Jose Bautista Hits Home Run Number 50.....and Jays Win

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/09/22/jose-bautista-and-the-big-5-0/?eref=sihp

Congrats Jose.

Jose Bautista hit 50 HR’s….that is still mind boggling to say.

I remember back in July I was debating with some friends whether he could hit 50. I didn’t think he’d do it, and I’m glad he proved me wrong.

Just watched “Pardon the Interruption”, “Around the horn” and even “Off the Record”…all 3 talked about “50” and all 3 brought up Steroid Usage. Ugghhhhh.

Sucks that I missed this.. stupid work and needing money.

If he didn’t miss this Justin Verlander breaking ball by 4 feet!

I like this kind of foolin’

In case anyone wasn’t keeping track, that 200th hit for Ichiro gives him 10 straight seasons with 200 hits – a new MLB record! It also now ties him for most 200-hit seasons in a career at 10 with Pete Rose.

Kudos to Toronto fans for giving him a standing ovation:

The Mariners dugout, along with the fans at Rogers Centre, gave the Japanese native a standing ovation. Following roughly 30 seconds of applause, Ichiro removed his cap and acknowledged the crowd. The ball, fielded by center fielder Vernon Wells, was promptly retrieved by a Mariners staff member.

With 3,508 hits in his career – 2,230 MLB + 1,278 Japan – that leaves him just 748 shy of Pete Rose’s all-time MLB hits record of 4,256. It’s not exactly apples-to-apples, but probably the best we’re going to do unless Ichiro can play until he’s 50 and spank out another 2,000 MLB hits. Wouldn’t bet on that, but then again he’s like a machine.

Some people knock him for being a slap hitter with a lot singles, but I’d love to have a player like that on the Jays who hits consistently for a high average. The closest we’ve had I think would probably be Robbie Alomar or Tony Fernandez in his prime.

Speaking of impressive feats, hats off to Jose Bautista as well of course for knocking out his 50th dinger. While players reaching the 50-HR plateau became a regular occurrence through the mid-1990s and 2000s, Bautista still becomes just the 26th MLB player ever to do so. Here’s a table from the Globe and Mail awhile back:

And one post on records, though this one really belonged in yesterday’s chit-chat, but just saw the MLB article now. With Wednesday’s combined one-hitter by the Phillies, there have now been 27 “low-hitters” (no-hitters and one-hitters) this season – including three by Jays pitchers! – across the big leagues. That’s a new MLB record, surpassing the 26 set in 1988. But probably the most impressive season to my mind is still 1990, where there 22 low-hitters, but of those 9 were no-hitters (versus 5 so far this year or just 1 in 1988). I remember that season well, as it seemed like it was just one no-hitter after another that year. There were even two in one day in June – including Dave Stewart against the Jays in Toronto, which I saw – and of course Dave Stieb finally getting his against Cleveland in September.

“You know those are the games he plays because Cito knows it won’t help Buck’s numbers to play against those pitchers. This way he Cito can point to JP’s batting average and say ‘he can’t hit in the majors’.” Really?

I’d almost say getting 10 abs against the elite pitchers will be better for him than getting 40 against AAA filler that he’s already faced all year long. Its been a long productive year for JPA, going into this year he was a bust, now he’s the catcher of the future.

There are two possible reasons why Bo missed that Verlander pitch by three to four feet.
1. He knows he can’t hit Verlander, so he closed his eyes and hoped that the ball would hit his bat.
2. Bo may be either a religious fanatic or heavily into metaphysics. If so, he may believe that Verlander is possessed and can break that two-seamer (with the major screwball-like action) either two feet upwards—defying the laws of gravity—or two feet downwards at will. Bo was “guess” hitting on that particular swing. And he guessed wrong.