Bobby Bonilla

I followed Bonilla when he was with the Marlins at the end of his career when Jim Leyland [his old manager when he was with the pirates] was the manager and the Marlins first won the world series. Of course, he was a switch hitter and seemed to be a much better hitter right handed than left [he often batted right-handed against right handed knuckle ball pitchers]. He could hit an inside pitch from both sides of the plate but always seemed to have trouble with pitches on the outside half of the plate, expecially when he batted left-handed.

I believe he was treated unfairly by the New York media during his tour with the Mets [accused of doging it and feining injury, etc.]. However, I will never forget how courageous and noble his gutsy determination to keep playing through injury and pain was during the Marlins race for the wild card, the playoffs and eventually, their world series victory.

TW344

One thing he does I see in some hitters is relax the bottom hand grip early in the swing/preswing. I think this goes along with the fact that the grip pressure varies/alternates during the swing as part of the torquing component of the swing.The opening of the bottom hand is followed by the top hand/back arm becoming the primary controller of coking and uncoking the bat. Lead arm/bottom hand will become dominant again about the time of front toe touch.

He might not have been what some expected but... We should all be so bad! He was an all star for many years and he made a ton of money.

quote:

Originally posted by TW344:
I believe he was treated unfairly by the New York media during his tour with the Mets [accused of doging it and feining injury, etc.].
TW344

Bonilla was a good player and the NY media can be tough on anyone and pretty much everyone. IMHO Bonilla brought some of the media fight on himself. I believe it was his quote challenging the media that they could not knock the smile of his face.

NY Media 1 Bonilla 0


Here's a link to an interview with Bonilla discussing his career and his time in NY

Article from 1998

Wasn't he the first to get a $25,000,000 contract? 25 million over 5 years. A lot of expectations for the 1st to get that kind of caish.

Swing looks good to me...