When the Pittsburgh Pirates announced their franchise Hall of Fame class for 2024 back in May, Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen were universally applauded at PNC Park.
They’ll both hear a similar ovation Saturday when the induction ceremony takes place.
That’s no surprise given that Leyland managed the Bucs to three straight National League East pennants from 1990-92, and Sanguillen was part of two World Series winners in 1971 and ‘79.
Not to mention, both are beloved by those who rooted for teams in that era and still are today because of the extent to which they’ve maintained relationships with the franchise.
For the third member of the class — Major League Baseball home run king Barry Bonds — the response was still slightly split three months ago. While most cheered his name when it was announced, there were a few boos scattered in the upper reaches of the stadium.
For those that did cheer, the reaction wasn’t as overwhelmingly enthusiastic as you’d expect for a player of his stature in team history.
Bonds did leave for San Francisco in free agency after the 1992 season, following a third-straight disappointing postseason performance. Not to mention, many in Pittsburgh were put off by the acrimonious way in which Bonds approached his contract negotiations, even two years before his departure, his frequently acerbic personality, the steroid allegations that followed him for decades beyond his career, his petulant claims that Pittsburgh was never satisfied with his skills and that the fanbase was racist in how it treated Bobby Bonilla when he returned to Pittsburgh as a member of the New York Mets.
There was also that infamous spring training blow-up between Bonds and Leyland in 1991, an incident that Leyland has often stated he wishes he would’ve handled differently.
Speaking with me on Thursday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, Leyland said that if fans have any hard feelings about Bonds, it’s time to bury them.
“I hope the wounds have healed. Let’s face it, at the time we offered Barry Bonds $25 million,” Leyland said of Bonds’ departure before the 1993 season. “At that time, he ended up with ($43) million. I hope people understand that. I know people get upset with stuff like that from time to time. But that’s just the way it is.”
Leyland also insists that Bonds does not harbor bitterness toward the city or the team that he may have expressed when he threatened to “haunt the Pittsburgh Pirates” as “the one team I will beat up on” if they didn’t offer him a contract to his liking during the winter of 1991.
“Barry Bonds loved Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds had absolutely nothing against Pittsburgh. He loved it here. But we were not going to be able to sustain a payroll that was going to include contracts like that at the time,” Leyland insisted.
It’s Leyland’s belief that Bonds’ talents and accomplishments here — two MVPs as a Pirate, a contributor on three division championship squads, three Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers — are worthy of permanent enshrinement at PNC Park.
“He’s arguably one of the best players to ever play the game,” Leyland said. “That’s a thrill for me to manage a player like that. They don’t come around very often.”
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With “bygones will be bygones” moments like this one happening in Pittsburgh on Saturday for Bonds, it’s worth wondering if someday a similar situation will occur in Cooperstown and if Bonds will somehow gain entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Leyland was just enshrined there last month.
“When people ask me, ‘Is Barry Bonds a Hall of Famer,’ I say that’s not really the question to ask,” Leyland said. “The question is, ‘Will Barry Bonds get into the Hall of Fame?’ And I don’t know if he will or not.”
The politics of Bonds’ role in the steroid era may prevent that from ever happening. But where Leyland makes the best case for supporting the Pirates’ decision to induct Bonds into the franchise’s pantheon Saturday is his suggestion that it is important to reiterate to younger fans that a player of Bonds caliber once wore a Pirates jersey before his more famed days with the San Francisco Giants.
“A lot of younger people now don’t even remember us,” Leyland said. “Older people remember us. But there are probably a lot of young Pirates fans who don’t even know who Jim Leyland was.”
If that’s true, it’s a shame. And, theoretically, it shouldn’t take a plaque in center field to remind young Pittsburgh fans about Leyland’s impact here, Sanguillen’s role in two championships, and how Bonds’ MLB legacy began on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
I knew who Roberto Clemente, Ralph Kiner, Honus Wagner and Bill Mazeroski were. They played long before I was ever alive.
But if it takes a walk through the outfield with a father pointing at a wall and telling his quizzical 10-year-old kid that, yeah, Barry Bonds broke in as a Pirate and nearly got this rudderless franchise to the World Series three times, then for that reason alone, Bonds needs to be inducted.
If it takes Leyland and Sanguillen to be on the field with him to smooth over any remaining discomfort, so be it.
I’m not even sure if the main goal is to make sure Bonds has as good of a time as possible. I do think the main goal is to remember the good times this franchise enjoyed in the ’70s and the ’90s.
Because if Leyland is right, and a portion of the fanbase can’t remember back to when he and Bonds and those other Pirates from the ’90s were kings of this city, then it surely won’t remember what it was like when this club won a World Series in 1979.
Enshrining Bonds will give them a first-hand reminder. For that reason alone, it’s worth it.
Listen: Tim Benz interviews Jim Leyland about getting inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.