Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd Thrift
Tiny career from a player whose effectiveness pretty much evaporated when baseball eliminated the "fair-foul hit", which was where you'd strike the ball in such a way it bounced on fair territory and then spun foul. Nowadays, of course, that's just a foul ball, but back in Barnes' day it wasn't and he got a *lot* of play off of that. Contemporary writers were of the opinion that he got a lot of cheap hits.
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Injury ended Barnes effectiveness. He hit with a great deal more than average power. Not the sign of someone winning through bunting. Like most great players, he was smart and used the rules to his advantage.