Alas for what might've been

Joe Posnanski has a great article about the baseball meteor that was Bo Jackson.

I was a bit too young to fully experience the 4 or 5 year time period when Bo Jackson was one of the two biggest athletes in the world (along with Michael Jordan). I do fondly remember the "Bo Knows" commercials and can recall a few electric runs from his days on the Oakland Raiders. I can also recall him being a great baseball player, and him climbing the wall to make a catch. And of course, Video Bo of Tecmo Bowl fame is the most legendary sports figure in video history. An unstoppable force that perhaps befits the greatest athlete since Jim Thorpe, or at least Danny Ainge.

What might have been?

Well, I don't wanna launch into some Sabermetric endeavor, not because I am opposed to it, moreso because I don't really know how to go about it. However, what if his hip injury in 1990 was less serious, but nevertheless made him decide to just play baseball, due to his ability to play longer and make more?

As the article states, Bo was something of a raw player. While he did walk a fair amount of the time (although not great), he stuck out an ungodly amount. This likely would never have changed, although perhaps a devotion to baseball only might have helped some. A healthy Bo Jackson, given the hyperbole with which speak of him, would likely have been one of, if not the best players in the game.

His OBP increased yearly for three straight years prior to his injury. It was a respectable .342 in 1990, when he 27. Likewise, he increased his slugging percentage all three years, up to .523. With a devotion to baseball, I think he could've put up a .370 OBP year in and year out, maybe he might've even topped .400. Likewise, his slugging percentage might've reached as high as .570, with a few .600 plus seasons. Add in the speed, and you have a hell of a player.

Considering only 5 players topped a 1000 OPS in 2006 (Hafner, ManRam, Papi, Thome, Dye) he would've truly been one of the best. The early 1990's White Sox were a good team, and with a healthy Bo, they may very well have won a few championships.

I think his peak seasons would probably have resembled Alfonso Soriano's 2006 season:

.277, 119 runs, 46 HR, 95 RBI, 41 steals.

This sounds like a decent enough player, but seems to ring a little hollow for the greatest athlete anyone had ever seen. A man who's bat made the sound that only Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson's had made before that. Who knows what the ceiling truly would've been for Bo? Alas, we'll never know now.