Barry Bonds

Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB).

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 ($0 today) and Bonds'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.

Before Bonds made it to the major leagues in Pittsburgh, Pirate fan attendance was low, with 1984 and 1985 attendance below 10,000 per game for the 81-game home schedule, with attendance woes being a combination of the economic problems of Western Pennsylvania in the early 1980s as well as the Pittsburgh drug trials that directly affected the Pirates going from World Series champions to nearly relocating to Denver in only six years.

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.

The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bonds as the sixth overall pick of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft.

He joined the Prince William Pirates of the Carolina League and was named July 1985 Player of the Month for the league.

Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2007.

He is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Recognized as an all-around player, Bonds received a record seven National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Awards and 12 Silver Slugger Awards, along with 14 All-Star selections.

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.

In 1986, he hit .311 in 44 games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League.

Bonds made his major league debut on May 30, 1986.

In 1986, Bonds led National League (NL) rookies with 16 home runs, 48 RBI, 36 stolen bases, and 65 walks, but he finished 6th in Rookie of the Year voting.

He played center field in 1986 but switched to left field with the arrival of centerfielder Andy Van Slyke in 1987.

In his early years, Bonds batted as the leadoff hitter.

With Van Slyke also in the outfield, the Pirates had a venerable defensive tandem that worked together to cover a lot of ground on the field although they were not close off the field.

The Pirates experienced a surge in fan enthusiasm with Bonds on the team and set the club attendance record of 52,119 in the 1987 home opener.

That year, he hit 25 home runs in his second season, along with 32 stolen bases and 59 RBIs.

Bonds improved in 1988, hitting .283 with 24 home runs.

He tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as a sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996.

Bonds was not well-liked by his Sun Devil teammates, in part because in the words of longtime coach Jim Brock, he was "rude, inconsiderate and self-centered."

When he was suspended for breaking curfew, the other players initially voted against his return even though he was easily the best player on the team.

He holds many MLB hitting records, including most career home runs (762), most home runs in a single season (73, set in 2001), and most career walks.

Bonds led MLB in on-base plus slugging six times and placed within the top five hitters in 12 of his 17 qualifying seasons.

For his defensive play in the outfield, he won eight Gold Glove Awards.

He also had 514 stolen bases, becoming the first and only MLB player to date with at least 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases.

Bonds is ranked first in career Wins Above Replacement among all major league position players by Baseball-Reference.com and second by FanGraphs, behind only Babe Ruth.

Despite his accolades, Bonds led a controversial career, notably as a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal.

He was indicted in 2007 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury during the federal government's investigation of BALCO, a manufacturer of an undetectable steroid.

After the perjury charges were dropped, Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2011, but the conviction was overturned in 2015.

During his 10 years of eligibility, he did not receive the 75% of the vote needed to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Some voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) stated they did not vote for Bonds because he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds was born in Riverside, California, to Patricia (née Howard) and former major leaguer Bobby Bonds, and grew up in San Carlos and attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football.

He played on the junior varsity team during his freshman year and on the varsity team for the remainder of his high school career.

He garnered a .467 batting average his senior year, and was named prep All-American.