Afternoon Baseball

My freshman-year roommate asked me this tonight (partly in jest, perhaps):

Would you be in favor of pitchers all through next year, either throwing AT Bonds, or throwing around him and intentionally walking him, every time he got to the plate, just to protect the Ruth HR stats?

You can substitute Hank Aaron in there, too, at some point.

Anyways, my take on it is that I wouldn't (although I wouldn't be sad if someone did break his wrist or something with a pitch accidentally).
Here's why: Pitchers have been too afraid of the man. Ruth's walk record (170) never should have fallen because it's counterproductive to walk a man anymore than that. I don't have the stats cranked out, but I hardly believe that putting a man on first base through a walk anywhere near one-third of the time he steps to the plate helps you.
Sure, if he walks 50 less times, he'll knock a bunch more home runs, and drive in a few, and still score sometimes through singles. Over the long haul, he may even produce more runs in a weak lineup than walking him all the time. But it'll be against 20 different teams who are treating him as if they'll have to face him 162 times. The individual team can take more chances, and they'll also get some outs, as opposed to none, and if they're smart, they can save walks for later innings, close games, open bases and the like.

Same thing with the home-run chase. There are times to prudently pitch around Bonds (and any great hitter). But if a pitcher is scared beyond reason, he doesn't belong out there. And on the more cynical side, pitching around him, or through him, as it were, would bring out charges of racism. Last thing Bonds needs, whether you love or hate him, is a sense of moral superiority.