Barry Bonds: Controversial, but undeniably great

In a career marked by controversy, Barry Bonds still holds several league records including career home runs.

Barry Bonds, former baseball player for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants had over 500 career home runs and stolen bases during his 22-year-long-career, a feat never equaled by any other professional ball player. The son of another major league ballplayer, Bobby Bonds, one might say the younger Bonds was groomed to be a professional ballplayer.

Amidst a career which included accusations of use of performance-enhancing-drugs (PEDs), perjury in court about use of such drugs, and even controversial biographies and autobiographies, Bonds was undeniably a great player.

In a metric called WAR (Wins Above Replacement), which looks at a player’s overall career contributions to the team(s) he played for, the only player ranked higher by Baseball-reference.com was Babe Ruth.

Perhaps most notable is Bonds career home runs record of 762 home runs, the highest in MLB history, even eclipsing Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. He hit an average of over 34 home runs per year, with his lowest being in 2005 when he was out with multiple injuries, and his highest in 2001, when he set the record for most home runs in a season, a record that still holds today.

In spite of his many accomplishments, Bonds has still not been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame yet.