Former San Francisco Giants player Barry Bonds. Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

What's the place for Giants legend Barry Bonds in MLB?

By Zach Wadley | Last updated Jun 26, 2024 3:59 PM ET

Major League Baseball put on a beautiful show last week at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants served as a celebration of the Negro Leagues and as a memorial for Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who died two days before the game.

Barry Bonds, perhaps the early 21st-century face of performance-enhancing drugs, played a prominent role in the weekend festivities and during a pregame ceremony honoring Mays in San Francisco on Monday.

MLB's home run king and the longtime Giants star is Mays' godson, making his presence almost essential at both events. Yet many are still surprised to see Bonds around the game. The stain of steroids will do that.

Over the weekend in Birmingham, Bonds captained the celebrity softball game with Derek Jeter. Then, he appeared on Fox's pregame show with fellow stars Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Ken Griffey Jr.

Bonds handled the attention well, juggling interviews while dealing with his godfather's death.

Despite his steroid use, Bonds has received a welcome from MLB to return to its stage. In 2016, he served as Miami Marlins hitting coach. Two years later, the Giants retired his No. 25 and in August, the Pittsburgh Pirates will induct him into their Hall of Fame.

Bonds, nearly 60, has been retired for 17 years, but the steroids issue will dog him forever, fair or not.

In 2021, Bonds earned a high of 66 percent of votes in his 10th and final year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame (players need 75% to be inducted). In 2022, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee gave him just four votes from the 16 voters (12 were needed to qualify).

Bonds will have another chance with the committee in 2026, but he shouldn't hold out hope that he'll ever be enshrined in Cooperstown.

On one hand, he was an electric player with HOF-worthy numbers before steroids entered the picture. Besides admitting to taking steroids, Bonds was prickly with the media and teammates. Fans loved him in his city, but he didn't enjoy universal adulation as Griffey did.

His story is compelling and bewildering.

The game's history can't be told without Bonds, who won seven MVPs. To a generation, he was the greatest player ever.

Time heals wounds, and perhaps it's slowly healing the wound many feel Bonds and other steroid-fueled sluggers left in the game. To some, he's the king. To others, he's a villain.

Maybe both can be true.

Zach Wadley

Zach Wadley's sportswriting career began at the age of 12 when he started covering Little League games for his local newspaper. Since then, he's worked in the sports information field where he merged his love of writing, social media, and broadcasting. He is a graduate of Anderson University (IN).

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