Why Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time best player. | Sports on Earth Barry Bonds, shown here in 2002, was intentionally walked 688 times in his career -- and pitchers that didn't walk him often regretted it. (Getty Images) Best. Not greatest: best. I want no part of the word "greatest." This time of year it barely even means anything outside of whatever post-hoc definition is needed to support other arguments.

If we're going to talk about Barry Bonds's place in baseball history, let's kick "greatest" to the same curb where we left "most valuable" a few weeks back and focus instead on best, which in relation to sports we can take to mean "demonstrating the absolute highest standard of performance and ability in his field, both in relation to his contemporaries and his historical predecessors." We're also going to use the word "player" here not only to differentiate Bonds from the guys who throw off a mound for a living but to avoid the word "hitter," as there are few things I'm less interested in doing than debating whether or not Ted Williams hitting .400 or Pete Rose having 4256 career hits means either of them were the best "pure hitter" of all time. "Pure hitting," or what scouts call the contact tool, is just one facet of the skillset a batter brings to the plate. Obviously neither Williams nor Rose were slouches in the other two primary aspects of hitting -- discipline and power -- but their contact tools were what made both players legends. First things first: I'm throwing Babe Ruth out of this discussion altogether.

Not only does he have some significant value tied up in pitching, but he played his entire career in the pre-integration era, and I think that's a significant strike against the relative quality of the league in that era. Now, is that Ruth's fault? No, it's not. Does it matter that it's not Ruth's fault? Not even slightly. Comparing players from the various post-integration, post-expansion eras is hard enough without trying to shoehorn in a guy who played in a whites-only league with half the teams. Ruth is being removed from consideration not because he's unqualified, but because there's no good-faith way to truly compare him to Barry Bonds. Ted Williams is going to be collateral damage here too, since his career straddled integration and ended two years before expansion began. Some might find it problematic to toss two of the most highly regarded players in the history of the sport aside so quickly, but it's necessary when considering the evolution of the game and the industry. Baseball in the 1920's and 30's, when Ruth played, might as well be an entirely different sport taking place on an entirely different planet.

With the advent of professionalism, the growth of the sport, and the inexorable forward march of technology, Major League Baseball in 2012 is a higher quality product with stronger, faster, healthier, and -- due to the immediate financial security of their jobs -- more focused players than it was 70 years ago. It's been so long, there's not really even anyone left to have nostalgia for that period of baseball history anymore. Hell, if I'm nostalgic for anything it's the Steroid Era. I miss the dingers. With Ruth and Williams consigned to history, we need to build a list of candidates from the remaining greats. If you trust Wins Above Replacement to provide a ballpark approximation of a player's career value, and I do, then the top five players since integration are Barry Bonds (158.1), Willie Mays (150.8), Hank Aaron (137.3), Alex Rodriguez (111.4), and Rickey Henderson (106.8).

I think these are the right names in the right order; the only other guys over 100 WAR in that time frame are Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, and Frank Robinson, and I'm comfortable saying Rickey and Rodriguez are where they should be in relation to those guys. (Side note on Ted Williams: even though our endpoints have lopped off a significant amount of his value, he's still 24th on the list post-integration. If we make a special exception and give him credit for those years, his career 119.8 WAR puts him between Aaron and Rodriguez. Not sure I disagree with that, either.) Mays and Aaron are from early in the post-integration era, well before expansion began in the '60s, but both men had Hall of Fame careers that took them into the '70s, so we can keep them around. Henderson's a modern-era player through and through, and Rodriguez is still active, but I don't think they pose any credible challenge to the three guys above them. And as much as Hank Aaron's shadow fell over Bonds in the later years of his career, Mays is really his only serious competition.

On full consideration, the list has the guy at the very top correct. * * * But let's say you're the sort of baseball fan who sees WAR capitalized all fancy-like and immediately reaches for your Edwin Starr joke: why should you think Barry Bonds is the best player ever? Do you like awards? Pick any two players in the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds has more MVP awards than both of them combined. Think everything he did while he was a Giant in those crazy home run years is tainted and want to throw it all out? That still leaves him a three-time National League MVP, tied with nine other players for most in MLB history. Eight of those guys are in the Hall already; the ninth is Alex Rodriguez, who should join them five years after he retires. Bonds also has 12 Silver Slugger Awards, giving him a two-trophy lead on the guy with the second most, Mike Piazza. And if you're a fan of Gold Gloves, Bonds has eight -- the most of any left fielder in the history of the sport, beating out Carl Yastrzemski by one.

He also won the NL Batting Title in both 2002 and 2004, if there was any lingering concern that a seven-time MVP couldn't hit for average. All told, Barry Bonds has enough Hall of Fame hardware for him and three of his closest friends. (Seriously though, lay off the Gold Gloves. They're not good for you.) There are more nuanced ways to judge a player's career than awards, however. For example: arbitrary counting-stat milestones! Barry Bonds can do better than just arbitrary counting stat milestones. You're likely aware he's the all-time home runs leader (I can hear some of you screaming "asterisk" at your computer monitor right now; be patient, we'll get there) but he's also the league's all-time leader in walks; his 2258 free passes put a comfortable 368-walk margin between him and Rickey Henderson in second, even though Rickey played for three more years. It's that discipline and selectivity that probably kept him from breaking 3000 hits; Bonds retired with 2935 to his name, good for 32nd all-time.

