Barry Bonds says he could have hit .400

Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez had a conversation about hitting that Rodriguez shared on his YouTube page. In it, Bonds talks about how he could have done something no major leaguer has done since 1941: hit .400.

“My job was to do what I did — drive in runs.” Bonds said. “I didn’t bunt. I could’ve bunted and hit .400.”

Michael Rosen of the San Francisco Chronicle did a little more investigating and discovered that Bonds went eight for 14 when bunting for a base hit in his career.

Of course, it’s also true that if Bonds had suddenly started trying to bunt for hits more often, defenses would have adjusted. But you look at that eight for 14 and you look at his .370 batting average in 2002 and you begin to see the possibility.

It would have been fun to watch some baseball fans struggle with cheering a guy trying to do something no one has done since Ted Williams hit .406 for the Red Sox in 1941.

Howard responds

Dwight Howard was dragged into the latest Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal drama earlier this week, but he doesn’t care.

Te recap, Bryant said in an interview that he could have won 12 NBA titles if Shaq had hit the gym more. Shaq criticized Kobe for not passing the ball more. Kobe then tweeted that they all loved each other and Shaq responded on Twitter by saying, “When I saw the interview, I thought you were talking about Dwite, is that how u spell his name?”, an obvious shot at Dwight Howard.

Howard responded on Instagram on Wednesday night.

“I really didn’t see what Shaq said, and it’s OK. I’m not here to talk about Shaq — what he said, what he did,” Howard said. “It’s irrelevant to what I’m trying to do, so don’t talk to me about what anybody else said about me. My focus is on one thing.”

Man, Howard ruins all the fun.

Your favorite sports moment

What is your favorite L.A. sports moment? Email me at [email protected] and I might run it in a future Morning Briefing. And, yes, if your favorite moment is about the Angels or Ducks or a team just outside of L.A., I’ll count that too.

Today’s moment comes from Dennis McGarry:

My favorite moment was the Breeders’ Cup Classic of 1987 at Hollywood Park. It pitted two Kentucky Derby winners against each other: Ferdinand, the 1986 champion trained by Charlie Whittingham with Bill Shoemaker riding, vs. Alysheba, the 1987 champion trained by Jack Van Berg with Chris McCarron up.

There were over 75,000 at the track that day for this epic battle. This is the only time that two Derby winners have faced off against each other in the Classic. They did not disappoint the fans. Everyone was on their feet cheering as they battled each other down the stretch, with Ferdinand prevailing by a rapidly decreasing nose!

I have been attending the races for over 50 years, and this was one of the very best I have seen. What a great day. Shoemaker was in the twilight of a wonderful career, but at the age of 56 he could still ride with the best of them. He timed his move on Ferdinand perfectly, just as he had done the previous year in the Kentucky Derby. Oh, man! What a race!