Barry Bonds

Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964 in Riverside, California) is a left fielder in Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants; he is most famous for his home run hitting. He holds the record for most homers in a season with 73 and is third on the career list with 708. He is generally considered among the greatest players of all time, and has won a record seven MVP awards; for those who view baseball through the prism of sabermetrics, he, Babe Ruth, and Ted Williams are the top three hitters. He is the only player in history to have hit at least 400 home runs and stolen at least 400 bases, as well as the only player in history to hit 500 homeruns and steal 500 bases. He has won eight Gold Glove Awards for defensive excellence. However, he is the focus of a raging debate in the baseball world, centering on two questions: has he had help in the form of illegal performance-improving drugs, and if so, to what degree, if any, does the use of these drugs account for his accomplishments? This debate has been further fueled by reports of testimony given in the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative scandal.

Background

The son of former All-Star Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds graduated in 1982 from Junipero Serra High School (San Mateo, Calif.), excelling in baseball, basketball and football. Although he was immediately drafted by the San Francisco Giants, Bonds chose to go to college first, playing baseball and earning a degree at Arizona State University in criminal justice. He began his major league career in 1986 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1993, he left the Pirates to sign as a free agent with the Giants, for whom his father had played the first seven years of his career.

Bonds' speed and power in his early and middle years recalled his father's abilities. Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays is his godfather; Reggie Jackson, another Hall of Famer, is his uncle. His aunt Rosie Bonds finished 8th in the Women's 80-meter hurdles (Extended to 100-meter hurdles in 1971) at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo,Japan.

Achievements

In Sports Illustrated (June 5, 2000), San Francisco Giant Shawon Dunston said of his teammate Bonds, "He's not going to hit 70 homers, but he believes he can. That's frightening." The next year, Bonds set the single-season home run record, hitting 73 to break Mark McGwire's 70-homer mark set in 1998. Some analysts consider Bonds' 2001 performance among the greatest hitting seasons in history. Besides the home run record, he set single-season marks for walks (177) and slugging percentage (.863) (topping Ruth's records of 170 and .847, set in 1923 and 1920, respectively). In 2002, however, he did not repeat his 73-homer feat. Partly because pitchers tried to "pitch around" him whenever possible, he bettered his own record for walks with 198, which contributed greatly to a .582 on-base percentage, breaking Williams' 1941 record of .551. He also won the National League batting title with a .370 average, becoming the oldest player to win the honor for the first time. In 2004, he won his second batting title with a .362 average. He also broke two of his own records: OPS, with 1.422, and on-base percentage with .609 - the only time a player has bettered .600 over a full season.

Bonds has been voted the National League's Most Valuable Player a record seven times, in 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. He is the first player in history to be MVP in four or even three consecutive years, and no other player has won the award more than three times. He was also second in the voting for the award twice: in 1991 to Terry Pendleton of the Atlanta Braves, and in 2000 to then-teammate Jeff Kent. During the 2002 season, Bonds became the fourth man to hit 600 career home runs, and also set the record for most home runs hit in a single post-season (8). The Giants would lose the World Series that year to the Anaheim Angels, four games to three.

Bonds' eight Gold Glove awards as an outfielder are the third-most ever for that position. He has been named to 13 National League All-Star teams: 1990, 1992-1998, 2000-2004.

Bonds became the first 400-400 player (400 home runs and 400 stolen bases) on August 23, 1998, when he hit home run number 400 off of Florida's Kirt Ojala. He had stolen his 400th base on July 26, 1997 against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Candlestick Park. On June 23 2003, Bonds recorded his 500th stolen base in the eleventh inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Pacific Bell Park. Bonds later scored the winning run. By chance, his ailing father Bobby was in attendance that night. With 633 career home runs at the time, Bonds became the first 500-500 player in baseball history, already the only member of the 400-400 club. In addition, in 1996 Bonds became the second of the three current members of the so called 40-40 club: 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in one season. The other two members are José Canseco and Alex Rodriguez.