No one's going to hold 32nd against him though; excluding players who are still active or not eligible for enshrinement, everyone in the top 50 has been inducted into the Hall. Put up against baseball's historical record, Bonds looks fantastic. That's to be expected: he played in the greatest offensive era in the history of the game and a lot of those other guys did not. So how did Bonds fare against his peers? In August 1997, then-Chicago Cub starter Geremi Gonzalez faced Barry Bonds 6 times in 6 days, and all 6 times he sat Barry Bonds down. The two would never face each other again. Gonzalez holds the distinction of being the only pitcher to ever face Bonds more than five times and not allow him on base. That's how Bonds generally fared against his peers: if he got more than an afternoon's worth of work in against a guy, he solved him.

Bonds spent the first seven years of his career in Pittsburgh, and if he'd retired after them or switched sports or just disappeared into the sky one night he'd have had one of the most intriguing Hall of Fame candidacies of all time: a white-hot peak with three MVP awards (almost four in a row -- he received the honor in 1990, then finished second in MVP voting in 1991, then won it again in 1992 and 1993) worth 48.6 WAR, which would rank him 45th out of the 108 Hall of Fame position players who played in the post-expansion era, accruing more value in seven years than guys like Bill Mazeroski, Jim Rice and Kirby Puckett did their whole careers. Had Bonds up and vanished off the face of the planet in the winter of 1992, his career might've become a footnote in the most bittersweet dream of what could've been in baseball history. Instead Barry Bonds went to San Francisco and unleashed an unholy terror upon the National League.

It's important to remember that Bonds was a complete player, dominant in all aspects of the game for the majority of his career. This gets lost sometimes in the fallout from everything that came afterwards. Coming up, Bonds played centerfield; the Pirates moved him to left not because he couldn't handle the position or because he bulked up out of it but because they'd just given Andy Van Slyke a whole lot of money, and Andy Van Slyke played a good centerfield. So Bonds became the best left fielder in baseball instead. He was elite on the basepaths as well. When he was young he was fast, when he was old he was smart, and in the years in between he was hell for the guy on the mound. Over the course of his career Bonds stole 514 bases at a 78% clip, the 16th-most by any player since integration, and swiped more efficiently than Juan Pierre (591, 75%), Otis Nixon (620, 77%), or Lou Brock (938, 75%). But Bonds will always be remembered foremost for what he did with his bat 762 times across 22 years.

It sort of washes the other, littler accomplishments away, being the Home Run King. After a while one imagines they start to slip together in the mind. When you hit the most home runs in the history of the sport, the list of guys you've gone yard off of is going to end up long and diverse. For Bonds it includes: Mike and Greg Maddux, Pedro and Ramon Martinez, Tim and Todd Worrell, and two of the three Perez brothers, Carlos and Pascual (he never faced Melido, who pitched in the American League); Randy Johnson, arguably the best left-handed pitcher in baseball history, and Casey Fossum, arguably the worst; every member of the 2001-2004 Oakland Athletics starting rotation; every member of the 1995 Atlanta Braves starting rotation; Felix Hernandez, the current ace of the Seattle Mariners; Bud Black, the current manager of the San Diego Padres; Jerry Dipoto, the current general manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; fireballer Eric Gagne; knuckleballer Tim Wakefield; screwballer Fernando Valenzuela; and two different men named Greg Harris.

After joining the Giants in 1993, he wouldn't post a yearly OPS under 1.000 for the next thirteen seasons. When he finally did, it was .999 in 2006, and then the following season, Bonds's last in professional baseball, he went right back over 1.000. Considering the run-scoring environment at the time, a 1.000 OPS meant less in the 90s than it would right now, but not much less. Between 2001 and 2004, Bonds didn't post an OPS below 1.200. Now you might say, all right, sure, 1.200 is bigger than 1.000 by a non-negligible degree, but what does that really mean in game terms? Well, what it means in game terms is that after he went out and hit 73 home runs in 2001, the managers of Major League Baseball decided they'd seen just about enough of Barry Bonds. So they began walking him. On purpose. All the time.

The intentional walk is the highest on-field compliment a hitter can be paid by his opponent unless his pitcher is hitting behind him. Bonds received 688 free passes in his career, but only had fifteen plate appearances out of the eighth spot. They were compelled by something beyond respect or even fear. You'll sometimes hear people say Boston slugger and Hall of Famer Jim Rice was the "most feared" hitter of his day. Rice was intentionally walked a total of 77 times across his 16 year career. Bonds was intentionally walked 77 times between April 5th and July 18th, 2004. Managers didn't really fear Barry Bonds, any more than grass fears a lawnmower; fear requires a measure of uncertainty, and the lawnmower does its same deadly thing every time it rolls by. Managers usually order the intentional walk when first base is open, there are runners in scoring position and at least one out's been recorded in the inning. However, 75 of Bonds' career IBB came with a runner already on first base, meaning giving him a free pass advanced at least one runner.

