The Giants have announced that former superstar Barry Bonds will rejoin the organization as a special advisor to CEO Larry Baer. Most recently, the controversial slugger served as the Marlins’ hitting coach, but the team elected not to continue the relationship past the 2016 season.
Bonds, now 52, spent 15 of his 22 major league seasons in San Francisco. Though he was already a two-time MVP winner when he came over from the Pirates, Bonds only elevated his game in his new environs. All told, he provided the Giants with a mind-boggling .312/.477/.666 batting line and 586 home runs in nearly 2,000 games.
Bonds retired as MLB’s all-time home run leader and unquestionably rates as one of the very best players in history. His legacy, though, has long been clouded by his high-profile role in the game’s sordid PED history. And his playing career didn’t exactly come to a happy conclusion; Bonds slashed a hard-to-fathom .276/.480/.565 in his age-42 season, but didn’t suit up after that point and brought an ultimately unsuccessful collusion case.
As per the Giants’ press release, Bonds “will represent the organization at various community and organizational events in San Francisco.” His duties also involve some baseball-related work, as Bonds will attend the team’s Spring Training camp this week and also work with prospects during visits to the Giants’ minor league affiliates.
“I am excited to be back home with the Giants and join the team in an official capacity,” Bonds said. “San Francisco has always been my home and the Giants will always be my family. I look forward to spending time with the team, young players in the system as well as the Bay Area community.”
Welcome home Barry!!
Welcome home would be the pirates
This is sorry we were jerks even though you used steroids
Oh yeah, welcome home roid using, fraud committing, woman abusing guy who lets his friend sit in prison instead of manning up. Not sure who is less human, this guy or Michael Vick. Read Game of Shadows. This guy is sewage. Doesn’t deserve an ounce of respect from anyone.
Definitely Vick.
So because he’s a bad person, (subjective and not necessarily my opinion) his baseball past skills and prowess should be disregarded?
I don’t care in terms of his past skills and prowess if he is a bad person. I care if he cheated. That’s it. If he did, everything he did is worthless. If he was a bad person or did anything outside the game that was immoral, I agree with you that it’s irrelevant.
Ever hear of forgiveness or compassion? Holding a grudge against a baseball player for things he did a decade ago isn’t very healthy.
If Bonds would like compassion or forgiveness, it comes with admissions of cheating first (the other stuff is irrelevant from a baseball perspective), and he should permanently remove himself from the game for the sake of what’s left of its integrity. At that point we could discuss compassion and forgiveness as a person maybe, but never as a baseball player or baseball person.
I don’t think he’s asking for it. I happen to think forgiveness is more beneficial for the forgiver. You seem bitter. Comments like yours contribute to the mans hard heart.
This is exactly right. Forgiveness is more important to the one doing the forgiving.
So you’ve already convicted a man that has never been found guilty of anything. “Admit to cheating and permanently remove himself from the game.” What, based on YOUR opinion? Why don’t you remove yourself from any discussion about forgiveness & compassion, you have no credibility.
It’s not a crime, he doesn’t need to be convicted. Everyone knows he did steroids. If you think this is in doubt, you’re an idiot. Removing himself from the game would be self-imposed, and the kind of gesture that could make people say, oh, maybe there’s some remorse here. I don’t think it’s my opinion he cheated. We pretty much all know he cheated. The guy damaged the integrity of the game. I can forgive that in human terms for a guy who sincerely sorry. I won’t in baseball terms. Maybe you can call that bitter. Doesn’t really feel that way. He just crossed a line that you can’t cross. Some bells can’t be unrung.
If you haven’t read “Game of Shadows” you’re missing who Barry Bonds is. Most Giant fans prefer to keep their head in the sand about him. The author, Mark Fainaru-Wada is highly credible and had no ax to grind. As described by MFW and many members of the press, Bonds is a selfish, self-centered, jealous guy who treats fans and even friends like dirt. Steroids are just the tips of the iceberg. There’s a reason the Pirates unloaded him in his prime. There’s a reason no one signed him after SF and there’s a reason the Marlins dropped him after one year as a hitting coach. Imagining this guy in any sort of public interface role is laughable. The Giants are pathetic for bringing him back.
If you want a comparison, use his dad Bobby Bonds. A 30:30 guy 5 times and narrowly missed 5 more times, who got dealt every ten minutes. His stats suggest he should’ve been untouchable. He was on 8 teams despite a career 332 HRs and 461 SB’s. Both guys are/we’re wretched people. Giants fans need to own that.
His Dad was a bad dude. Don’t you think maybe that played a large role in Barry’s insecurity issues? I guess he should’ve picked a different father. I certainly wouldn’t call them “wretched”.
You don’t get to pick your father, but you do get to choose how you treat people and behave. Add in the physical abuse of his mistress, the Greg Anderson thing, etc. the dude is wretched. That might be too kind.
Just b/c read it I guess that makes it true. WHO cares??? MOST guys cheated and some still are
And some who cheated are in the HOF. They just weren’t being tested at the time they were playing the game. How do I know? A few have admitted to using drugs not banned at the time they were playing, but it’s still cheating just because the drug they were using has bee proven to enhance performance. You can read about the past players comments online.
You make bold claims for someone who doesn’t know the man personally.
Go ahead and believe everything you read on the internet and see in the media.
Go ahead and pretend that 85% of the league used PEDs before it was banned in 2003 and go ahead and pretend that Barry was ever caught or convicted. I think he did it too, but so did everyone else. INCLUDING DAVID ORTIZ.
It comes with the territory and its unfair to single any one of these guys out only because they were the best.
Idiot.
*pretend that 85% of the league DIDNT use.
