How to Bunt Your Way to the Batting Title
You think it’s possible? To actually bunt your way to a batting title in baseball? Well I don’t. And let’s be honest, you can’t. Neither can Derek Jeter. Nobody can. But earlier today, Jose Reyes tried his darndest to make the title of this post ring true.
Jose Reyes and Ryan Braun came into the day separated by a single percentage point in the NL batting title standings. And not by a tenth of a percentage point. Nor a hundredth. Nope, a thousandth of a point.
Reyes – 0.336
Braun – 0.335
So what do you do if your Reyes? Sit out the last game and hope Braun throws up an 0-fer? Or pull a Bill Madlock and go 4-4 to win the title outright? Well Reyes tried some sort of hybrid, I guess. But that would be giving him too much credit.
Reyes started the early game at 1:10 ET, and I’m thinking,
“OK, he’s going for this. Good for him, at least nobody is backing into this.”
Yeah, well then he comes up and bunts… BUNTS… for a base hit to lead off the game. Which already, I’m cringing and dropping my head, embarrassed for Reyes and his tricky attempt. COME ON!! SWING THE BAT!!
But alright, that’s only his first at-bat, he’s got at least two or three more…. “WHAT?!?!?!!!!! THEY ARE PULLING REYES IN THE FIRST INNING?!” And there you have it, Reyes was pulled with a .3371 average after his first at-bat, a bunt. What is that? He’s just running up the score there. Not a chance that the Reds are thinking bunt there. Neither team is in the playoffs. The Mets don’t need this game more than anyone else. That’s as free as a base hit can come right there (yes, he still has to make contact and put it fair, but with Reyes bunting skills and his speed, you might as well have let him hit against a little league pitcher with no fielders).
Weak.
So now, Ryan Braun sits at 0.335 heading into his night game, 8:10 ET. He can pull a 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 4-5 (you get the idea) night and win the title outright. So now, basically every baseball fan in America has got to be rooting for Braun to pull off the feat. I bet even Mets fans are rooting for him, being that the Citi Field fans literally booed Reyes in what possibly might be his last game as a Met, when he was possibly in position to bring the first NL batting title to the Mets organization. That’s cold.
Let’s go Brauny!
So now, I have Ted Williams cryogenically frozen body on my mind. Not cause I’m wondering if Dr. Evil is stealing his mojo, but because of the last .400 season in MLB way back in 1941. Williams headed into the final day of that season, a doubleheader, with a 0.3995 average. So technically he could of sat out and been a .400 hitter for the season, which in today’s game, seems nearly impossible. But this is why I wish I would have been able to see Teddy Ballgame play ball more than any other player in the history of the game.
“If I’m going to be a .400 hitter, I’m going to be a .400 hitter all the way.”
Not only does he announce that, but then he goes 6-8 in the doubleheader and finishes with a nuts .406 average. Boom!
Now, I love Ryan Braun. He’s a heck of a ballplayer. I’d love to have him on my team. I even got to have a little interaction with Mr. Braun.
As I was sitting in the left field grass at a Spring Training game earlier this year, a friend yelled out, “Hey Ryan, I drafted you with my first round pick in fantasy this year. You better play like it!”
He turned around, looked right at us and said, “I got you.” Oh man, let’s be friends Ryan.
And I want him to pull a Teddy Ballgame today. I want him to go 4-4 and put Reyes in his place. So he can sit and cry all off-season thinking about the crazy parties he could have had as “NL Batting Champ.” Make him stew over all the money he would of lost and the jersey-chasing girls that would have spurned him for the rest of his career. All of these events will definitely happen.
So I’m REALLY pulling for him at this point. But Tampa Bay captured all of the baseball magic for this day, as Braun finished 0-4 and short of Reyes, with a paltry .334 average. Dang it.
That’s it. I’m stealing Ted Williams mojo and putting it in Eric Hosmer.