Bonds also has 8 golden gloves.
Has anyone here ever seen one of the “get into any MLB for free” cards? Seems like the internet barely even knows of their existence.
No doubt Barry is the undisputed goat at watching home run balls sail over his head without moving a muscle.
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IIRC, besides these lifetime passes given out to retirees, MLB has also given a few lifetime passes to civilians, like semi-famous disabled vets and such.
ETA: here’s a better article about these passes…
It is as esoteric honor, which is shrouded in some mystery. (Even MLB’s official historian, John Thorn, was unaware of its origins before researching it for this story.)
A Lifetime Pass was given to [press attaché Barry] Rosen and each of the other 51 Americans, who had been held hostage in Tehran [in 1979]
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And to this day, only six other players received a higher percentage of votes.
The one I’ve seen with my own two eyes looked nothing like that. Was held by someone I knew who was a relative of an MLB umpire. I didn’t even believe it existed until I went to a game with this person it and saw it in action. They presented the card and had two free scout seats within seconds.
How many folks does it cover?
Teams give out passes too. I had a year pass to Anaheim Stadium back in the day. That pass is long gone today.
Do you mean how many cardholders does it cover? It had just the one relative’s name on the card who had to present photo ID along with it. It was good for two free tickets to any regular season MLB game in any stadium. Not sure about playoffs though.
OK, it seems they are good for two, similar to my Angels pass back in the day. According to both sources above, they don’t cover playoffs or the ASG. No mention regarding spring training games.
It would be damn cool to have one, but not cool enough to be worth spending over a year as a hostage.
Yes it was capped at two tickets. It was [person’s name] and a guest, but the umpire is an uncle to this person, so it’s not clear to me how they got the card. The Golden Pass thing seems to be different? Unless the umpire maybe thought “Hey, I’ll never use this, so I’ll ask MLB to put it in the name of a family member that likes baseball and will actually use it.” I dunno how it went down, didn’t want to ask too many questions b/c I thought that would come off as prying, but like I said, I definitely did not believe that the actual card existed until I saw it in action standing there at the ticket window one foot away.
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Seriously, I dont get the hate for the guy. He was a grumpy dude that hated the press but he has always been really good to the fans.
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He had an arrogance that rubbed people the wrong way. Kind of like Obama. But not Trump. Huh.
Guess my Sabo = Redbean theory is shot
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Bonds was a huge jerk plus that stuff as a player to basically everyone; seems to be better now though
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Man, as we look ahead to Judge’s contract this offseason, I’m trying to imagine what Bonds would get in the same situation.
For reference, at Judge’s age (well before even the earliest speculations about PED use), Bonds had twice Judge’s WAR, was already almost 300/300, and averaged about 30 games played more per season.
Judge is coming off a wRC+ a bit better than even Bonds’s best to that point, and is a bigger draw and considered to be a mensch (while Bonds was considered to be a tool).
Still, I bet Bonds would be looking at 400m, compared to Judge’s 300.
He’s getting 400 bills
That would be a catastrophe for whoever signs him.
If ONLY we had historical examples of what happens to huge dudes when they age and lose a little bat speed!!
Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton, Chris Davis… they all continued hitting 50 bombs a year well into their 30’s, right?
Oh wait, that’s not what happened?
Judge is already 31, and started late, so he could fade fast.
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Bonds continued. Hmmm.
So did David Ortiz, but apparently he gets a pass and a HOF plaque.