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Bonds gets one for the thumb

Another record-breaking season earns Giants superstar a fifth NL MVP in a unanimous vote.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 12, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- As the years progress and the awards keep coming, Barry Bonds has encountered a problem most baseball players would love to have.

"All my trophies are in storage," the Giants leftfielder said. "I don't have a house big enough."

Add another National League MVP to the pile.

Bonds won the award for the second straight time and fifth overall Monday by receiving all 32 first-place votes cast by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. A distant second was Cardinals outfielder Albert Pujols, who was followed by Lance Berkman of the Astros and Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero.

"I'm still trying to figure out why a 38-year-old man is still playing like this," Bonds said from Japan, where he is participating in a major-league exhibition series.

"Forget the historical part of being MVP. I don't know what to say. I'm overjoyed, very happy, very pleased especially coming off the 73-home run year and then be able to pretty much stay consistent."

He didn't produce the power numbers that pushed him to a record fourth MVP in 2001, but Bonds' season still was a statistical masterpiece considering how teams approached him.

Despite drawing a record number of walks (198, 68 intentional), he hit .370 with 46 homers and 110 RBIs to become the oldest player to win his first batting title. Bonds' .582 on-base percentage also broke the record held by Ted Williams.

"I want to at least stay the same," he said. "I don't want to go backward, but eventually I'm going to go backward because you can't have an almost .800 slugging percentage every year, a .500 on-base percentage every year. It's just not going to happen."

What mattered more was the season's ending.

Bonds' performances in three playoff rounds this season did much to erase his past shortfalls in the postseason. A .196 postseason hitter entering, Bonds hit .356 with eight home runs and 16 RBIs.

Voting for the MVP took place, however, before the playoffs.

"I think once I got past that tomahawk chop of the Atlanta Braves (in the division series) that haunted me for 10 years, it was the biggest weight off my chest I ever felt in my life as a player," said Bonds, whose Giants lost to the Angels in the World Series. "It allowed me to relax. ... I felt that I did pretty good in the playoffs and World Series. I wished that I could've done more."

Bonds is the only player to win more than three MVPs and one of 11 to win it in consecutive seasons. This is the third time he has won the award with the Giants (1993, 2001). His first two came with the Pirates in 1990 and 1992.

"I've really taken pride in staying consistent throughout my career," he said. "If I do something I must do it again. That's the way I am."

Such success throughout his career places Bonds among sport's most revered names, such as Gretzky, Abdul-Jabbar, Russell and Jordan. All have won five or more MVPs in their respective professional leagues.

"I wish I was liked as much as them," Bonds said. "That would be nice for the accomplishments that I have achieved in this game of baseball. I wish I had the same form of respect that they have."

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