Long journey to retire Bonds’ Giants’ No. 25
Barry Bonds might have seemed superhuman on a baseball field, but he acted as any mortal would when his innumerable feats were denigrated and downplayed by those who thought they were obtained through steroid use. He threw up a defensive shield and often said he did not care what others thought or what his legacy would be.
He cared. He still cares, which is why the Giants’ announcement Tuesday that they will retire his No. 25 this year is as big a deal to Bonds as it will be to the legions of fans in San Francisco who thought the club should have done this years ago.
Bonds cares about his Giants legacy because it is tied to those of his father, Bobby, who wore No.
25 before him; his godfather, Willie Mays, and other Giants greats.
That became clear last month when the Giants honored Willie McCovey with an 80th birthday party at AT&T Park. Bonds’ eyes welled and his voice choked when he said he not only wants to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, but soon enough so McCovey and Mays, who turns 87 in May, can be there.
They will be there when Bonds becomes the 12th Giant to have his uniform retired, but the first who has not been elected to the Hall, which had been a prerequisite.
The Giants are making an exception for one of the greatest players in major-league history, who owns the single-season and career home run records and was the game’s biggest force during most of his 22 big-league seasons.
The ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 11 before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom Bonds starred before signing with the Giants for the 1993 season.
“I’m both honored and humbled that the Giants are going to retire my number this season,” Bonds said in a statement, which quoted him saying he was honored to play on the same Candlestick Park field as his father, Mays and McCovey.
Bonds probably will say in person that this means at least as much to him as the Hall of Fame, which has been out of his reach because of his ties to performance-enhancing drugs. The 2017 ballot was the sixth of 10 on which he can appear. He was named on the ballot of 56.4 percent of the voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Election requires 75 percent.
Even if Cooperstown has not called, the Giants have, and their fans believe it’s right. They long have argued that Bonds was made a scapegoat for an entire generation of steroid abusers because of his highprofile, sometimes surly attitude and the sacred home run records he broke.
The Giants wanted to celebrate Bonds, but their hands were tied because of his conviction on a federal obstruction of justice count following his testimony to a grand jury. Once the conviction was overturned in 2015, the Giants felt the door was open to honor Bonds with more than the few token plaques that had been mostly hidden within their park.
The decision to retire Bonds’ number was believed to be part of the agreement he signed before last season to rejoin the Giants in a formal role. The first honor was enshrining Bonds on the AT&T Park Wall of Fame, which occurred last summer.
The Giants felt the accolades should be spread over several seasons. Thus, the number retirement comes this year. Next year, or shortly thereafter, Bonds is expected to get a statue at AT&T Park to go with those sculpted for Mays, McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry.
Giants President Larry Baer noted in the club’s statement Tuesday that no Giant has worn 25 since Bonds’ final year, 2007. Longtime clubhouse manager Michael Murphy and successor Brad Grems made sure of that.
“It’s time to officially retire his number in honor of his remarkable 22-year career as one of the greatest players of all time, and for his countless achievements and contributions as a Giant,” Baer said of Bonds.
The Giants will take hits for this from fans around the country who still believe Bonds’ feats were fraudulent.
For years, the organization was caught in a bind, on one hand having to acknowledge Bonds’ legal issues, on the other the obligation they felt to Bonds and his fans to honor him in a manner befitting a home run king who brought the organization financial and competitive success.
Time has helped Bonds and the Giants. His Hall of Fame voting percentage continues to rise (albeit minutely on the most recent ballot) as a batch of younger writers, who care more about statistics than how they were obtained, have joined the electorate. Also, baseball has moved on to other controversies.
For years after Bonds’ forced retirement in 2007, the Giants had to choose between what was right for Bonds and the fans who stream into AT&T Park, and what was right for the sport.
By retiring Bonds’ 25, the organization is declaring that the people of San Francisco and one of their most beloved sports figures deserve the final word.