1. PEDs are illegal without a prescription, the league doesn’t have to ban robbery or murder either, it’s the law of the land. 2. David Ortiz is a cheat too, not to mention a fat DH. 3. Read the book before you call anyone an idiot. If it were false Bonds would have sued the hell out of him. He didn’t. It was fact.
Right on
Must be a Dodger fan.
I believe he has nothing to offer anyone. Look how quickly the Marlins soured on him.
Mattingly soured on him, who has issues himself. the players and the stats of that offense missed Barry when he got fired
If you did research you would learn that Don Mattingly didn’t like the guy and told the front office “its me or him.”
Someone doesn’t like Bonds? What a shocker.
Mattingly was indeed a big reason for the Marlins not bringing back Bonds. Frankly, Mattingly should be thanking his stars that the Marlins didn’t choose Bonds over him. Barry did more to help Stanton (by Stanton’s own admission) than anyone else in Stanton’s time in Miami.
People can say what they want about Bonds. One thing that is pretty much universally agreed upon though is that with or without the drugs, there are few people that have played the game that understood more about hitting and how to excel at it.,
Numerous players with the Marlins have commented on how helpful Bonds was to them, and I’ve also read numerous testimonials from other players who Bonds worked with or offered suggestions to on his own time before he became a coach. Not only did Bonds know how to hit, a lot of players seem to think that he can also communicate his knowledge to them and help them out substantially. Bonds’s issues as a Marlin coach were apparently philosophical differences between him and Mattingly as far as what was expected of him as the hitting coach. I’m no Bonds apologist, but he absolutely might have something to offer baseball teams…. maybe Florida was just the wrong situation.
Well said
We really can’t say this is one of the best players in history, who by the way, complied much of those Giants numbers with artificial help. Several clean, great years just don’t equal that kind of recognition. He might have reached that level without the PEDS, albeit without the unbelievable numbers, but we’ll never know. We also don’t know how lifespans may be shortened because of PED use.
But a) we don’t know when he used whatever it is we think he used. B) PEDs don’t make you good. The vast majority of the players on the Mitchell report were fringe players and career minor-leaguers. And C) if Bonds had wanted to, he could have filed a collusion suit against MLB after his final season that would have been massive. To his credit, he chose not to. He still wants to be a part of the game, and I think that shows, more than anything, that he loves baseball. It’s not as if he needs the money : He made around 200 million dollars in his career.
It’s well documented when he started using, why he started using, and what he was using. If you’re insinuating he didn’t use, there’s a mountain of testimony and evidence that is hard to argue with. Bonds also DID sue the MLB for collusion and lost the case.
It never went to court. It was only arbitrated.
There isn’t “mountains of evidence” about his PED use, just leaked grand jury testimony. He obviously used PEDs. So did Neifi Perez and Jason Grimsley.
I never said it went to court, he tried to sue and an arbitraitor threw it out, hence he lost.
It’s not just leaked grand jury testimony, the BALCO raid turned up dozens of detailed regime calanders, positive tests from 2000-2003, Barry’s steroid shopping list, Anderson on tape talking about how he injected Barry to avoid cyst building up, Anderson’s own notes on Barry and what side effects he was exhibiting, Barry’s own voicemails to his mistress. This isn’t just some former teammate saying “Yeah he used”. We’re not talking about Jason Grimsley or Nefei Perez, why even bring them up? Everyone knows every class of ballplayer used, from the scrubs to the MVPs.
” . . . if Bonds had wanted to, he could have filed a collusion suit against MLB after his final season that would have been massive.”
Unless the above article is mistaken that is exactly what he did:
“Bonds slashed a hard-to-fathom .276/.480/.565 in his age-42 season, but didn’t suit up after that point and brought an ultimately unsuccessful collusion case.”
I am not making any larger point about Bonds, MLB, PEDs or anything else. But let’s not give credit where none is due.
Kinda thought the news on Bonds would be he signed with the White Sox to DH
He’s a moron…… We don’t need his me me attitude in the clubhouse
“Bonds “’will represent the organization at various community and organizational events in San Francisco.’” Oh. My. Gawd. If ever I had been asked about Bonds’ career in baseball after his playing days were through, “PR Man” would have been among my very last guesses…
Say what you want about him, he was an incredible baseball player regardless of PEDs. However I’m not sure that this position makes a lot of sense. They are making him do community events and a little baseball? Bonds was good at baseball. Bonds was bad at the public. Seems strange.
I agree completely at first glance, but…
In recent years we all know that Bonds has begun making baby steps towards repairing his public image, even going so far as to admit in one interview that as a player he was a complete jerk and treated people terribly. The cynic in me, and I am usually a big cynic, thinks that Bonds is probably just saying these things because he wants to get into the Hall of Fame. And hey, maybe taking on this job is just part of his “act” to charm the public and the HOF voters. But then again, maybe he’s trying to turn over a new leaf. Who knows? I bet that now we’ll find out for sure one way or the other.
Well someone has to show those minor leaguers which butt cheek to put the needle in
So, outside of Spring Training, he’s basically a really well paid mascot?
Well, Mantle used to drink and McGuire took the 5th… Talking about cheating… Lots of sinners out there…
Read between the lines. It is potentially a good move for both sides. Despite what fans from every other team think, most Giants fans still love Barry. He will be cheered at home games and this move will not be looked at as negative by the majority of the team’s fan base.
It also can benefit Barry if he shows a “new leaf, friendly side”. It can help soften his image and I’m sure he is hoping to turn a few more HOF voters his way. (I don’t think it will but I’d bet that’s part of the thought process”
You can debate the merits of what he did as OK/Not Ok. But the fact is people despise him because he was so great, knew it, and was a total jerk off the field.
EVERY single team has had a steroid/PED user on their teams. But people only seem to hate the ones that were actually good.
Lol!!
The pitchers were cheating too=level playing field.