Continued...
Congratulations to Barry Bonds, who on
July 1 faced his 1165th major league
pitcher. Rickey Henderson is the all
time leader. He has faced 1289 different
pitchers in his amazing major league
career. Whether or not he faces another
major league pitcher remains to be seen.
Yankees fans
should not get too excited about rookie
left handed reliever Matt Smith. Not
just yet. On July 3rd, Matt pitched 2
more scoreless innings. He has now
pitched 12 scoreless innings since being
promoted from AAA Columbus. But his
fastball has only hit 92 mph a few
times. Most of the time it's 87 or 88
mph; and that is unacceptable in
Yankeeland. One player the Yankees would
love to have is Manny Ramirez. He now
has hit at least 450 home runs and on
July 1 he picked up his 2000 hit. And on
July 2, Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera
reached base with either a hit, walk or
hit by pitch in his 59th straight game.
The major league record is held by Ted
Williams with 84. And congratulations to
Oakland A's DH Frank Thomas, who on July
2 hit career home run number 466. That
puts him ahead of Hall of Famer Dave
Winfield for 25th place on the all time
list. - James H.