Barry Bonds once hit a homer off a Japanese pitcher throwing on a trampoline

Chris Cwik
·Staff writer
Barry Bonds can even hit home runs off pitchers throwing from a trampoline. (AP Photo)
Barry Bonds can even hit home runs off pitchers throwing from a trampoline. (AP Photo)

The next thing you are about to read may look like a crazy baseball Mad Lib, so brace yourself. San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds once hit a home run off a Japanese player who was pitching to him while jumping on a trampoline.

We swear we didn’t make that up. In fact, there’s video evidence that has been unearthed by internet gentleman Sung Min Kim.

It’s reasonable to have many questions about this. The first being, “why?”

It appears the stunt was a result of Major League Baseball players traveling to Japan for the MLB-Japan All-Star Series in 2002. That clip is actually just a small sampling of some of the interesting obstacles Bonds and other MLB sluggers faced in some strange skills competition.

The full video features Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams facing two pitchers at once and trying to hit a ball while their vision is interrupted by a smoke explosion. It’s tough to fully describe all of that, so you should just skim through the video. It’s worth your time. You might even find Bonds doing his best Ichiro Suzuki impression at the plate.

Getting back to Bonds … should we be impressed? Honestly, we don’t know. Pitching off a trampoline prevents pitchers from fully using their mechanics and throwing with full power. It’s the strange angle that should mess with hitters. That’s the main advantage. If you were looking for in-depth analysis of pitching off a trampoline, there you go.

As we all should have expected, it doesn’t take Bonds long to figure out the angle, make an adjustment and mash a home run.

Ultimately, who cares whether it was impressive? We now know it’s possible for major-league hitters to smack home runs against pitchers throwing from trampolines.

At best, we learned something today. At worst, we were entertained.

(BLS H/N: Sporting News)

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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