Thirty-four of those 75 came with a runner on third as well -- walking Bonds not only advanced a runner, but loaded the bases. And on May 28th, 1998, Barry Bonds became the first player in major league history to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded. With his Diamondbacks leading the Giants 8-6 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, manager Buck Showalter decided he'd rather have closer Gregg Olson face Brent Mayne, a light-hitting journeyman backup catcher, instead of the San Francisco slugger. It worked out for Showalter in the end: Mayne lined out to centerfield to end the game. Bonds was also intentionally walked 41 times in his career when the bases were empty. Managers generally did this when the game was either tied or would be if Bonds homered and almost always in the late innings, though there were two times a manager ordered it in the third. And there were five times in his career that Bonds was intentionally walked with the bases empty and nobody out -- five times when a manager decided his team would have a better chance of winning if he spotted the Giants a runner on first instead of asking his pitcher to try and get Barry Bonds out.

The most times a pitcher ever faced Bonds without letting him on base was six; the most times a pitcher saw Bonds without putting him there on purpose was eight. That's how many times Bonds faced journeyman right-hander Will Cunnane between 1997 and 2001 without recording a single intentional walk. Instead, he had three unintentional walks, a home run, a double, and three singles. Cunnane would have been better off throwing him 32 straight balls. The three pitchers who IBB'd Bonds most? Greg Maddux (9), Curt Schilling (8), and John Smoltz (7). Smart guys. Of course they didn't have much success against him, either: Bonds had an .883 OPS in 157 PA against Maddux, a 1.048 OPS in 100 PA against Schilling, and a 1.138 OPS in 108 PA against Smoltz. But still, smart guys. And at least they weren't in the same boat as poor Andy Ashby, who in 70 PA against Bonds gave up more home runs (7) than intentional free passes (5).

Bonds played 2986 games in 22 years and reached base in 2566 of them. Between 2001 and 2004, there were eight entire months where he played over 20 games and got on base in every one. It's possible no player will ever again dominate the sport as thoroughly as Barry Bonds did the first four years of this millennium. Or more succinctly: in 2004, 668 different batters combined for 100,207 plate appearances of .263/.333/.423 (.756 OPS) hitting in the National League. Without Bonds's 617 PA, that line falls to .262/.330/.421 (.751 OPS). Bonds, then 39 years old and responsible for only six-tenths of a percent of the league's plate appearances that year, raised the league OPS five points by himself. * * * There's really only one thing left to talk about, isn't there?

Everyone has their own opinions on how anabolic steroid and human growth hormone use affected the last few decades of baseball, mainly because we have no definitive understanding of their actual impact; it's convenient to look at a rise in home runs and power numbers, then look over at more muscular athletes and draw a clear, connecting line, but there was more to it than that. Teams were leaving the cavernous municipal arenas and compounds they shared with NFL clubs to smaller fields more conducive to offense, and there were major changes to the way baseballs themselves were manufactured between 1992 and 1993 (Jay Jaffe has a good run down on that whole mess). Regardless of their actual effect on the game, however, the majority of the drugs were illegal to use without prescription and banned by MLB. Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem, but being guilty of it doesn't unhit home runs or unsteal bases; Bonds still did all those things. And if Bonds' numbers or performance has to be docked or thrown out entirely because he put chemicals in his body to try to make himself better at baseball, so do Mays and Aaron, both of whom have repeatedly admitted to using amphetamines as players.

The most responsible thing to do with the career numbers of steroids users is the same thing everyone does with the numbers of amphetamine users from earlier eras: make a note of the drugs if you feel you need to, but take the numbers at their face value. Not being able to properly quantify the effects of steroids isn't a reason to throw out 20 years of baseball stats when doing player analysis; it's a reason to treat steroids and PEDs as a health and safety issue instead of something that damages the competitive integrity of the game. Bonds's numbers are as legitimate as anyone else's in major league history. It's basically a two-man race at this point between Bonds and Mays, and which of the two you think is better probably comes down to how you feel about the extra value of Mays's defense. For me, though, it's Bonds. The last two decades have been riddled with Hall-of-Fame-worthy pitchers and hitters, and he stands head and shoulders above them all.

Barry Bonds Is the Greatest Baseball Player We Have Ever Seen | Bleacher Report Barry Bonds Is the Greatest Baseball Player We Have Ever Seen Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories 3.1K 11 Comments Regardless of steroids, HGH, and an enlarged cranium, Barry Bonds was extraordinary on the field and it shows when compared among the all-time greats; 762 Home Runs - #1 1440 Extra Base Hits - #2 5972 Total Bases - #2 8 Gold Gloves 7 MVP’s Without a doubt his numbers put him into another realm, a classification that not many athletes of any sport enter into: Greatest of all-time. I will have to take a stance on this that I may not believe in, but regardless of what Barry Bonds did or did not do, he stands above the rest. Babe Ruth will always be Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron will remain the king of the eyes of many, Ted Williams will always have the sweetest swing, and the grace of Mantle and Mays will likely never been seen again. But Bonds has all the attributes of those greats rolled into one.

