This Night, Boone Shows More at the Plate Than Behind It

Although Bob Boone’s catcher’s mitt has always glistened with gold, his bat has been decidedly less valuable, a necessary evil of sorts. Sure you have the five Gold Gloves, the famed durability, the wisdom of nearly 2,000 major league games. But you also received a bat of balsa and an average stuck annually in the low .200s.

Every so often, though, Boone provides an offensive surprise or two. Or in Thursday evening’s case against the Seattle Mariners at Anaheim Stadium, an additional three or four.

Four times Boone stepped to the plate, and four times he left with base hits. Boone has doesn’t that since April 24, 1984, in Boston’s Fenway Park, an intimate bandbox that lends itself to singles and doubles and whatever else you launch against or over the Green Monster.

But this was Anaheim, where nothing comes easily, especially for Boone, the pitcher’s friend. Not since 1979, when he still wore a Philadelphia Phillie uniform, has his average crept confidently above the .260 mark (he hit .286 that year). Instead, each year has been filled with too many 1 for 4s and single-digit home-run production.

Not Thursday night. On Thursday night Boone made like a fresh-legged rookie rather than a 40-year-old veteran in his 16th big league season. He singled cleanly to right in the third inning. He singled crisply to right in the fourth inning. He bunted safely in the sixth. And he doubled to left in the eighth.

“It’s been awhile,” Boone said of the quadruple-hit performance.

The first two singles--one that resulted in the first Angel run, and the other that knocked in the Angels’ third run of the game--you understand, even applaud. The second single was especially satisfying for Boone, what with Jack Howell stationed at second and most likely needing a hit to the right side of the field to score him. Sure enough, Boone delivered.

“The satisfaction for me comes from being mechanically sound at the plate,” he said.

Sound? At least for one game, Boone was airtight. He was selective, the discriminating hitter personified. No one seemed surprised by it, certainly not Manager Cookie Rojas.

“He can hit,” Rojas said. “He did a hell of a job. He had some big hits for us tonight.”

None bigger than the unexpected bunt single/run batted in, as unlikely a Boone hit as you’ll see.

With one out, Devon White walked. Up came Boone, who knew his job: Take enough pitches to allow the speedy White to steal second and then third. Boone did his part and more, thanks to a bloop bunt that bounced just inches away from Mariner third baseman Jim Presley’s outstretched glove. Presley had no chance at White at home, but he did attempt a throw to first from his knees.

Now Boone may be slow, but he’s not that slow. He beat the throw and later scored on Johnny Ray’s 2-run single.

“When the bunt fell in,” said Boone smiling, “it was gravy. We kind of needed that.”

Actually, Boone said he even dared to become “a little cocky” on the at-bat. “With Devo on third . . . I didn’t think I had to do anything. I thought I could put (the bunt) down anywhere.”

But this was Boone’s blessed evening. Everything he swung at turned to gold, including the bunt, which hung dramatically in the air and then plopped to the ground.

And the double was fun to watch, too. This one sliced toward the left-field corner, allowing Boone to reach second without even a slide. Not long after, he scored on a Mark McLemore single.

Boone now has 8 hits in his last 13 at-bats. And though it’s early, his average is an attractive .324.

“I’ve felt good for the last several days,” said Boone, who credits a recent chat with Angel hitting coach Moose Stubing for his resurgence. “I know I made adjustments in an at-bat. If I have a bad swing, then I know that I can adjust right then. Do that and I know good things are going to happen. Then the ball looks real big to you and you’re seeing every pitch.”

And every hit. All four of them.