Barry Bond's Legacy

Baseball’s greatest home run hitter inches closer to the Hall of Fame

- Bill Saporito

By Barry Bonds’ lofty standards, it wasn’t especially remarkable—an opposite-field fly ball that carried about 395 feet at hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver. But when home run No. 762 drifted over the fence in left center field on September 5, 2007, it closed the books on the most prodigious power hitter of all time. The debate over Bonds’ legacy, on the other hand, was merely warming up.

In its most recent vote, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which is the Hall’s gatekeeper, granted Bonds 53.8 percent of the vote. Although that’s short of the 75 percent needed for admission to baseball’s Valhalla, he’s clearly on his way. “He’s unquestionably one of the greatest players in baseball history,” says Dan Okrent, the celebrated author, baseball historian, and fantasy league creator.

Bonds’ career stats reveal a nearly incomparable player. In 22 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants, Bonds hit for average—his .298 matches that of Yankee great Mickey Mantle—and he could clearly hit for power. But Bonds also possessed great vision, giving him one of the most discerning eyes in baseball (hello, Ted Williams), forcing pitchers to throw strikes at him. Or not. He led the league in walks and intentional walks 12 times, his power terrifying opponents into 232 bases on balls in 2004—120 of them IBBs.