Throughout the history of the sport we like to call “America's Pastime” there have been plenty of exceptional ballplayers. Names such as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mike Trout, and plenty of others come to mind when discussing the all-time greats. Of all the names that come to mind, there is often one name that is usually met with an asterisk next to it: Barry Bonds. Why is that you might ask? It’s not because of the 7 NL MVP awards. It isn't because of the 8 Gold Glove awards. And it most definitely is not because of his 762 career home runs, right? Barry Bonds would have been without a doubt the greatest player to ever step foot on a baseball diamond. He would’ve been if it hadn’t been because of The Mitchell Report written by George John Mitchell when it was released to the public in December of 2007.

“Born to be the Best”

Barry Lamar Bonds was born on July 24,1964 in Riverside, California. He was born to play ball. It was in his blood. After all, he is the son of 3x gold glover Bobby Bonds, and he is a distant cousin of Mr. October, Reggie Jackson. Willie Mays is his godfather for goodness sake! He was literally born to be the best. How could this all go so wrong? Bonds attended the alma mater of Reggie Jackson, Arizona State University from 1982 to 1986. He tore up the collegiate scene with his .347 career batting average, 45 home runs, and 175 total RBIs. He was even causing trouble for opposing pitchers on the base pads, stealing 30 bases during his 1984 sophomore campaign. He was easily the best player on the team all throughout his 4 year tenure. He graduated from ASU in 1986 with a degree in criminology, which is pretty ironic… His reign of terror amongst the collegiate level caught the attention of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Bonds was selected with the 6th overall pick in the 1985 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Humble Beginnings

Barry Bonds made his official Major League Baseball debut on May 30, 1986 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at 21 years of age with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played center field and wore the number 7. He batted leadoff and ended the game going 0 for 5 with one base on balls. The Dodgers won the ballgame 6-4 in 11 innings. Bonds then went on to finish his rookie campaign 6th in the National League Rookie of the Year award voting, with a .223 batting average, 92 hits in 484 plate appearances, and 102 strikeouts. It’s safe to say that Bonds wasn’t an instant hit. He continued to post similar statistics for the next 3 seasons up until the 1990 season. That’s when things started to change for Bonds.

1sts

Bonds began the 1990 regular season with the Pirates going 1 for 3 with a hit and two walks against the New York Mets in Shea Stadium on April 9th. He got off to a relatively slow start, going 9 games until he would eventually tally his first of many home runs of the season in the 10th game versus the St. Louis Cardinals. He would have glimpses of greatness every so often; a 2 homer game here and there, but in all, it was a fairly decent first month of the season with Bonds tallying 19 hits in 60 at-bats, a measly 4 home runs, and a .317 batting average. He put up similar numbers for the rest of the season. He was unable to tally double digit home runs for any of the months in the year, but boy could he get on base. All in all, Bonds completed his 1990 campaign batting a notch above .300 with 33 home runs and a staggering 52 stolen bases. He was named to his first of 14 all-star games, he won his first of 8 Gold Glove awards, his first of 12 Silver Slugger awards, and the first of his MLB record 7 National League MVP awards. He would also make his first of 9 playoff appearances. Bonds and the Pirates would lose to the eventual World Series Champions Cincinnati Reds in 6 games during the National League Championship Series.

End of an Era

Bonds would go on to play two more seasons with Pittsburgh, winning another MVP award, being named to his second all-star game, winning two more Gold Glove awards and two more Silver Slugger awards. Bonds and the Pirates would make two more postseason ventures in 1991 and 1992, losing to Cy Young award winner Tom Glavine and the Atlanta Braves in game 7 of the NLCS on both occasions. Barry Bonds would end his 7 year tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates and would head to the west of the United States in pursuit of a World Series championship, signing with the San Francisco Giants on December 6, 1992.

The 90s

Bonds began his time with the Giants claiming his 3rd NL MVP award in the 1993 regular season; a season in which he led the National League in home runs for the first time in his career with 46 round trippers. It was especially odd for Bonds to be leading the league in home runs let alone hit 46 out of what many considered to be the most difficult stadium to take someone deep, Candlestick Park. Not that Bonds wasn’t a good hitter, it’s just that there were plenty of better guys in the league at that time, especially home run hitters. Bonds wouldn’t win another NL MVP award for the rest of the 1990s, but he still made sure to make his presence known as one of the most prominent players in the league. The Giants wouldn’t make a playoff appearance until 1997, where they were swept by the eventual World Series champions Florida Marlins in the first 3 games of the National League Division Series. In all, it is safe to say that Barry Bonds was one of the best players of the 1990s.

