Bay Area Baseball

Barry Bonds made his return to Major League Baseball yesterday after being invisible for the first four months of the season

Although he wasn’t even around for the end of the game, the big news revolving around yesterday’s Giants – Dodgers match up was Barry Lamar Bonds. The Giants’ 50th anniversary celebration of former outfielders was highlighted by Bonds’ surprise appearance. While the majority of the alumni came out to polite applause from the Giants’ dugout, Bonds came in to raucous applause from the area of the field he claimed as his own, left field at AT&T Park.

Bonds’ return to AT&T was the first time that many fans have seen the quasi-retired home run king this season at the park. While Bonds has remained adamant in his desire to continue playing, even saying, “I haven’t retired, thank you,” not one team has taken the plunge and offered him a contract. The stigma of steroid accusations and perjury charges around Bonds are the obvious reason, but the overriding factor in his “blackballing” is that teams are putting their off the field success over their on the field success. This is a relatively new concept in the sports world, where athletes like Ray Lewis, Mike Tyson, “don’t call me Pacman anymore” Jones, Kobe Bryant and countless others have all been given second chances after off the field transgressions.

While there is no doubt that Bonds could help any of the 30 teams in the majors, teams have chosen to instead eschew the perceived negative attention that he would bring. While his departure from the Giants was highly awkward, his reception by the fans in San Francisco shows that he is still the man in the city by the bay. While his future in baseball is certainly cloudy, his legendary status as one of the all time greats is nonetheless cemented.

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