For years, Hank Aaron was the only slugger who had put together the type of career good enough to approach, match, and eventually surpass Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list. But on May 20, 2006, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds officially joined the club.
In front of a packed house at the Coliseum in Oakland, Bonds led off the top of the second inning against Brad Halsey with a deep drive to tie the Babe with home run number 714.
This moment came after an extended home run drought at the plate for Bonds. Before launching that tater, his most recent homer came on May 7 in Philadelphia. In his nine games between homers (39 plate appearances), Bonds slashed just .143/.385/.179.
Related: Appreciating Barry Bonds’ Insane 2001-04 Dominance
Revisiting Barry Bonds’ 714th Home Run
The path to No. 714 wasn’t exactly smooth for Bonds. Sure, a late-career power binge between 2001 and 2004 helped him get on the brink, but he had to wait longer for this moment than originally expected.
After winning his fourth straight National League MVP Award and posting his fifth straight season of 45-plus homers in 2004, Bonds was limited to just 14 games in 2005 because of continued knee problems.
So, instead of passing Ruth during his age-40 campaign, Bonds was limited to just five homers and sat on 708 career taters all winter. Playing at a high level in your 40s is tough enough when you’re totally healthy. It becomes that much harder when you have a serious injury to consider, and it forces you to miss a significant chunk of games.
As mentioned above, number 713 came on May 7 off Jon Lieber at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. And then, with him on the precipice of yet another milestone, the uncharacteristic power drought arrived. It didn’t automatically go away once that ball landed in the stands in Oakland, either. Bonds didn’t pass Ruth until May 28 in Colorado (six games later).
The left-handed slugger had some telling quotes after the game, as well. “I’m just glad it’s over with,” Bonds said, via the San Jose Mercury News’ Chris Haft. “This took a lot off me. It’s good.”
This Was Just One of Many Accomplishments for Bonds
Tying — and eventually passing — Ruth on the all-time home run leaderboard was surely a special moment for Bonds and his family for all the obvious reasons. While he was still chasing Aaron’s 755, getting past Ruth secured Bonds’ spot in history as the greatest left-handed power hitter in baseball history.
And if we’re looking at this accomplishment against the rest of his extraordinary 22-year MLB career, it’s just one of many amazing moments and records he produced.
Bonds eventually passed Aaron and finished his days as a player with 762 career homers — the most ever. He also holds the MLB record for the most homers in one season after slugging 73 in 2001.
The legendary left fielder spent 15 years with the Giants, accumulating 586 homers for San Francisco in the process. Although that wasn’t enough to be the franchise’s all-time home run king (Willie Mays has him beat with 646), that outrageous 2001 campaign obviously has him at the top of San Francisco’s single-season leaderboard.
We can’t forget about all of Bonds’ hardware, too. There’s no World Series ring, but his career yielded 14 All-Star Game appearances, a Home Run Derby title, eight Gold Gloves, two batting titles, 12 Silver Slugger Awards, and seven (!!) MVPs.
The Legacy Question Nobody Can Fully Resolve
There’s one part that’s impossible to ignore about Bonds, and it has to do with his connection to performance-enhancing drugs.
Despite being one of the best MLB players ever, the BBWAA didn’t vote for him to gain entry into the Hall of Fame. Support did build over the years — he was on just 36.2% of ballots in 2013 and hit 66.0% in 2023 — but he never seriously got close to reaching the necessary 75.0% threshold for enshrinement.
Of course, this was a direct result of the PED cloud that followed him throughout the final chapter of his career and beyond. The BALCO investigation, “Game of Shadows,” and the federal perjury indictment all hang over every milestone he reached as a player later in his career.
However, it’s worth noting that Bonds was already a Hall of Famer before PEDs became part of the conversation and his legacy.
Between 1986 and 1998, he put together a career that most players would trade theirs for — eight All-Star selections, three MVP awards, eight Gold Gloves, and a .290/.411/.556 line to go along with 411 homers and 445 stolen bases. People will debate the late-career version of Bonds, but the 1986-98 version of him was already one of the best we had ever seen.
Does the PED conversation put a damper on him hitting number 714 before ultimately passing Ruth and Aaron? That’s a question every fan gets to answer for themselves. It’s worth noting that there’s usually no middle ground for those answering — you’re either fully on one side or the other.
Regardless of how this makes people feel, though, the moment happened, and it hasn’t been stricken from the record books.
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