the Pirates, their fans, 
>>>>or Mr. Bonds.  I just happen to believe in clutch hitters and 
>>>>choke hitters and I believe that Mr. Bonds will choke again.
>>>
>>>Like Reggie Jackson's 3 for 18 in his first three World Series?
>>
>>Did Reggie's team lose any of those Series?
>>
>>How many WS rings does Jackson have?   How many does Bonds have?
>
>This is getting a bit ludicrous, but I'm strangely compelled to
>make one last attempt at persuasion....

Oh goody.

>Whether he performs badly again (more accurate than "chokes"), Barry
>Bonds will have been instrumental in getting the team *to the playoffs*.
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Okay

>And no matter how instrumental he is in any series of games (or an
>entire season of games), no one player is *that* critical to the outcome
>to be held entirely responsible for it.  That's what I'm receiving
>from you.  Is that what you wish to send?

I like Barry Bonds.  I like to watch him play.  I root for the Pirates
unless they are playing the Giants or Cubs.  I never said that
Bonds was soley responsible for the Pirates losing in the playoffs.
I think he was "instrumental" in their losing, however.  He left a lot
of men on base.  Van Slyke and Bonilla were also "instrumental".

>Why rag on Bonds so?  

In my humble opinion, he doesn't not bat well under the pressure of
the NLCS and IMHO, that is called "choking".  I don't think I am
ragging on Bonds the way people "rag" on Acker and Galarraga.

>Was he the reason the Pirates lost?  

If he had hit .300 in the 1991 NLCS would the Pirates have won?

>Was his
>performance with the bat any worse than anyone else's?  Was his (and
>the other Pirate batters') offensive performance more important than
>the few, but horrendously catastrophic innings of Bad Pitching (TM)
>by Pirate hurlers?

I remember Bonds failing.  He is one of the top players in the game
and he did not produce anywhere close to his lifetime averages.

>I'd post the numbers (again) if I thought you'd even care what the
>answers to these specific fact-based questions are.  But it seems to
>me you want to continue the petulant "Bonds is a choker!  Bonds is a
>choker!" playground chant.

All I was trying to do was make a prediction about Bonds' performance
in the 1992 NLCS.  If he does well in the LCS then my prediction
is wrong.  If he does very badly then my prediction is right.
The rest of this is big waste of time.

>Or is it that you just love seeing such an obviously good player fail?

See above.  I was pulling for bonds and the Pirates in '90 and '91.

>How would you feel if SGI's Indigo workstation fails miserably, and
>afterward the stockholders constantly announce "Kubey choked!
>Kubey can't make deadlines!  Kubey can't perform!"??  Even if you
>*had* screwed up on that one project, you weren't the only one on
>the team.  And ignores all previous good work you have accomplished.

SGI doesn't pay me $3,000,000 a year so I wouldn't expect that kind
of abuse.  If SGI *did* pay me $3,000,000 a year I would feel a
lot more responsible for the company's performance and would accept
blame if things went wrong.  As it is, I'm just a figurative 2nd string
player on a farm team hoping to make in to triple-A someday.

If you want to argue this some more, let's take it to e-mail.

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