Barry Bonds still hoping for Hall of Fame induction: ‘I believe at some point it will happen’
Barry Bonds hasn’t lost hope that one day he’ll be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Despite falling short of the 75% threshold while earning just 66% of the BBWAA vote in his 10th and final year on the ballot in 2022, and then again falling short when a 16-member veterans committee gave him fewer than four votes last December, Bonds still thinks he might get inducted one day.
Speaking on the Hollywood Swingin’ podcast, Bonds said he’s hoping the votes change in 2025, when the veterans committee votes again.
“There’s a possibility,” Bonds said. “I belong with my teammates in that Hall of Fame, 100%. I’m not going to jade it out. The dream is still there as long as there’s a ballot for it. It can happen when I’m 60 or 70 or whenever. Hopefully I don’t have to wait that long or hopefully I’m not dead.”
The veterans committe is comprised of Hall of Famers, baseball executives and writers. It votes every three years. Bonds is off the BBWAA ballot for good.
Bonds said he’s most bothered by it because as an African-American, “all my black brothers that came through the game are all gone.”
He named some of his mentors and said Willie Mays, 92, “is old,” while Willie McCovey, Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson have all died.
“There are a lot of my idols that are not there,” Bonds said. “I hope my mom is still around if it does happen. I don’t know, my mom could be dead. It could never happen. If it never happens, it never happens, but in the scheme of it, I believe at some point it will happen and I’ll be able to say thank you to my African-American brothers who came up in my time and mentored me and gave me a path in MLB. I want to say thank you to them.”
Bonds said public perception doesn’t match the facts of the court cases. He was exonerated of perjury charges from a 2003 grand-jury testimony about using performance enhancing drugs. His only penalty was an obstruction of justice conviction in 2011, but that was overturned in a 2015 appeal.
“People have to understand something,” he said. “The fact is, I was vindicated. I went to the court. I was in federal court and won my case, 100%. Where is the vindication of me in my own sport? That’s what bothers me.”
Bonds never failed a drug test by MLB, which didn’t start testing players for steroids until 2003, and didn’t begin penalizing them for positive tests until 2004, when Bonds was 39 years old.
“In my era there were no rules,” he said.
And those who were caught and suspended for their actions after the rules were created shouldn’t be penalized again when it comes to Hall of Fame voting, he said.
“MLB already punished you for those,” Bonds said. “Why is the HOF punishing you?”
Bonds also spent time on the podcast discussing the changes to the modern game. He believes the increased fastball velocity from pitchers is overblown. He said that because everybody throws 95 mph, it isn’t as difficult to hit as it was during his career, when only relief specialists threw that hard and it forced hitters to make in-game adjustments.
Even at 58 years old, Bonds believes he could still hit off current big league pitchers.
“I don’t care how hard you throw it, I can still hit,” he said. “Can I hit it as far? No, I’m not in physical shape to do that. But can I hit the baseball? For sure.”
He said it’s easier to be an offensive player in the modern game because he thinks pitchers rarely throw up-and-in to back players off the plate.
“Guys just take batting practice,” he said. “Nobody gets hit (by pitches). Nobody gets knocked down.”
The statistics don’t agree. Hit-by-pitches have gone up drastically over the last three years, with more than 2,000 hit batters in both 2021 and 2022.
In 1990, when Bonds won his first of seven National League MVP awards, there were only 861 hit batters.
Still, he seems to appreciate the new era of the game in which players are allowed to celebrate after going deep.
“If you tell me I can go up to the plate, swing a bat, flip it into the stands, high-five everybody out there and not get my head taken off, I’m going to hit a home run every time up,” he said. “I used to have to get to the plate, hit a home run, come up the next at-bat, not even flip my bat or do anything, and know that I’m definitely still going to get hit regardless. I have to stay in the box and learn how to dodge it and swing the bat at the same time.
“It’s just different. It’s a different era. And I don’t think a player should get hit.”