Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2007. He is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Recognized as an all-around player, Bonds received a record seven National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Awards and 12 Silver Slugger Awards, along with 14 All-Star selections. He holds many MLB hitting records, including most career home runs (762), most home runs in a single season (73, set in 2001), and the records for the most walks and intentional walks in a career, season, and in consecutive games. Bonds led MLB in on-base plus slugging six times and placed within the top five hitters in 12 of his 17 qualifying seasons. For his defensive play in the outfield, he won eight Gold Glove Awards. He also had 514 stolen bases, becoming the first and only MLB player to date with at least 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases. Bonds is ranked first in career Wins Above Replacement among all Major League position players by Baseball Reference and second by FanGraphs, behind only Babe Ruth.
Despite his accolades, Bonds led a controversial career, notably as a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal. He was indicted in 2007 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury during the federal government's investigation of BALCO, a manufacturer of an undetectable steroid. After the perjury charges were dropped, Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2011, but was exonerated on appeal in 2015. During his 10 years of eligibility, he did not receive the 75% of the vote needed to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Some voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) stated they did not vote for Bonds because they believe he used performance-enhancing drugs.
Barry Lamar Bonds was born on July 24, 1964, in Riverside, California, to Patricia (née Howard) and then-future Major League right fielder Bobby Bonds. Bonds grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula in San Carlos, California, where he attended Arundel Elementary School. His father spent the first seven seasons of his Major League career with the San Francisco Giants, where he played with future National Baseball Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichal. His father Bobby played in right field and with Mays playing in center field, the Giants had a venerable defensive tandem that worked together to cover a lot of ground on the field, and Mays became Barry's godfather. As a child, Bonds would spend time in the Giants home clubhouse and dugout at Candlestick Park and had to choke up on his baseball bat that he carried around because it was too heavy for him at the time, something that he would stick with for the rest of his life. Before Arundel, he attended the Carey School, which overlooks Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, California, where he would also later attend. He excelled in baseball, basketball, and football. He played on the junior varsity team during his freshman year and on the varsity team for the remainder of his high school career. Frustrated with Bonds’ progress in junior biology, his teacher told him that baseball will never get him anywhere.
Bonds garnered a .467 batting average his senior year, and was named prep All-American. The Giants drafted Bonds in the second round (39th overall) of the 1982 MLB draft as a high school senior, but the Giants and Bonds were unable to agree on contract terms when Tom Haller's maximum offer was $70,000 ($230,000 today) and Bonds's minimum to go pro was $75,000, and Mays helped advise Bonds to instead attend college. Bonds, along with late Major League Baseball pitcher Danny Frisella, were inducted into the Serra Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
Bonds attended Arizona State University, where his distant cousin and fellow university Hall of Fame right fielder Reggie Jackson attended and played as well. Bonds hit .347 with 45 home runs and 175 runs batted in (RBI). In 1984, he batted .360 and had 30 stolen bases. In 1985, he hit 23 home runs with 66 RBI and a .368 batting average. He was a Sporting News All-American selection that year. He tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as a sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996.
Bonds was not well-liked by his Sun Devil teammates, in part because in the words of longtime coach Jim Brock, he was "rude, inconsiderate and self-centered". When he was suspended for breaking curfew, the other players initially voted against his return even though he was easily the best player on the team. He graduated from Arizona State in 1986 with a degree in criminology. He was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player; other winners include Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Lo Duca, and Ike Davis. During college, he played part of one summer in the amateur Alaska Baseball League with the Alaska Goldpanners. Bonds was inducted into the Sun Devil Hall of Fame 1999 Class.
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bonds with the sixth overall pick of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. He joined the Prince William Pirates of the Carolina League and was named July 1985 Player of the Month for the league. In 1986, he hit .311 with seven home runs and 37 RBI in 44 games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League.
Pittsburgh Pirates (1986–1992)
Before Bonds made it to the Major Leagues in Pittsburgh, Pirate fan attendance was low, with 1984 and 1985 attendance below 10,000 per game for the 81-game home schedule, with attendance woes being a combination of the economic problems of Western Pennsylvania in the early 1980s as well as the Pittsburgh drug trials that directly affected the Pirates going from World Series champions to nearly relocating to Denver, Colorado in only six years. On May 30, 1986, at Three Rivers Stadium, Bonds made his Major League debut, starting in center field and wearing jersey number 7. He finished the game 0-for-5 with a walk in a 6–4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On June 4, at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, in a 12–3 win over the Atlanta Braves, Bonds hit his first career Major League home run, an opposite field solo home run with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. Leading 10–2, Bonds hit a fly ball well off of pitcher Craig McMurtry to deep left field and over Gerald Perry and the fence, making the score 11–2. Bonds hit his first home run in the exact same part of the exact same ballpark where Hank Aaron hit his 715th to break the all-time career home run record, formerly held by Babe Ruth. Bonds went four for five along with the home run as well as a double and four runs batted in. "Barry Bonds remember that name you'll be hearing a lot of it," the announcer said. Looking back on the play twenty years later, McMurtry said "It was a fastball, down and away. He took it the other way. I don't know how he hit it." In 1986, Bonds led National League (NL) rookies with 16 home runs, 48 RBI, 36 stolen bases, and 65 walks, but he finished sixth in NL Rookie of the Year Award voting. He played center field in 1986, but switched to left field with the arrival of centerfielder Andy Van Slyke in 1987.
The Pirates experienced a surge in fan enthusiasm with Bonds on the team and set the club attendance record of 52,119 in the 1987 home opener. In his early years, Bonds batted as the leadoff hitter. On May 30 at Three Rivers Stadium, against the Cincinnati Reds, after starting the season as the everyday center fielder, Bonds switched and started his first career game in left field. With Van Slyke also in the outfield, the Pirates had a venerable defensive tandem that worked together to cover a lot of ground on the field, although they were not close off of it. That year, Bonds hit .261 with 25 home runs, along with 32 stolen bases and 59 RBI in 150 games.