Bonds is among the power hitters who "crowd the plate": standing in such a way that his body is almost over the plate (and thus close to the strike zone). Because of Bonds and others like Mo Vaughn, in 2001 Major League Baseball instructed umpires to call a slightly different strike zone, calling more high inside pitches strikes. The new regulations also banned hitters from using hard protective gear apart from helmets (e.g., hard elbow or chest guards), which enabled them to get closer to the plate.

On April 12, 2004, Bonds hit his 660th home run, tying him with his godfather Willie Mays for 3rd on the all-time career home run list in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at SBC Park. Larry Ellison (not the CEO of Oracle Corporation) caught the home run and returned it to Barry. He hit his 661st home run at the same venue the next day, April 13, placing him in outright third behind Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755). Ellison also caught number 661, but kept it for himself with Barry's blessing. (Ellison was in a kayak in McCovey Cove, an arm of San Francisco Bay that lies behind the right-field stands at SBC Park, so this wasn't quite the amazing coincidence it appears at first sight.)

On July 4, 2004, Bonds passed Rickey Henderson to take the lead in career walks, with his 2191st. Later in 2004, he broke his own single-season record for walks, becoming the first player with over 200 in a season and ending the season with 232. His total of 232 walks was 105 more than the next closest leader, Lance Berkman, Todd Helton, and Bobby Abreu who all had 127. Included in Bonds' 2004 total were 120 intentional walks, the most issued since MLB began recording them separately in 1954.

Bonds also has the 2nd- and 3rd-highest single-season intentional walk totals, with 68 in 2002 and 61 in 2003. He has been the league leader in the category for 13 of the past 14 seasons.

Bonds holds almost every major league record in existence for intentional walks with four in a nine-inning game (2004), 120 in a season (2004) and 604 in his career (more than the next two players on the all-time list, Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey, combined). Bonds, a prolific home run hitter, is an easy candidate for the intentional walk. In the first month of the 2004 season, Bonds drew 43 walks, 22 of them intentional. He broke his previous record of 68 intentional walks, set in 2002, on July 10, 2004 in his last appearance before the All-Star break. On May 28, 1998, Bonds became one of only four players in major league history to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded, when the Arizona Diamondbacks elected to give up a run and face catcher Brent Mayne instead.

On September 17, 2004, Bonds hit his 700th home run off San Diego Padres pitcher Jake Peavy in San Francisco and became only the third man to achieve the 700 home run plateau.

73rd Homerun Ball Controversy

After the homerun on Oct. 7, 2001 two men laid claim to ownership of the baseball. Alex Popov claimed he was the first person to get a glove on the baseball only to have it taken away in the ensuing scuffle. Patrick Hayashi said he found it rolling free in the minute-long melee.

Ultimately Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy considered arguments based on old whaling laws, precedent-setting fox hunting cases, and laws about abandoned property. He even convened a summit of experts, during which the case law was applied to the legal quandary: Just what constitutes possession of a baseball that lands in the stands?

In the end, McCarthy issued a Dec. 28, 2002 ruling that stated: Since Popov did briefly have control of the ball, and since Hayashi ultimately ended up with it and could not be shown to have caused Popov to lose it, both men, said McCarthy, had "equal claim under the law."

Several experts estimated the ball to be worth around $1.5 Million. In the end Comic book creator and producer Todd McFarlane, paid $450,000 for the ball at an auction. The Proceeds were then split between Popov and Hayashi.

Resurgence

Although Ken Griffey Jr. was voted Player of the Decade in the 1990s, many believed that Bonds was the better player. In 1999, with only statistics through 1997 counted, Bonds ranked Number 34 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, making him the highest-ranking active player (next-best was Greg Maddux at Number 39), while Griffey came in at Number 93. When the Sporting News list was redone in 2005, Bonds jumped up 28 spaces to Number 6 All Time, behind only Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Hank Aaron. However, while Bonds was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team that year, Griffey was actually elected to it, probably due to being more popular rather than more impressive or more respected.

