Ultimate Respect

The other night something very rare happened in a baseball game. It was the ultimate sign of respect, in my opinion, that can happen during an actual game. A recently prolific hitter(he played in 90 games last year as a rookie) for the Texas Rangers, Josh Hamilton, was walked by the Tampa Bay Rays manager WITH THE BASES LOADED. Yep, they decided giving up only one run for sure was better than the prospect of pitching to him and potentially giving up multiple runs. It worked out as the pitcher struck out the next hitter to win the game 7-4. So think about that, the manager Joe Maddon decided he'd rather let one guy score and bring the potential winning run to the plate (if he hit a homerun) than to pitch to Hamilton. Wow. In recent history, only Barry Bonds has been walked with the bases loaded. In fact, it's only happened five other times in baseball history. Here's the list:

Date	Player	Team	Opponent
1881	Abner Dalrymple	Chi. White Stockings	Buffalo Bisons
1901	Napolean Lajoie	Phila. A’s	Chi. White Sox
1928	Del Bissonette	Brooklyn Robins	NY Giants
1944	Bill Nicholson	Chi. Cubs	NY Giants
1998	Barry Bonds	SF Giants	Diamondbacks
Sunday	Josh Hamilton	Rangers	Rays