(Pittsburgh) Barry Bonds didn’t expect to be so touched when the Pittsburgh Pirates contacted him, informing him that he would be inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Alongside fellow inductees Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen, he posed in front of a plaque bearing his name on a plaza near PNC Park.
And the home run king of Major League Baseball insisted he wasn’t thinking about the other Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, where he still isn’t a member. This, nearly 20 years after the last of his 762 home runs.
“I don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore,” Bonds said. “I want to spend time with my grandchildren and my children.
“I no longer have any hope of getting there. What I hope is [d’aller bien demain et de continuer à garder une bonne santé]. »
Bonds turned 60 last month.
In 1986, he arrived in Pittsburgh at age 21, going on to become the driving force behind a new era of success for the Pirates.
The club won three straight division titles starting in 1990, a period in which Bonds was twice the league’s MVP. He would go on to earn that honor five more times.
The Pirates, however, never reached the World Series in the early 1990s.
In 1992, Bonds in left field was the recipient of Francisco Cabrera’s game-winning single that scored Sid Bream in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.
During the 10 years he was eligible for the Cooperstown ballot, Bonds never received at least 75 percent of the vote, largely because of suspicions of steroid use in his later years with the Giants.
He left for San Francisco before the 1993 season, making a return home (and his father Bobby and godfather Willie Mays had shined with the Giants).
Bonds is even a special adviser to the Giants, who retired his number 25 in 2018.
Bonds’ seven-season stint with the Pirates, however, was “unmatched,” he said.
It was fun. It was a good time. It’s a great honor to be inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame.
Barry Bonds
Bonds ranks among the Pirates’ top 10 players with 175 home runs and 251 stolen bases, among others. His combination of speed and power made him “the best player I’ve ever coached,” Leyland said.