Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Great Baseball Name

Some baseball player's names just flow smoothly off your tongue.  Some of there names make them sound more athletic.  The name Bobby Bonilla fits into both of those statements.  Bonilla has a great name, it is a name I remember saying as a kid.  As a child I thought Bonilla was a great player just because his name made him sound like a super athlete.

Bonilla actually was a really good player between the late 80s up through the mid 90s.  But, as a child, I didn't have the internet to look up stats or was I an avid fantasy baseball participant back then.  The name of a dude named Bobby Bonilla just had to be a good ball player.  It was Bonilla's duty to hit a lot of home runs.

I know that Bonilla spent a partial, miserable season in Dodger blue.  So, that means it was my duty to write him a letter and try to get his autograph.  This was the only card I had of Bonilla in a Dodger uniform.  Even though this card mentions he was traded to the Mets.  This card counts as a Dodger card to me.

Bonilla is too cool to write out his full name.  He just added "BO".  Which I guess, goes towards my theory about his name.  Another thing I will add to having a cool athlete name is that that athlete should never sign his full name.  Bonilla has too many fun filled activities to write out his full name.  He is a smooth dude, remember?

This was the second card I sent him.  This auto came out looking good on a 1989 Topps card.  A very nice Pirates blogger will be getting this in the mail soon.

Bonilla became a Dodger in the crummy trade of Mike Piazza in 1998. Bonilla took some heat from his brief time in LA because he was old, slow, and unproductive.  Some Dodger fans still make Bobby Bonilla jokes.  Nobody is LA is still laughing at Jim Eisenreich anymore.  Eisenreich was a bum at that point also.  But, it is Bonilla that still has to be a punchline for some reason.

Bonilla may not be loved as a Dodger but, I'm sure some Pirates and Mets fans are still fond of him.  He was last with the Pirates when they used to finish above .500 and even spent some time playing in the postseason.

Bonilla's career numbers were pretty good too.  He had a long career and ended up with some solid career stats.

OPS-.829
OPS+-124
Home Runs-287
Doubles-408

Those are just some of the good stats that I noticed on Baseball Reference. He also was a nice enough guy to sign a couple cards for me.  Thank you to Bobby Bonilla!

 

2 comments:

night owl said...

I have an autographed night card of Bonilla sent to me by another blogger.

He's a Met on that card. Which is probably best.

Dodgerbobble said...

Damn that's sweet. I wish you had an extra one.