Where Bonds ranks on ESPN’s list of top 100 21st century athletes

Where Bonds ranks on ESPN’s list of top 100 21st century athletes originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Barry Bonds is one of, if not the greatest MLB hitter of all time. His legacy is open to debate, but there is no debating his place in baseball history.

Or professional sports as a whole.

ESPN recently ranked the top 100 athletes of the 21st century (since 2000), and Bonds, along with Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry, both represented the Bay Area in the top half of the list.

38. Barry Bonds, baseball

Key accomplishments: Since Jan. 1, 2000: 317 home runs (MLB-record 73 in 2001), 1,128 walks, four consecutive MVPs (2001-04), six-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, two batting titles.

“Bonds is the best living baseball player, and never was he better than the eight seasons he played this century,” Jeff Passan wrote. “In that time, he smashed the single-season home run record, got on base at a 51.7% clip — a figure last reached in an individual year by Ted Williams in 1957 — and came as close as anyone to mastering the art of hitting. Bonds’ steroid use has kept him out of the Hall of Fame, but those who witnessed him play know: 21st-century Bonds was the closest we’ve seen to Babe Ruth.”

Arguably the greatest MLB hitter of all time ranked No. 38 might come as a surprise at first, but the list consists exclusively of athletes who played from 2000 to the current day. Bonds made his MLB debut in 1986 and played the majority of his career (14 seasons) before the turn of the century. He only played eight seasons from 2000-2007.

The 37 players ranked above Bonds are:

1. Michael Phelps, swimming

2. Serena Williams, tennis

3. Lionel Messi, soccer

4. LeBron James, basketball

5. Tom Brady, football

6. Roger Federer, tennis

7. Simone Biles, gymnastics

8. Tiger Woods, golf

9. Usain Bolt, track

10. Kobe Bryant, basketball

11. Novak Djokovic, tennis

12. Rafael Nadal, tennis

13. Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer

14. Stephen Curry, basketball

15. Katie Ledecky, swimming

16. Tim Duncan, basketball

17. Shaquille O’Neal, basketball

18. Patrick Mahomes, football

19. Lewis Hamilton, auto racing

20. Aaron Donald, football

21. Diana Taurasi, basketball

22. Sidney Crosby, hockey

23. Kevin Garnett, basketball

24. Albert Pujols, baseball

25. Floyd Mayweather, boxing

26. Peyton Manning, football

27. Randy Moss, football

28. Nikola Jokic, basketball

29. Michael Schumacher, auto racing

30. Mike Trout, baseball

31. Clayton Kershaw, baseball

32. Marta, soccer

33. Miguel Cabrera, baseball

34. Tamika Catchings, basketball

35. Dwyane Wade, basketball

36. Maya Moore, basketball

37. Ichiro Suzuki, baseball

Among the 100 athletes on the list who have played in the 21st century, Bonds is the fifth-highest-ranked baseball player behind Pujols, Trout, Kershaw, Cabrera and Suzuki and one of 17 total baseball players on the list, including Justin Verlander (No. 40), Alex Rodriguez (43), David Ortiz (45), Max Scherzer (46), Adrian Beltré (52), Derek Jeter (53), Mariano Rivera (59), Shohei Ohtani (62), Mookie Betts (73), Bryce Harper (79), Roy Halladay (88) and Pedro Martinez (92).

Did ESPN get Bonds’ ranking correct?

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