Barry Bonds - Biography, Achievements and Interesting Facts

Barry Lamar Bonds is a former American Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds. 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.

Bonds is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. He has a record-setting seven Most Valuable Player awards, including a record-setting four consecutive MVPs. He is a 14-time All-Star and 8-time Gold Glove-winner. He holds numerous Major League Baseball records, including the all-time Major League Baseball home run record with 762 and the single-season Major League record for home runs with 73 (set in 2001), and is also the all-time career leader in both walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688).

Bonds has led a controversial career, notably as a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal. In 2007, he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury during the government's investigation of BALCO, by testifying that he never knowingly took any illegal steroids. The trial began March 21, 2011; he was convicted on April 13, 2011 on the obstruction of justice charge. On January 9, 2013 Bonds was denied entry into baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown during his first year of eligibility on the ballot

Facts, Achievements and Brief Introduction of Barry Bonds

• During his time with the San Francisco Giants, Bonds proved to be a dynamic hitter and started breaking records. In 2001, just three years after Mark McGwire hit a Major League record 70 home runs, Bonds set the sport on its ear with 73. Bonds denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the season home-run record.
• A finicky hitter, Bonds set a Major League record for walks with 177. But he was just as attentive as he was patient, hitting 23 homers on the first or second pitch. He led all players in slugging percentage (.863) and runs scored (146). Among National Leaguers, he finished fourth in RBI and seventh in batting average (.328). Utilizing a short, yet powerful stroke, Barry hit his 500th career home run early in the 2001 season.
• Genetics were on Barry’s side from the get-go. Not only was his dad a great all-around baseball player, his aunt Rosie was a world record holder in the 80-meter hurdles—and a member of the 1964 U.S. Olympic team—and his uncle Robert was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs.
• Barry sharpened his batting eye by numbering tennis balls, then only swinging at the odd numbers as they were pitched to him.
• Barry nearly ended his athletic career as a junior in high school when he slammed his hand in a locker and almost severed a finger. After several stitches and more than a month in a cast, he made a miraculous recovery and never felt any adverse effects from the injury.
• In the summer of 1983, Barry joined USC’s Oddibe McDowell and UCLA star Shane Mack in the Alaska Goldpanners’ outfield. All three would go on to be first-round draft choices.
• Barry and Jimmie Foxx are the only players ever to hit 30 homers in 12 consecutive seasons.
• Barry’s favorite pitcher to face is John Smoltz. He’s the only guy crazy enough to taunt Barry before games and laugh at him from the dugout.
• Barry won’t talk to anyone before games. His preparation is so intense that not even teammates will approach him.
• Barry hit a record 17 homers in May of 2001.
• Barry slugged nine home runs over a six-game span in 2001. He set a record that year for the fewest singles (49) by a player in 150 or more games.
• Barry drew a major-league record 68 intentional walks in 2002, including eight times with the bases empty. His 13 walks during the World Series that year also set an all-time mark.
• Bonds began the 2002 season with 567 home runs and 484 stolen bases. As history's only player with at least 400 career home runs and 400 stolen bases, Bonds needed just 16 of the latter to carve out his very own 500-500 niche.
• After battling lung cancer and other health complications, Bonds' father, baseball great Bobby Bonds, died in August 2003. Despite this loss, he remained strong at bat, hitting 45 home runs that season and winning the National Leaguev's Most Valuable Player Award that year. Unfortunately, his success as a player was marred by accusations of steroid use.
• Drafted in High School- Barry Bonds was originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants as a senior in high school. However, the Giants and Bonds Jr. could not agree on any contract and the deal was dropped.
• 500 Club- Bonds is the only baseball player in history to have 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases. He actually has stolen more than 500 in both category and stands to be the only member thus far.
• License to Bat- Barry Bonds is the first player to arrange and promote himself as a brand or player. It is customary for a Major League ball player to sign a licensing contract and he chose to opt out. As a result, there are several official Major League Baseball products that do not include a representation of Bonds.
• Family Affair- Bonds’ father, Bobby Bonds Jr. was an All-Star Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants. Barry Bonds and his father are the only pair of family members to have shared a tied record as members of the single season hit/ run combination of the 30- 30 club.
• Only 100 days after Hank Aaron congratulated Bonds for breaking his homerun record, Bonds was indicted on five felony charges in November 2007. These charges, the result of a four-year federal investigation, include perjury and obstruction of justice. 
• The indictment says the government can prove that blood seized in a 2000 raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and tested positive for steroids belonged to Bonds. On December 7, 2007, Bonds will appear in court in the case that includes former Olympic sprinter Marion Jones. If convicted, Bonds could face up to 15 years in prison.
• Despite the controversy, Bonds had another successful season the next year, again hitting 45 home runs and winning the National MVP Award for the seventh time. But he was sidelined most of 2005 with a knee injury.
• During a November exhibition tour of Japan in 2002, Barry befriended David Eckstein. He admired how hard the shortstop worked and even saw something in his swing that he eventually adopted into his own.
• Barry’s dad was a three-time All-Star and led the N.L. in runs scored twice. He was also the MVP of the 1973 All-Star Game.
• Barry and his father are the only players to log five 30-30 seasons. They hold the all-time father-son home run record.
• Barry is the only player ever to hit two doubles in the All-Star Game.
• Barry is baseball all-time leader in bases on balls, with more than 2,500.
• Barry has homered off of more than 400 pitchers in his career.
• Barry is the only player to slug .600 or more eight years in a row.
• Barry’s seven MVP awards are the most in history.
• In 2006, ESPN aired a series called "Bonds on Bonds." It was cancelled because of creative differences and poor ratings.
• Among the baseball stars that preceded Barry at Junipero Serra High School were Jim Fregosi and Danny Frisella. Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also attended the school.
• On April 13, 2011, Bonds was convicted of a single count of obstruction of justice. The jury found that Bonds in 2003 had impeded a grand jury investigating performance-enhancing drug use by elite athletes by giving intentionally evasive, false or misleading statements during his testimony. Jurors felt he went out of his way to avoid answering the question of whether his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, had ever injected him.
• The jury also came within one vote of convicting him on a second count, voting, 11-to-1, that he had committed perjury when he told the same grand jury in 2003 that he was never injected by anyone other than his doctor.
• After the verdict, several jurors said that prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to prove that Bonds knew he was using steroids during his unrivaled power surge. Bonds, who developed from a gifted and fleet outfielder into the game’s greatest slugger, hit a single-season record 73 home runs in 2001.
• In December, a state court judge sentenced him to 30 days of house arrest, 2 years of probation, 250 hours of community service with youth groups and a $4,000 fine. A lawyer for Bonds said that he would appeal the conviction and would not admit guilt.
• Bonds had said he thought Anderson was giving him flaxseed oil and arthritis balm, not steroids or testosterone.
• In 2006, ESPN aired a series called "Bonds on Bonds." It was cancelled because of creative differences and poor ratings.
• Barry has a three children, Nikolai and Shikari (from his first marriage) and Aisha (from his current marriage to Liz Watson).
• Barry and his former wife, Susann, were wed in 1988, but their marriage ended on bitter terms 13 years later. Barry met the native of Sweden in Montreal, where she was studying to be a beautician. Their divorce settlement was one for the California law books. Susann challenged the validity of their premarital agreement, which was made before Barry earned his big money with the Giants. Though the court ruled he had to pay child support in the neighborhood of $20,000 a month, the judgment upheld the prenup, thus establishing ground rules that have since effected nearly every such pact signed in California.
• Born in Riverside, California, Bonds grew up in San Carlos, California and attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, California and excelled in baseball, basketball and football. As a freshman, he spent the baseball season on the JV team. The next three years—1980 to 1982—he starred on the varsity team. He batted for a .467 batting average his senior year, and was honored as a prep All-American. The Giants drafted Bonds in the second round of the 1982 MLB draft as a high school senior, but the Giants and Bonds were unable to agree on contract terms when Tom Haller's maximum offer was $70,000 ($168,579 today) and Bond's minimum to go pro was $75,000, so Bonds instead decided to attend college.
• Bonds attended Arizona State University, hitting .347 with 45 home runs and 175 runs batted in (RBI).
• In 1984 he batted .360 and had 30 stolen bases. In 1985 he hit 23 home runs with 66 RBIs and a .368 batting average. He was a Sporting News All-American selection that year. He tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996.
• He graduated from Arizona State in 1986 with a degree in criminology. He was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player; other winners include Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Lo Duca, and Ike Davis.
• During college, he played part of one summer in the amateur Alaska Baseball League with the Alaska Goldpanners.
• Bonds was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round (6th overall) of the 1985 Major League Baseball 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.