He was a Hall of Famer before the accusations and should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his time for induction comes up. When it comes to inductions, the Hall would surely be lacking if he was turned away. Of course he was not the most fan-friendly player, was not a media favourite, and had some clubhouse scuffles, but who hasn’t? Bonds was meant to play baseball and his goal was to win. Did Pete Rose make mistakes? Yes. Did Shoeless Joe? Yes. Does that mean they should be ostracized forever? No. Did his Bonds’ desire to win impede his judgment and lead him down the wrong path? Possibly, all signs point to it, however if you had one guy in his prime that you wanted at the plate to win the game, Barry Bonds is “the” one. Barry Bonds still exiled from MLB more than six years after final game Barry Bonds still exiled from MLB more than six years after final game David Brown Pin it Share Gwen Knapp wrote a terrific feature on Major League Baseball's home run champion, Barry Bonds, published Wednesday at Sports on Earth.

It's a long, great read on the limbo in which Bonds finds himself since playing his final game for the San Francisco Giants in 2007. He's been locked out of the game, first unable to find work as a player — Bonds never retired, he says, but instead was "fired" — and today as an instructor. What's the difference between Bonds and other players in the performance-enhancing drugs era? For one, Knapp says: Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Matt Williams, among others who have found forgiveness, don't have a criminal record — a felony obstruction of justice charge that Bonds continues to appeal as he serves his sentence. Another: Bonds spent his playing days acting awfully angry much of the time, and his personality faults haven't done him any favors. But it's not like McGwire is known as the friendliest person in the world. Bonds is being kept out of baseball. Despite being stuck in limbo, Bonds has managed to undergo a transformation. The first part has been physical. He's dramatically trim compared to his playing days, when he was bloated from from working out (along with whatever else he put into his body).

Whenever Bonds is spotted these days, it's often on a racing bike. And he's often hard to recognize at first. Further, the toll that chasing Hank Aaron's home run record, along with the legal trial that followed, has started to ease. Bonds, people who know him say, is happier than he used to be. And then there's the unlikely girlfriend situation. Olympian cyclist Mari Holden: In his life away from baseball, Bonds has already pulled off an upset, winning over an ardent, public critic of PEDs: his girlfriend. In 2005, three months after McGwire went to Washington and declined to talk about his past, Holden appeared at a hearing about performance-enhancement among women and girls. Designated as an athlete ambassador for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, she told Congress: "I am here because I want to make sure that the clean athletes of today and tomorrow have a voice. Our children need to have a level playing field, and the use of drugs for sport or looks should be deterred at all levels. As a clean athlete, I want you to test me so that the world knows that when I win, I win fair and square.

I believe all clean athletes feel the same when given the chance to speak freely about these issues. Frankly, it is the same simple rule we all followed as children on the playground and which our children hopefully still follow today. Cheaters never win, and winners never cheat." Major League Baseball isn't as forgiving to Bonds. - - - - - - - David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rdbrown@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Barry Bonds Home-Run Scandal Somehow Becomes Feel-Good Sports Story Of Summer - The Onion - America's Finest News Source Barry Bonds Home-Run Scandal Somehow Becomes Feel-Good Sports Story Of Summer Vol 43 Issue 52 · Sports · Ecstasy Of Defeat · Baseball · Sports Culture SAN FRANCISCO—Although Barry Bonds remains the target of criticism over his possible—some say almost certain—use of performance-enhancing substances, the fact that Bonds has not been implicated in dogfighting, nightclub shootings, gambling, or murdering his family has transformed his controversial pursuit of the all-time home-run record into the feel-good sports story of the summer.

"Until we have definitive proof one way or the other, the very presence of so many questions about Bonds and steroids will haunt his achievements forever," ESPN's Peter Gammons said Monday. "However, at this moment, I think we'd all have to agree that having a raging juiced-up misanthrope break the greatest record in sports is a ray of sunshine compared to everything else on the sports page." "What kind of person electrocutes dogs, let alone fights them?" Gammons added. "I simply can't comprehend it. Go, Barry!" While Bonds has been routinely greeted with booing and jeering whenever he played outside of San Francisco, the taunting seems to have abated for the moment as sports fans across America lapse into a reflective silence as Bonds approaches the plate. "I know Bonds is probably 100% pharmaceutical Frankenstein," said Brewers fan Charles Michaels, who waved a banner reading "Make Us Relatively Proud, Barry" while not exactly rooting against Bonds at Milwaukee's Miller Park Sunday night. "But I also know for a certainty that gambling problems didn't compel him to affect the outcome of the NBA playoffs.

