PITTSBURGH – Barry Bonds was moved in an unexpected way when the Pittsburgh Pirates called him to tell him he was being inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
When the moment came on Saturday, Bonds seized the opportunity.
Wearing a gold jacket alongside teammates Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen, he posed for photos in front of the plaque bearing his name on a seat just behind the left center field goals at PNC Park.
And Major League Baseball’s home run king stressed that he had not thought about the other Hall of Fame induction, the one that proved elusive nearly two decades after Bonds hit the last of his record-breaking 762 home runs.
“I don’t have to worry about those things in my life anymore,” Bonds said. “(I want to) be with my grandchildren and children. I don’t have those hopes (of being inducted into the Hall of Fame) anymore. I hope to be able to breathe tomorrow (and see) if I live to be 61.”
Bonds, who turned 60 last month, came to Pittsburgh as a 21-year-old in 1986 and became the catalyst for the franchise’s turnaround. The Pirates won the National League East three straight times from 1990-92, a period in which the outfielder won the first two of his seven NL MVP awards.
He left for San Francisco before the 1993 season, a homecoming that seemed inevitable given his ties to the Bay Area. Still, Bonds called his seven seasons in Pittsburgh “the greatest stop for me” because they prepared him for what was to come.
“It was fun,” he said. “It was a great time. I can’t thank you enough. It’s a great honor. It’s been a great journey for me.”
Bonds remains in the Pirates’ top 10 in several categories, including home runs (175) and stolen bases (251). His combination of speed and power made him, as Leyland regularly puts it, “the best player I’ve ever coached.”
The Pirates never made it past the NL Championship Series in the early 1990s and famously lost Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS to Atlanta when Sid Bream scored the winning run on a single by Francisco Cabrera to Bonds in left field in the ninth inning.
More than 30 years later, that scar still stings a little, although the bitter feelings caused by Bonds’ departure for San Francisco – where his father Bobby Bonds and godfather Willie Mays played – have since softened. Bonds said he was “shocked” when owner Bob Nutting told him he would be inducted into a Hall of Fame that includes franchise icons such as Roberto Clemente, Honus Wagner and Willie Stargell, among others.
This trio is also immortalized in Cooperstown. Bonds, however, is not. During his ten-year tenure on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s Hall of Fame ballot, he failed to reach the required 75 percent threshold, primarily due to the steroid allegations that dogged him during his final years with the Giants.
The Contemporary Player Committee also rejected Bonds’ election in 2022, but the committee could reconsider Bonds’ status in 2025.
Bond, who works as a special adviser to the Giants – who retired their number 25 in 2018 – seems at peace with whatever may or may not come his way. His only hope is that all the honors will come his way while his mother, Patricia, is still alive. Patricia Bonds attended Saturday’s ceremony, as did Bonds’ daughters, Shikari and Aisha.
While he continues to struggle to achieve a certain level of baseball immortality, Bonds — who, when asked why he believes he is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, replied, “I don’t have to answer that question anymore” — knows that being honored by the Pirates can help educate fans and future players about the impact black players have had on the game.
“Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, my father, Mays, (Willie) McCovey, all my black role models are gone,” he said. “That’s all. Technically it’s just me and we have Rickey Henderson, we have others. … I just hope my mother is still there if anything else happens in my life. Big ‘if.'”
