Barry Bonds has long held out hope that he might someday make the Baseball Hall of Fame, but even he appears to be giving up on that dream.
Long excluded from the Hall of Fame over years of PED allegations, Bonds was inducted into the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Hall of Fame as part of a ceremony on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, Bonds confessed that he has long given up on making it to Cooperstown, and is instead focused on his family and honors such as this one.
“I don’t have to worry about those things no more in my life,” Bonds said, via Will Graves of the Associated Press. “(I want to) hang around my grandchildren and my children. Those hopes (of making the Hall of Fame), I don’t have them anymore. I hope to breathe tomorrow (and see) if I can make it to 61.”
Bonds is simply accepting reality here. If he was going to be elected, it likely would have happened by now. He has admitted in the past that the omission bothers him, but perhaps he is even starting to move on from that.
Strictly by the numbers, Bonds is a first-ballot Hall of Famer on the strength of 762 home runs and some of the greatest statistical feats of his generation. However, his alleged steroid usage cast a cloud on his accomplishments, and he dropped off the ballot in 2022. Thus far, the Veterans’ Committee has also refused to induct him, meaning he probably won’t be going in.