How would Bonds have fared vs. Satchel Paige? He has no doubt ...
Barry Bonds is still confident.
The all-time Major League home run leader certainly proved that during Thursday’s MLB at Rickwood Field pregame show on FOX, when cohost Derek Jeter posed an interesting question to Bonds.
“Tell me right now, on the spot, what would you do against Satchel Paige?" Jeter inquired.
“Me? Gone,” Bonds said. “You’ve lost your mind, Jeter! Gone.”
That’s right: Bonds had no doubt he would have hit a home run off one of MLB’s all-time great pitchers. Paige, the first primary Negro Leagues star to reach the Baseball Hall of Fame, was notoriously hard to hit during a career that spanned nearly 40 years.
Don’t tell Bonds that.
“You’ve got to believe in yourself,” Bonds said. “If I don’t believe in me, who’s going to believe in me?”
There are certainly few, if any, hitters more likely to homer against Paige than Bonds, who smashed an all-time record 762 homers, including a single-season record 73 in 2001.
But not every legendary hitter thinks they can get the best of Paige.
“I’m drag-bunting,” said Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., a guest with Bonds on the pregame show. “We’re going to race to first.”