Through the decade, Bonds was a very patient hitter and great slugger who stole bases and played exceptional defense. While by the end of the decade Bonds was regarded as a surefire Hall of Famer, it was in the beginning of the millennium - at the age of 37 - when Bonds would surpass his peers and achieve a level that only a couple of hitters in the history of the game have achieved.

In 2001, Bonds hit 73 HRs (the only time he has hit over 50 in a season), and even more astonishingly, surpassed Babe Ruth's record of single-season slugging percentage with a mind-blowing .863. The very next year, he broke Ted Williams' single-season on-base percentage record with .582, and then shattered his own record in 2004 with an unprecedented .609. Bonds holds virtually every record associated with walks, whether in a season (232), in a game (6), or intentional (4).

Today Bonds is generally considered to be the best hitter in the game, and comparable only to a handful of hitters in the sport's entire history. Many of the game's best players, hitter and pitcher alike, remain in awe of Bonds' bat speed and dominance at the plate.

2005 injury problems

On March 22, 2005, Bonds announced that he could be sidelined for the rest of the 2005 season because of surgery on his knee. At the press conference, Bonds also indicated that he was frustrated by the focus on his alleged steroid use and the negative portrayal of him in the media. Later, Bonds sounded positive about his rehabilitation and told fans at the Opening Day festivities, "I will be back!" The chances of Bonds' return to the playing field were covered relentlessly through the summer by ESPN, in anticipation of potentially unprecedented scrutiny by the media and baseball fans. For the media, this story was irresistible in light of baseball's recently toughened testing program for steroids. On May 4, Bonds revealed on his website that he had undergone a third arthroscopic knee surgery because of a bacterial infection in his knee. This setback led many to assume Bonds would not play in the 2005 season. It also raised much speculation as to whether Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755 is out of reach.

On August 1, in an interview with MLB.com, Bonds stated that he would most likely not return for the 2005 season due to continued buildup of fluid in the knee due to activities. On August 5, however, he stated on his website that he was unsure but remained optimistic.

In September, Bonds started working out with the team while the team was in Los Angeles, playing the Dodgers. On September 10, the Giants announced that Bonds would be activated on September 12. He was indeed activated that day and immediately returned to being a starter in left field. In his return against the San Diego Padres, he nearly hit a home run in his first at-bat, but the ball was ruled to be only a double due to fan interference. Bonds finished the night 1-for-4 with a double. Bonds continued his pre-injury dominance at the plate, hitting home runs in four consecutive games from September 18 to September 21.

Career Statistics (as of September 29, 2005)

 Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP 
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 1986 21 PIT NL 113 413 72 92 26 3 16 48 36 7 65 102 .223 .330 .416 172 2 2 2 2 4
 1987 22 PIT NL 150 551 99 144 34 9 25 59 32 10 54 88 .261 .329 .492 271 0 3 3 3 4
 1988 23 PIT NL 144 538 97 152 30 5 24 58 17 11 72 82 .283 .368 .491 264 0 2 14 2 3
 1989 24 PIT NL 159 580 96 144 34 6 19 58 32 10 93 93 .248 .351 .426 247 1 4 22 1 9
 1990 25 PIT NL 151 519 104 156 32 3 33 114 52 13 93 83 .301 .406 .565 293 0 6 15 3 8
 1991 26 PIT NL 153 510 95 149 28 5 25 116 43 13 107 73 .292 .410 .514 262 0 13 25 4 8
 1992 27 PIT NL 140 473 109 147 36 5 34 103 39 8 127 69 .311 .456 .624 295 0 7 32 5 9
 1993 28 SFG NL 159 539 129 181 38 4 46 123 29 12 126 79 .336 .458 .677 365 0 7 43 2 11
 1994 29 SFG NL 112 391 89 122 18 1 37 81 29 9 74 43 .312 .426 .647 253 0 3 18 6 3
 1995 30 SFG NL 144 506 109 149 30 7 33 104 31 10 120 83 .294 .431 .577 292 0 4 22 5 12
 1996 31 SFG NL 158 517 122 159 27 3 42 129 40 7 151 76 .308 .461 .615 318 0 6 30 1 11
 1997 32 SFG NL 159 532 123 155 26 5 40 101 37 8 145 87 .291 .446 .585 311 0 5 34 8 13
 1998 33 SFG NL 156 552 120 167 44 7 37 122 28 12 130 92 .303 .438 .609 336 1 6 29 8 15
 1999 34 SFG NL 102 355 91 93 20 2 34 83 15 2 73 62 .262 .389 .617 219 0 3 9 3 6
 2000 35 SFG NL 143 480 129 147 28 4 49 106 11 3 117 77 .306 .440 .688 330 0 7 22 3 6
 2001 36 SFG NL 153 476 129 156 32 2 73 137 13 3 177 93 .328 .515 .863 411 0 2 35 9 5
 2002 37 SFG NL 143 403 117 149 31 2 46 110 9 2 198 47 .370 .582 .799 322 0 2 68 9 4
 2003 38 SFG NL 130 390 111 133 22 1 45 90 7 0 148 58 .341 .529 .749 292 0 2 61 10 7
 2004 39 SFG NL 147 373 129 135 27 3 45 101 6 1 232 41 .362 .609 .812 303 0 3 120 9 5
 2005 40 SFG NL 14 42 8 12 1 0 5 10 0 0 9 6 .286 .404 .667 28 0 1 3 0 0
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 20 Seasons 9140 2742 77 1853 141 1434 .300 .442 .611 4 88 607 93 143
 2730 2078 564 708 506 2311 5584
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 162 Game Avg 542 123 163 33 5 42 110 30 8 137 85 .300 .442 .611 331 0 5 36 6 8
 Career High 159 580 129 181 44 9 73 137 52 13 232 102 .370 .609 .863 411 2 13 120 10 15
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP 

The BALCO scandal

In 2003, Bonds became embroiled in a scandal when Greg F. Anderson of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, Bonds' trainer since 2000, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with supplying anabolic steroids to athletes, including a number of unnamed baseball players. This led to speculation that Bonds had used performance-enhancing drugs during a time when there was no mandatory testing in Major League Baseball. Bonds declared his innocence, attributing his changed physique and increased power to a strict regimen of bodybuilding and legitimate dietary supplements.

During grand jury testimony on December 4, 2003 — which was obtained through unknown means by the San Francisco Chronicle and published almost a year later, on December 3, 2004 [1] — Bonds said Anderson gave him a rubbing balm and a liquid substance he called "the cream" and "the clear". BALCO founder Victor Conte had identified "the clear" as the designer steroid THG, and prosecutors contended "the cream" was a testosterone-based ointment. Bonds said that at the time he did not believe them to be steroids.

In August 2005, all four defendants in the BALCO steroid scandal trial, including Anderson, struck deals with federal prosecutors that did not require them to reveal names of athletes who may have used banned drugs.

Some baseball pundits, fans, and even players have taken this as evidence that Bonds has used illegal steroids. Bonds has failed no Major League Baseball drug test taken in 2003, 2004 or 2005. However, according the San Francisco Chronicle, in the transcript of Bonds' December 4, 2003 grand jury testimony, prosecutors showed Bonds documents detailing both the steroids they alleged he used, as well as "a drug for female infertility that can be used to mask steroid use" [2].

Salary

Bonds re-signed with the Giants for a five-year, $90 million contract in January 2002. His salary for the 2005 season was $22 million, and is tied with Manny Ramirez for the second-highest salary in Major League Baseball. Bonds, who will turn 42 in July 2006, may be better off as a designated hitter than trying to play left field regularly on his thrice-surgically repaired right knee. The Giants, it is presumed, may be better off moving forward without Bonds than spending another season fretting over his availability at a price of $18 million; however, the box-office benefits to the club of Bonds' seemingly-inevitable chase to overtake Hank Aaron's 755 home runs could result in Bonds' continued sojourn in San Francisco. Giants owner Peter Magowan says he wants Bonds back but would not rule out a trade. However, as a player with 10 years of major league service (five with the same club), Bonds must approve any deal, and he has stated on the record that he will not accept a trade.