PITTSBURGH – Barry Bonds was humble.
That is a sentence I’ve rarely written about the major leagues’ all-time home-run king.
I covered Bonds’ last five seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1988-92. He did not get humbled on the field while developing into one of the greatest players in baseball history.
And Bonds certainly was not humble off the field. He was good, knew it and wasn’t shy about telling other people about it. Bonds could also be moody, arrogant, aloof and condescending.
Bonds lived live with a chip on his shoulder.
Yet that veneer faded Saturday when Bonds was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame along with Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen at PNC Park. He gave an eloquent speech and showed gratitude toward the Pirates, their fans and the city of Pittsburgh.
Bonds talked about getting drafted in the first round in 1985 from Arizona State and how he was excited about going to a team that had finished in last place in the National League East.
“I knew I’d get a chance to play quicker in Pittsburgh,” Bonds said with a smile.
However, Bonds also took a more serious tone about his induction. Though he sparred with the media a bit following the ceremony – being shut out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame understandably strikes a nerve – he was touched and humbled by the honor.
Bonds talked about when the Pirates first informed him earlier this year that they wanted to induct him.
“I was just shocked it was happening. We didn’t have a Hall of Fame thing when we were here,” Bonds said. “We didn’t know how Pittsburgh (handled something like this) so I was a little shocked. It’s nice coming back to a place where it started for me. This is where it started, my career.”
Bonds broke in with the Pirates on May 30, 1986, and it was an inauspicious debut as he went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in a 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Three Rivers Stadium.
I was on fill-in duty that night for the Beaver County Times and my most vivid memory of Bonds was sitting desponded at his locker after the game, looking like he thought he would never get another chance to take a major-league at-bat.
However, it only went up from there. Bonds became a star and won the National League MVP in 1990 and 1992. He left for his hometown San Francisco Giants as a free agent after the ’92 season and wound up with 762 career homers and seven NL MVP awards.
Bonds felt it was fitting that Leyland was inducted on the same day. Bonds’ rookie year coincided with Leyland’s as a big-league manager.
“We didn’t know anything about Jim Leyland, and he didn’t know anything about us,” Bonds said. “When he first came in, he simplified everything. His expectations weren’t high. Just demanded respect and for us to do our job. We had to be there on time and give us what we got and prepare yourself the best way to prepare yourself, but he expected us, game time or practice time, to be prepared for those times as a team.
“He was really the perfect manager for a 21-year-old kid like me.”
The biggest question surrounding Saturday’s festivities is how the PNC Park crowd would respond to Bonds. Some fans have never forgiven Bonds for his part in the Pirates falling short in the National League Championship Series for three straight years from 1990-92.
But Bonds got a loud ovation from the overflow crowd and the fans began chanting “Bar-ry” at the end of his speech. It was a nice tribute to one of the greatest players in Pirates’ history.
“I love you, Pittsburgh,” Bonds said.
Pittsburgh loved him Bonds back on Saturday, especially with the chip now off his shoulder.