Barry Bonds Biography

Barry Bonds hit 762 home runs in his major league career, surpassing Hank Aaron to become the man with the most home runs in American baseball history.

Barry Bonds is also the single-season home run champ: he hit 73 during the 2001 season, passing Mark McGwire for that record.

Barry Bonds was famous for his strength and all-purpose talent; The Sporting News named Bonds the top player of the 1990s, and he was voted the National League’s most valuable player an unprecedented seven times: in 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Bonds played left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986-1992, after which he became a free agent and signed with the San Francisco Giants. In his banner season of 2001 he outdid McGwire (who hit 70 homers in 1998) and sluggers of the past like Babe Ruth (60 homers in 1927) and Roger Maris (61 in 1961).

Despite his heroics at the plate, Barry Bonds often had strained relations with the press and with fans, gaining a reputation for being aloof and unfriendly to reporters. Bonds also was dogged by accusations that he used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs late in his career.

He was tangled up in a 2003 grand jury investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) and his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, over the use of steroids. Bonds testified he had unknowingly used steroid products, and Anderson did jail time rather than testify against Bonds.

Based on his testimony in that case, Bonds was indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in November of 2007, just weeks after announcing his departure from the Giants for the 2008 season, which eventually turned into his retirement.

He was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice by a jury in April 2011.