You have to give him that much." "Bonds is not exactly my hero," said Braves fan Bradley Hanson, who flew to San Francisco for Monday night's Braves game in order to pointedly not boo Bonds. "But he's a reminder that in these troubled times for sports, there are still players whose crimes are simple, pure, and only tarnish our beloved sport and everything it stands for without killing anybody." Bonds defiantly refuses to acknowledge, much less answer, any of the dozens of questions regarding his use of illegal substances, often lashing out at clubhouse reporters asking even innocuous baseball-related questions. Yet as of press time, Bonds had not yet been involved in even one single murder. "Say what you want about Bonds, but he's not a murderer, or even an attempted murderer," San Francisco Chronicle reporter and co-author of Game Of Shadows Lance Williams wrote in Sunday's edition. "The only thing I believe Bonds did was inject himself with Winstrol, Deca-Durabolin, insulin, testosterone, synthetic testosterone, testosterone decanoate, human growth hormones, Norbolethone, Trenbolone, Clomid, and possibly commercial racehorse laxatives, all in order to make himself a better athlete.

Not to allow himself to gut-shoot a gentleman's club bouncer, but to become a better athlete. A better athlete it doesn't seem so bad when you think about it like that." "It's a relief of sorts to see someone putting performance first," Frank Deford said in a New York Times Magazine editorial Sunday. "I think we all believe that Barry has taken steroids, and that they made him into a hulking monster who rewrote the record books. But they didn't turn him into a hulking monster who drugged his wife and children into unconsciousness before strangling them to death and hanging himself from a weight bench. And in these troubled times, Bonds' performance is one we can all reluctantly applaud." Share This Story: MLB Hot Button Topic of the week - MLB - ESPN Archive Babe Ruth is the greatest player of all time. Period. He is the greatest hitter ever; his .690 career slugging percentage is 82 points higher than Reggie Jackson's best season. Ruth dominated his era like no one else: His 54 home runs in 1920 were more than the next three players in his league combined, and only one American League team outhomered him that year.

He was the first player to hit 30, 40, 50 and then 60 homers in a season. When he hit his 138th career home run, he became the all-time home run leader -- the 576 yet to come only added to his record. When he reached 700, no one else had half as many. But Ruth was more than a home run hitter; he was a tremendous athlete. He stole 123 bases in his career, 93 more than Joe DiMaggio. He hit 136 triples, more than any active player at the time and 130 more than Mark McGwire had in his career. And before his career as a hitter, Ruth was the best left-handed pitcher in the American League. He went 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA and had as many shutouts as Pedro Martinez (17). What's more, Ruth's power and charismatic play rescued the game in the aftermath of the Black Sox scandal. Burt Hawkins, one of the great sports writers ever, was once asked to name the best player he'd ever seen.

"I'll take Babe Ruth," he said, "And you can have the next three." Bonds faced tougher competition Archive OK, I get it. Babe Ruth was a force of nature unlike any the game has ever seen, a man with a prodigious swing on the field and a prodigious appetite for women, food and drink off it. Ruth led his league in home runs 12 different seasons and could even pitch a little. But he played his first major league game nearly 100 years ago. That's not a generation or two ago; that's a different time, when professional sports were still in their infancy, when the U.S. population was one-third what it is now. In sports, the quality of competition improves over time. The athletes get bigger and stronger, training methods improve and the pool of competitors grows. During his time in the National League, Barry Bonds faced 228 pitchers who threw at least 300 innings and were 6-foot-3 or taller, and just 26 who were shorter than 6 feet. Ruth faced 20 pitchers 6-3 or taller and 69 shorter than 6 feet.

Yes, there were more teams and pitchers in Bonds' era, but you get the idea: The pitchers Bonds faced were bigger, stronger and threw much harder. Ruth dominated a lesser level of competition. Bonds was the more complete player. He is the best defensive left fielder ever (eight Gold Gloves) and owner of 514 career steals. And he wasn't too shabby with the bat. Yes, PEDs. But Bonds won three MVP Awards before his alleged PED use began -- and should have won three or four more. He was the best player in baseball. Barry Bonds on A-Rod: 'I can't wait until he hits 660' FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Barry Bonds on A-Rod: 'I can't wait until he hits 660' Barry Bonds says the Yankees are foolish not to celebrate Alex Rodriguez's milestone home runs and says he "can't wait" until Rodriguez ties his godfather, Willie Mays, with home run No. 660.

Post to Facebook Barry Bonds on A-Rod: 'I can't wait until he hits 660' Barry Bonds says the Yankees are foolish not to celebrate Alex Rodriguez's milestone home runs and says he "can't wait" until Rodriguez ties his godfather, Willie Mays, with home run No. 660. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 56 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Barry Bonds on A-Rod: 'I can't wait until he hits 660' Bob Nightengale , USA TODAY Sports Published 3:36 p.m. ET April 12, 2015 | Updated 10:31 a.m. ET April 13, 2015 Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds at the 2004 All-Star Game in Houston. (Photo: Eric Gay, AP) This can't be happening again, but it is. We should celebrate this historic feat, but many of us won't. Barry Bonds, baseball's home-run king, cannot believe the contempt.

