Barry Bonds Takes Down Marlins Players In Hitting Contest
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JUPITER (CBSMiami) – New Miami Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds knows a thing or two about hitting home runs.
Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader may be 51 years old and nine years removed from his playing days but he showed his new pupils that he can still swing the bat, and swing it well.
Bonds and a few Marlins players participated in an impromptu hitting contest on one of the back fields at the team's Spring Training facility in Jupiter, Florida.
Not only did Bonds show he can still hit dingers, but he hit more than any of the other contestants, including slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
Bonds' four home runs beat out Stanton, who hit three, and everyone else who stepped to the plate on that practice field on Wednesday.
"It was pretty impressive," Stanton told CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald. "[Put] another 51-year-old out there and he'd probably snap his back in half. That was probably one of the coolest things we've done."
The contest was actually a run-scoring drill, which meant that any kind of hit could work as long as it manufactured a run.
That means that singles, doubles and triples were also in play, as well as home runs.
Several Marlins players participated but one of the three-man teams was short a guy, so Bonds was asked to join a team that included Stanton and Christian Yelich.
"It was just to see who could score more runs," Yelich said. "But a homer scored you a run, so it kind of turned into [a home run derby]."
A pitching machine that produces curveballs and sliders was used for the contest.
"He talks to us about hitting a lot, and he was able to kind of show it today," said Yelich. "He's pretty good.