Super Quotes of Barry Bonds

• Doctors ought to quit worrying about what ballplayers are taking. What players take doesn't matter. It's nobody else's business. The doctors should spend their time looking for cures for cancer. It takes more than muscles to hit homers. If all those guys were using stuff, how come they're not all hitting homers.
• No. I don't have to [use steroids]. I mean, I'm a good enough ballplayer as it is. I don't need to be any better. I can't get any better at this age.
• I never asked. When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.' It was in the ballpark.. in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates, I mean they all saw it. I didn't hide it.
• I don't know Tim Montgomery. I've never met him. When accusations come from someone you don't even know, what can you do?" They'll be talking to my lawyer.
• All you guys lied! All of y'all and the story have lied. Should you have asterisks behind your name? All of you lied. All of you have said something wrong. All of you have dirt. When your closet's clean, then come clean somebody else's..
• I don't know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don't believe it. I don't believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination [and] technically hit a baseball.
• You wanted me to jump off the bridge; I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down, you've finally brought me and my family down. You've finally done it. So now go kick a different person. I'm done. I'll do the best I can and that's about it. [I'm talking about] inner hurt. I'm physically, mentally done. I'm mentally drained. Tired of my kids crying.
• The stronger you get, the more relaxed you get. You feel good. You just let it fly. If you don't feel good, you try so hard to make something happen. You grip the bat harder and swing harder and that's when you tighten up. But you get that edge when you feel strong. That's the way I felt. I felt strong, like I could just try to meet the ball and -- wham! -- it's going to go 1,000 mph. Man, I felt good. I'd think, Damn, this pitcher's in trouble and I'd crush the ball 450 feet with almost no effort. It's all about getting an edge.
• My body was torn up and broken down but it felt good [on steroids]. I felt like a kid. I was running better. I'd be running the bases and think, 'Man, I'm fast!' And I had never been that fast. But I was. Steroids made me like that.
• I don't know what you guys say, but at home, life is way different from baseball.
• I have a chef who makes sure that I'm getting the right amounts of carbs, proteins and fats throughout the day to keep me at my max performance level.
• I never stop looking for things to try and make myself better.
• I think everyone needs to be a role model, period.
• I think some of the pressure comes from the expectations of other people. Like if your father played baseball, they expect you to be the big lifesaver or something when you play a sport.