Widely considered one of the greatest MLB players in history, Barry Bonds is retired from the game holding numerous all-time records that will likely never be broken, but he is also the greatest player of all time who will likely never be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bonds, now 60 years old, last played for the San Francisco Giants in 2007. A few years later, he made it onto the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame, where he will be on the ballot for the tenth and final time in 2022. After receiving only 66 percent of the vote, Bonds is no longer eligible for induction into the BBWAA.
- Barry Bonds Stats (ESPN): .298/.480/.565, 1.045 OPS, 762 home runs, 1.996 RBI, 601 doubles, 514 stolen bases, 2.935 hits in 2.986 career games
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Based on his resume alone, Bonds could deserve his own wing in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He holds the all-time MLB records for career home runs (762), single-season home runs (73), career walks (2,558), single-season walks (232), and the single-season records for OBP (.609) and slugging percentage (.863).
Bonds is the only MLB player, along with Alex Rodriguez and Willie Mays, to have 500 home runs, 500 doubles and 300 steals. He is also the first player ever to record 500 home runs and 500 steals in his career. Yet Bonds missed out on ten consecutive opportunities to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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- Barry Bonds career earnings (Spotrac): 193 million US dollars
Speaking to reporters after his induction into the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame, Bonds spoke about his decades-long disregard by Cooperstown.
“I don’t have to worry about these things in my life anymore.”[I want to] hang around my grandchildren and my children. These hopes [of making the Hall of Fame]I don't have them anymore. I hope to be able to breathe tomorrow [and see] when I turn 61.”
Barry Bonds on his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame
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Bonds, a seven-time National League MVP with 14 All-Star nominations and eight Gold Glove Awards, has definitely said goodbye to the Baseball Writers' Association of America, which is keeping him out of Cooperstown. Now, two years away from being inducted into the Contemporary Baseball Player Committee, Bonds doesn't seem interested in what will happen in 2025.
The steroid scandal that rocked Major League Baseball and overshadowed the final seasons of Bonds' historic career will apparently prevent him from ever being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, the MLB commissioner and managers who profited from their players' steroid use are routinely inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and never have to face the consequences of their profits from steroid use, which they surely knew about.
