PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer. For those who look fondly on his time in Pittsburgh, Bonds going into the Pirates Hall of Fame is an accomplishment and appeases those fans. There is also the matter of the other Hall of Fame, the national one in Cooperstown.
Bonds dropped a little teaser at the end of his Pirates Hall of Fame speech, saying he hopes his mom is around if another one comes. When asked about it after the speech, Bonds quickly said he never said he specifically said that he hopes she is around to go into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I said hopefully there are others, if there is that’s fine,” Bonds said Saturday. “My mom’s the last one I have, everyone else has passed away. Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, my father, Mays, McCovey. All my black icons are gone. There is me technically, you got Rickey Henderson. We got others.”
“I hope my mom is still around if anything else comes along in my life, a big if. Anything happens to come around in my life, I hope my mom is around to see it.”
He danced around it, but just by judging what going into the Pirates Hall of Fame meant to him, to be enshrined in Cooperstown would be a big deal. Pirates teammate Bob Walk told a story on 93.7 The Fan of Bonds telling him in his third season he wanted to play every day because that’s how he would get to the Hall of Fame.
He’s been thinking about it for a long time. Asked a different way, does he hope to get in?
“I don’t hope for anything,” Bonds said. “I hope to breathe. I’m 60 years-old. I don’t have to worry about those things no more in my life. I hang around my grandchildren and my children. Those hopes, I don’t have them anymore. I hope to breathe tomorrow if I can make it to 61.”
There were the steroid allegations. There was a conviction of obstruction of justice in connection to a probe into alleged steroid use. His personality at times didn’t make him friends, especially among baseball writers or media along with others he encountered during his journey. Bonds was asked why he thinks he hasn’t gotten into the National Baseball Hall of Fame?
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"I don't have to answer that question,” Bonds said. “Ask Cooperstown. Or ask you guys. The writers are the ones who make decisions. Last time I checked, it's not Cooperstown, it's not even MLB, it's in this group.”
“You guys figure that problem out."