The anger. The hostility. All of this pettiness toward one man. Bonds is not speaking about himself. He is talking about New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez is five home runs shy of tying immortal Willie Mays for fourth place on baseball's all-time home run list with 660, and the New York Yankees have no plans to celebrate it. If they had their druthers, Rodriguez would hit that homer in another city and be booed, with perhaps a fan tossing the ball back onto the field in disgust. The Yankees refuse to even list Rodriguez's accomplishment in the team notes about upcoming milestones. They note that Rodriguez needs one more stolen base to tie Bert Daniels for 16th place on the Yankees' all-time list. And he needs to score three more runs to tie Derek Jeter for ninth place. But homers? Nah. Mets' Jenrry Mejia suspended 80 games for steroids The Yankees insist it's not a milestone, saying any historic home run is tainted. They told Rodriguez they won't pay the $6 million bonus for tying Mays, as written in his original 2007 contract, saying his year-long suspension eradicates any milestones.

And as long as the Yankees don't declare it a milestone, they can't market it, with an independent arbitrator likely making a final ruling this summer. So, can you really celebrate a historic homer when Rodriguez's own team won't acknowledge it? "My godfather means the world to me. I love him to a T,'' Bonds told USA TODAY Sports in an hour-long telephone interview, "but when Alex hits No. 660, I'll be happy for him. Willie will be happy for him. Everybody should be happy for him. "Any time anybody in the game does something that's a great accomplishment, the game of baseball should celebrate that. "No matter what. Baseball is benefiting from that person's hard work, so baseball should at least celebrate.'' But it won't. And neither will the Yankees. "Why the hate?'' Bonds said. "Why hate on something you're paying to see? I don't understand it. He's entertaining us. "I wish life wasn't like that.'' Rodriguez's performance-enhancing drug use, of course, is the reason why his historic home run mostly will be ignored. Society frowns on cheaters and liars. Baseball punishes them. Fans scorn them.

Besides, this is the second time Rodriguez told the world he was clean, only to twice get ensnared in doping scandals. First came a positive drug test in 2003, revealed years later, after which Rodriguez copped to using steroids only from 2001 to 2003. Then, the messy, complicated but ultimately damning Biogenesis scandal, when Rodriguez fought Major League Baseball with all his legal might, only to succumb to an arbitrator's ruling he be banned 162 games. So be it, Bonds says. "This guy is not running for president of the United States,'' Bonds said. "He's not running for commissioner. We're not running for political office. We're just ballplayers. "We're not God. We're imperfect people. We're human beings.'' Bonds, of course, endured a far lengthier and vociferous public trial. He broke Hank Aaron's all-time home run record after he was compelled to testify before a federal grand jury about his connection to performance-enhancing drugs produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO).

Weeks after breaking Aaron's record and hitting his 762nd -- and final -- home run, Bonds was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for his grand jury testimony. He was convicted of obstruction of justice, but that remains under appeal and seems likely to be overturned. Now it is Rodriguez whose accomplishments are under scrutiny. Yet just like Bonds before him, Rodriguez's numbers will be etched in the baseball record books, like it or not. "What part of 600 home runs don't people understand?'' Bonds said. "You don't need to understand that. Just look at the numbers. "I told Alex, you don't need to prove anything to anybody. What do you need to prove? That you can hit another home run? That you can play baseball? Why the hell does anyone need to ask him that? He already proved it. The proof is over. "If you want to prove something, prove how much you love playing baseball. Show them how much you enjoy playing the game. Enjoy the things that you love.

"If you do that, who gives a damn what they say about you?'' (Photo: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports) 'He better get to work' Bonds, working as a personal hitting consultant, mostly with Chicago Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler, spent a week with Rodriguez this past offseason. He and A-Rod first met in Los Angeles, and did nothing more than talk. They then spent hours in the batting cage, with Bonds reinforcing the concept that Rodriguez can still be a great hitter, even three months shy of his 40th birthday, and playing on two surgically repaired hips. Rodriguez, who still has three years and $61 million left on his contract, told Bonds he plans to break his record of 762 homers by the time he's done. Bonds' reaction? How we see it: 2015 staff predictions "I told him he better get to work,'' Bonds said, laughing. "I'm not saying it's not possible. I just don't know if he can do it or not. But he's capable. And being a DH is a good situation so you don't have to beat your body up. "I do like what I'm seeing. He looks better.

I like where his head is at. He'll make the corrections he needs.'' Bonds, 50, had the most brilliant baseball mind in the game during his career, his peers insist. And now he says he is open to full-time employment with any organization. His preference is to stay in the Bay Area, where he lives alone in a San Francisco apartment after selling his Beverly Park mansion in Los Angeles for $22 million. The Giants, who play their home opener Monday, asked him too late about appearing for a week-long stint as a spring-training instructor, Bonds said, but he has had extensive talks with them about a special assistant role. "I think we'll get something done,'' Giants President Larry Baer said. "It will be doing some things on the field and off the field, representing the Giants with sponsors and corporate things and doing some roving work with kids in the minors. "We're going back and forth on ideas.'' Certainly, Bonds belongs back in the game. If Mark McGwire can be the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Matt Williams can be manager of the Washington Nationals -- despite their PED pasts -- teams should be clamoring for Bonds' brilliance.