Winds of Change 

At the turn of the decade, we continued to get what was expected from Barry Bonds. He had established himself as an eminent power hitter in the league. He hit 49 home runs in the 2000 regular season. Bonds had already begun to show signs of fatigue as a fielder as he had won his final Gold Glove award two years prior during the 1998 regular season. Bonds and the Giants made their way back to the playoffs after a 3 year hiatus, though they lost three games to one against the eventual National League champions New York Mets. All in all, the 2000 MLB season was a good one for Bonds, as he finished 2nd in the NL MVP voting behind fellow Giants teammate Jeff Kent. After hanging around the middle ground for the previous two seasons, Barry Bonds found himself amongst the best players in the Major Leagues once again. Entering the 2001 regular season, Barry Bonds was on a mission to separate himself from the pack. He wanted to prove to the baseball world that he was the best, and there would be no debating it.

2001 Season

Barry Bonds entered the 2001 regular season with a noticeably larger physique than he had in years prior. He was 36 years old so it was very strange that he had gotten much stronger. By the time he had entered the 2001 season, Bonds had already accumulated 3 NL MVP awards, 8 Gold Glove awards, and 8 Silver Slugger awards. At 36 years of age, he was noticeably slowing down as he stole only 11 bases a year prior in 2000. If he were to retire at the beginning of the season, he would have surely been a first ballot hall of famer, but he was still hungry for more of everything. Over the course of the 2001 MLB regular season, Barry Bonds accomplished the unimaginable, something that will most likely never be done again in the history of Major League Baseball. In 2001, Barry Bonds hit an astonishing 73 home runs. It came as a surprise to absolutely nobody that he was named NL MVP for the 5th time in his career, winning 98% of the votes. Another stat that is often overlooked was that he was intentionally walked by opposing pitchers 177 times. Even though the Giants missed out on the postseason that year, Bonds had gotten what he had wanted. After the 2001 regular season, Barry Bonds was the most feared player in all of Major League Baseball.

2002 World Series

In the 2002 regular season Bonds and the Giants would go on to win 95 games and make a deep playoff run, as Bonds would finally catch his first glimpse of the World Series stage. The Giants would lose the series to the then Anaheim Angels in a hard fought 7 game series, but Bonds would most definitely leave his mark. In game 2 of the series, Bonds hit a monstrous home run to right field off of the Angels’ relieving ace Troy Percival. As Bonds is making his way around the bases the camera pans over to the Angels’ right fielder Tim Salmon. Salmon then proclaims “That’s the furthest ball i’ve ever seen hit.” Over the next 5 games of the series Bonds walked a total of 13 times in 17 at-bats. As the Angels celebrated their first World Series title in franchise history, Barry Bonds sat alone in the dark confines of the dugout in defeat.

Final Years

Over the next 5 seasons Barry Bonds would go on to win 3 more NL MVP awards and 3 more Silver Slugger awards. He would win a legendary must-see at bat against 2003 Cy Young award winner Eric Gagne in April of 2004, taking him deep at the culmination. Bonds would be walked 636 times and hit 149 home runs. In his final season in 2007 at the age of 42, Bonds would break what was thought to be an unbreakable record in baseball. On August 7, 2007, Barry Bonds hit his 756th career home run off of the Washington Nationals left handed relief pitcher Mike Bacsik in the bottom of the 5th inning at AT&T Park in San Francisco. With this home run, Barry Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron for the most career home runs of all time and became the undisputed home run king. At the end of his 22 year MLB career, Barry Bonds was immortal, or so he thought… 

Train Wreck

At the time of his retirement, Barry Bonds was the king of the baseball world. He concluded his illustrious 22 year career with a grand total of 762 home runs, 2558 bases on balls, and 688 intentional bases on balls, all of which are all-time career records that still stand to this day. Bonds thought that he would be able to ride off into the sunset as the greatest baseball player who had ever lived. He had another thing coming his way that would tarnish his reputation. On December 13, 2007, The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball, informally known as The Mitchell Report was released to the public. It was written by former Democratic US Senator from Maine, George John Mitchell, over a 20 month investigation into the history of the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormones in the MLB. Consisting of 409 pages, the report names 89 MLB players who were alleged to have been using steroids or other performance enhancing drugs over the course of their playing careers. Of the 89 players, the most notable names that were mentioned are Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Roger Clemens, Eric Gagne, Andy Pettitte, Jose Canseco, Mark Mcguire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds. When Bonds was asked about the allegations, he replied by saying that he used a substance for sleeping problems and arthritis. Under the notion that Bonds was lying, a perjury case was held relating to the investigation. In order to fully understand what follows in Bonds’ perjury case, it is vital to understand the events that took place during the infamous BALCO Scandal.

