When Mets manager Terry Collins acknowledged this weekend that he had considered walking Mike Trout with the bases loaded, it revived a phrase we don't hear much anymore: The Bonds Treatment.
That's what it's called when teams are so afraid of a hitter they continually walk him intentionally even in the most outlandish situations, like leading off an inning or with the bases loaded. It's called it The Bonds Treatment because that's how the league treated Bonds, but also because it's how the league treated nobody else before or since. It was less an evolution in baseball strategy than a public panic, a mania that gripped 29 teams' managers for about five years and then receded when Bonds went away.