Who knows, maybe one of the smartest guys in the game today is Fowler, who hired Bonds two years ago as his hitting consultant; Sunday, Fowler hit a two-run, ninth-inning homer to give the Chicago Cubs a win against the Colorado Rockies. Fowler spent a week with Bonds after the 2013 season. This offseason, he spent the entire winter with him, renting an apartment just a seven-minute walk from Bonds' place, training together five days a week. They hit together. They ran together. They lifted weights together. Bonds carried the buckets of balls. Fowler carried the bats. And always, they talked about the art of hitting. "I know the game of baseball,'' Bonds said. "I know hitting, and I know it better than anybody. But I told Dexter that if I'm not bringing value to you, put on your Air Jordans and take off. I said the same thing to Alex. Hopefully, the things I say, you can relate with. "What I liked is that there was something inside Dexter and Alex. A light switch went on. They took the initiative to call me. I told them if you come here, you better be ready to do some work. And you better bring your lunch.

"Professional athletes already have the work ethic. It's what turns that switch on that makes you go further. And Dexter got my attention real quick. It was like, 'Holy Toledo, this boy isn't playing.' '' (Photo: Adam Hunger, USA TODAY Sports) Nothing to prove It'll be fascinating to see how Bonds' tutelage plays out with Fowler, and in particular, Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the Yankees' biggest surprise in spring training, manager Joe Girardi said, and he has been their most reliable hitter the first week of the season. Entering Sunday, he was batting .278 with a .850 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage), including his first home run since Sept. 20, 2013. Sunday night, his bases-loaded double in the first inning broke open the Yankees' game against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees might not want to hear this, but Rodriguez isn't going away, and as long as he's around, Bonds believes he'll produce. "When you have a multiyear contract, it's guaranteed whether you do nothing or you perform,'' Bonds said. "It's guaranteed regardless no matter what they say about me or what I do.

I was killing myself working out because I love the game of baseball. "I didn't have to do that. I could have said, 'My nail hurts. My foot hurts.' I could said a thousand reasons why I could not excel. But I excelled because I love baseball. "Well, it's the same as Alex. He doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. He just has to go out and play. And that's what he's doing. He's playing. "And I can't wait to until he hits 660. I know I'll celebrate.'' We'll soon find out whether anyone else cares to join him. GALLERY: Alex Rodriguez's road back from suspension Barry Bonds Wasn’t Half Bad, Either | FiveThirtyEight Barry Bonds Wasn’t Half Bad, Either Jan 6, 2016 at 6:58 PM Barry Bonds Wasn’t Half Bad, Either Barry Bonds hits a two-run home run in a game between the San Francisco Giants and the Anaheim Angels during Game 3 of the World Series, on Oct. 22, 2002. Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images Ken Griffey Jr.

has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame after receiving a vote on 99.32 percent of ballots — a record. Earlier, we examined how Griffey’s prime , once separated from his unfortunate latter years, compared with the primes of other all-time great players. Junior turned out to be Willie Mays, more or less. While we’re at it, and for no particular reason today, we figured we’d run the same numbers for Barry Lamar Bonds, destroyer of worlds . More Sports Don’t worry, we think it’s weird to see Chipper Jones and Albert Pujols as Bonds’s most comparable peak-season players, too. More than anything else, consider this a sign that Bonds breaks the system — no other player had a truly similar mix of skills in their best seasons, particularly considering the absurd proportion of Bonds’s top years that came when he was in his mid-to-late 30s. Unlike Griffey, whose career bifurcation was so stark that his career-long comps end up being players he didn’t much resemble, a look at Bonds’s full career finds a satisfying pair of comps at the top: Remember when we made a big deal about how closely Griffey matched Willie Mays’s statistical profile?

Mays is also Bonds’s most similar career player — except that Bonds showed better patience, power and contact skills than Mays, while still coming close to matching the Say Hey Kid on the basepaths and in the field. Because Bonds’s statistical profile is an invitation for the absurd, we thought it might be instructive to compare his worst years (i.e., his aggregate rate statistics after giving more weight to his “worst” WAR seasons) against the best years of other players. Those “bad” Bonds seasons were most comparable to — and, in fact, surpass — the best seasons of two current or soon-to-be Hall of Famers. You may now return to whatever it is you were doing, which is likely not as fun as looking at Barry Bonds stats. Neil Paine is a senior sportswriter for FiveThirtyEight. @Neil_Paine Barry Bonds says 'without a doubt' he belongs in the Hall of Fame FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Barry Bonds says 'without a doubt' he belongs in the Hall of Fame Barry Bonds put on a San Francisco Giants uniform Monday for the first time in seven years, and he looked and sounded unlike anything we remember.