The BALCO Scandal

In 2003, Greg Anderson of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative(BALCO), who was Barry Bonds’ personal trainer since 2000, was indicted by a federal grand jury in California. He was charged with supplying anabolic steroids to a number of baseball players. Due to the fact that Anderson was Bonds’ trainer, many believed that Bonds had been using during a time when there was no mandatory testing in the league. Bonds pleaded his innocence and stated that his changed physique and titanic power was a result of a strict bodybuilding workout regimen, a steady diet, and legitimate supplements. On December 4, 2003 in front of a grand jury, Bonds claimed that he had used a clear substance and a cream that was given to him by his personal strength trainer(Greg Anderson) who told him they were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis. Bonds’ testimony was leaked and the public was made aware of the fact that Bonds had admitted to have been using “The Clear”, a form of the designer steroid THG and “The Cream”, which was discovered to be a concoction designed to mask certain hormone ratios which helped the user to beat drug tests. The trial continued for another two years and in August of 2005, all four defendants involved in the BALCO steroid scandal, including Greg Anderson, were able to reach an agreement with the federal prosecutors that did not require them to reveal the names of athletes who may have used banned drugs.                         

Perjury Investigation

 Years after the BALCO scandal, federal investigators began to look into whether or not Bonds had been dishonest during his 2003 grand jury testimony. The United States Attorney’s Office in San Francisco provided sufficient evidence before another grand jury to determine if Bonds should be indicted on account of perjury. Before the initial testimony in 2003, witnesses including Bonds were told that they could not be charged with any crime other than perjury based on their testimony. On July 5, 2006, Greg Anderson was found in contempt of court for refusing to testify against Bonds in relation to the ongoing perjury investigation. Anderson was arrested, denied bail, and was immediately sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. Shortly after, federal prosecutors obtained Bonds’ medical files. Barry Bonds’ former girlfriend claimed that Bonds blamed an elbow injury on steroid use. On August 17, 2006, prosecutors publicly acknowledged that they were indeed targeting Bonds for the first time during the investigation after keeping quiet to the public as to who and what they were looking into. Although, the investigation was put on pause for about a year due to the fact that there was no truly sufficient evidence present during the case.

“A Sad Day in Baseball”

On November 15, 2007, a month and two days before the Mitchell Report would be published, Barry Bonds was charged with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The charges primarily focused on Bonds’ responses to the grand jury in his 2003 testimony, specifically his denials when asked if he had used steroids. The San Francisco Giants, Major League Baseball and its players’ union all expressed sadness at the indictment. Even the White House weighed in, calling it “a sad day in baseball.” On December 15, 2011, Barry Bonds was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation, and 250 hours of community service for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003.

Legacy

Barry Bonds was an anomaly in the sport of baseball. He was like no one we have ever seen. He could do everything; fielding, baserunning, and he could especially hit. Bonds was already on pace to be a first ballot hall of famer well before he started using steroids. That is why it makes what happened substantially more disappointing. The fact of the matter is that with 3 NL MVP awards, 8 Silver Slugger awards, and 8 Gold Glove awards already to his name by the time he was 33 years old, which was before he started juicing, Barry Bonds was hitherto arguably the greatest player to ever play baseball. To put it into more simple terms, he didn’t need the juice. Steroids cost Bonds a spot in cooperstown, but more essentially, it cost him his legacy. Bonds became the poster boy for the “Steroid Era” in Major League Baseball after his federal indictment. Who was once a player that was one of those “once in a lifetime” type athletes, was nothing more than a fraud, a con artist, a cheater. Though, Barry Bonds does occupy one particular spot in cooperstown: His 756th home run baseball, branded with the one thing that Bonds is ultimately defined by, an asterisk.