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| Birth Name(s) : Barry Bonds |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Barry Bonds Biography
Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964 in Riverside, California) is a left fielder for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds, the godson of Hall of Famer Willie Mays, and a distant cousin of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. He debuted in the Major Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 and joined the San Francisco Giants in 1993, where he stayed through 2007. Giants management has stated that he will not be with the team for the 2008 season.
Bonds was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round (sixth overall) of the 1985 MLB draft. Bonds 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 in 44 games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League, and he made his major league debut on May 30.
The next year, Bonds' offensive production reached even higher levels, breaking not only his own personal records but several major league records. In the Giants' first 50 games in 2001, Bonds hit 28 home runs, including 17 in May — a career high. He also hit 39 home runs by the All-star break (a major league record), drew a major league record 177 walks, and had a .515 on-base average, a feat not seen since Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams over forty years earlier. Bonds' slugging percentage was a major league record .863 (411 total bases in 476 at-bats), and, most impressively, he ended the season with a major league record 73 home runs.
In September, Bonds started working out with the team while the Giants were in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. Bonds was activated on September 12, 2005, returned to start in left field. In his return against the San Diego Padres, he nearly hit a home run in his first at-bat. Bonds finished the night 1-for-4. Upon his return, Bonds mostly continued his pre-injury dominance at the plate, hitting home runs in four consecutive games from September 18, 2005 to September 21, 2005 and finishing with five homers in only 14 games.
On May 7, 2006, Bonds drew within one home run of tying Babe Ruth for second place on the all time list, hitting his 713th career home run into the second level of Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, off pitcher Jon Lieber in an ESPN nationally-televised game in which the Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. The towering home run — one of the longest in Citizens Bank Park's two season history, traveling an estimated 450 feet (140 m) — hit off the facade of the third deck in right field. Curiously, and perhaps revealingly, the jeers from the Philadelphia crowd that had haunted Bonds earlier that night turned noticeably into cheers as he completed his swing, watched the flight of the ball, rounded the bases, and touched home plate, all this to flashbulbs going off throughout the stands. The mixed and often paradoxical reaction to Bonds' impending achievement exemplified the polarizing effect of his controversial career upon baseball aficionados and casual observers alike. Some have ventured to say that while many fans hate Bonds, they all come to the park to see him play.A sign counts up to Barry Bonds' 714th home run
According to a poll by ABC News and ESPN, 52% of fans were rooting against Bonds becoming the all time career home run champion, although 57% stated that they would recognize his achievement, and 58% believed he should be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.
The pitch, the seventh of the at-bat, was a 3-2 pitch which Bonds hit into the right-center field bleachers. The fan who ended up with the ball, 22-year-old Matt Murphy from Queens, New York, was promptly protected and escorted away from the mayhem by a group of San Francisco police officers. After Bonds finished his home-run trot, a ten-minute delay followed, including a brief video by Aaron congratulating Bonds on breaking the record Aaron had held for 33 years, and expressing the hope that "the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams." Bonds made an impromptu emotional statement on the field, with Willie Mays, his godfather, at his side and thanked his teammates, family and his late father. Bonds sat out the rest of the game and was replaced in left field.
During grand jury testimony on December 4, 2003 — which was later found to be obtained through an illegal leak by Troy Ellerman, a defense lawyer for Victor Conte, to the San Francisco Chronicle (leaking grand jury testimony is a felony, to which Ellerman pleaded guilty to on February 14, 2007) and published almost a year later, on December 3, 2004 — Bonds said Anderson gave him a rubbing balm and a liquid substance that Anderson said was arthritis cream and flaxseed oil, respectively. The prosecutors contended that what Bonds was actually given was "the cream" and "the clear", which are both forms of the designer steroid THG.
In May 2006, former Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman released a scathing biography of Bonds entitled Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Anti-Hero. Though obscured by Game of Shadows, the book also contained many allegations against Bonds. |
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