Post to Facebook Barry Bonds says 'without a doubt' he belongs in the Hall of Fame Barry Bonds put on a San Francisco Giants uniform Monday for the first time in seven years, and he looked and sounded unlike anything we remember. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 34 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Barry Bonds says 'without a doubt' he belongs in the Hall of Fame Bob Nightengale , USA TODAY Sports 12:30 p.m. EDT March 11, 2014 San Francisco Giants former outfielder Barry Bonds laughs during batting practice prior to the game against the Chicago Cubs at Scottsdale Stadium. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports) SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It was Barry Bonds all right, only about 35 pounds thinner — along with a 35-inch waistline. It was Bonds all right, only now a middle-aged man, four months shy of his 50th birthday.

It was Bonds all right, but with a much different disposition — a warm, infectious personality, one rarely seen during his 22-year career. NIGHTENGALE: Braun not fazed by insults Bonds put on a San Francisco Giants uniform Monday for the first time in seven years, and he looked and sounded unlike anything we remember. "I'm the same person, just a different character when I was playing," said Bonds, who recently sold his mansion in the Beverly Park, Calif., and moved back to San Francisco. "Now I've had time to slow down. As you're gone for awhile, you have a tendency to reflect on certain things." There was no surliness or even a cold-hearted stare when asked if he was ready to pull a Mark McGwire and tearfully admit that he used performance-enhancing drugs. "I already went to court, and I'll leave it at that," he said referring to the BALCO saga that resulted in him being convicted in April 2011 of obstruction of justice for being evasive during grand jury testimony involving use of performance-enhancing drugs. BONDS: What to make of his return?

Bonds, who appealed but still served his month-long sentence of home confinement with two years of probation, will spend this week as a Giants spring-training instructor. There is no hidden agenda in his return, he says, and insists he's not using the exposure to influence baseball Hall of Fame voters. Yet, when asked whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame, he answered without hesitation. "Without a doubt," he said. Bonds is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in baseball history, but his ties to doping has him on the outside looking in. His vote total has actually dropped from 36.2% in his first year of eligibility to 34.7% this year. When a reporter asked for voting guidance, Bonds said, "I think you guys are all adults. I have no advice for you." Bonds, baseball's all-time home run king, believes he still could have played another year or two. He hit 26 homers with a 1.045 OPS in his final season in 2007, but no one called. GALLERY: BONDS THROUGH THE YEARS Last Slide Next Slide When asked if he was blackballed, Bonds said: "I don't know.

I don't even know what the word means. I'm fine." It does Bonds no good to carry any bitterness. Not now. He's trying to get back into the good graces of baseball, and perhaps engage in a long-term relationship with the Giants. It was shrewd for him not to address Biogenesis or talk about New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez's season-long suspension. "We're friends," Bonds said of Rodriguez. "I respect him as an athlete, and always will. But I will not have a press conference over that." Bonds didn't want to reminisce about his career or even talk about his home-run record, other than to say it too will be broken. "God will bless somebody else for that," he said. Bonds instead wants to remember this as the first day of his new baseball life, contemplating whether he wants an active role as a hitting coach one day and determining if he can make a difference. "I believe Barry will go over there and do a tremendous job," Hank Aaron, who's still widely regarded as the people's home-run champion, told USA TODAY Sports. "I don't care what happened in the past. He's very intelligent, and he'll really help those players.

"If Mark McGwire can have a job as a hitting coach (with the Los Angeles Dodgers), why not Barry?" Said Bonds, laughing: "I just want to get through these seven days and see if I can do this first. I don't know if I'm good enough." Bonds spent more time talking to the Giants' coaching staff than the players in batting practice, but he freely interacted with them during their game against the Chicago Cubs. He'd love to challenge their drive, even make them uncomfortable, but realizes it takes time. "You have to build a relationship first and then see if we go from there," he said. "I have to learn about them, but that won't take me longer than a minute. All you got to is step inside the batting cage, and I'll tell you everything that's going on. Very fast." The players talked about their excitement to have Bonds in camp but were noticeably reserved. When Bonds popped into the coaches' room at 8:55 a.m. and walked through the clubhouse 25 minutes later carrying a cup of coffee, there was little show of emotion, except for hugs with pitcher Ryan Vogelsong and first baseman Brandon Belt. Bonds introduced himself to the rest with a firm handshake.

Yet, unlike earlier this spring when a Giants' minor leaguer asked All-Star catcher Buster Posey where he played last year, there wasn't a person who wasn't aware of Bonds' identity. "I'm more nervous at this than when I was playing," Bonds said. "As a player, it was only my mind. Me. I'm a little more nervous being on this side than that side. Hopefully, I can just bring some good value to the ballclub." Giants right fielder Hunter Pence says he can't wait to pick Bonds' brain. And Posey, who has never said more than hello to Bonds, is eager for a sit-down. "I'm curious myself to see how he likes it," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Bonds. There will be no decisions made about Bonds' future employment this week, but most important, he simply wants to feel like he belongs again, reconciling with his passion. "It's so good to see him back doing what he loves," said his marketing agent, Jeff Bernstein, "and that's being around baseball. "Nobody should ever have anything they love taken away." Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale

Question: Barry Bonds is an all-time great in what sport?
Answer: Baseball