SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds dropped into the Netflix broadcast booth during the sixth inning of Wednesday’s Opening Day game between the Yankees and Giants. He left behind a story that is already raising more questions than it answers.
Sitting alongside Matt Vasgersian, CC Sabathia and Hunter Pence at Oracle Park, baseball’s all-time home run king shared what he said was the real reason he never wore pinstripes. According to Bonds, the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner called him during the 1992 offseason with an offer to become the highest-paid player in baseball. But there was a catch.
And when Bonds heard it, he said he hung up the phone.
Bonds says Steinbrenner’s ultimatum killed the deal
Bonds, now 61, was a free agent after seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and back-to-back NL MVP awards. Both the Yankees and the Giants pursued him aggressively that winter. Barry Bonds told the Netflix audience that Steinbrenner personally called him with an offer, but attached a deadline that rubbed him the wrong way.
“George isn’t here anymore, so I can tell the truth,” Bonds said. “I would have been a Yankee, but Steinbrenner got on the phone, and he called us, and he told me, ‘Barry, we’re going to give you the money, the highest-paid player at that time, but you have to sign the contract by 2 o’clock this afternoon.’ And I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And I just hung the phone up.”
Barry Bonds tells the story of how he nearly became a Yankees player.
Bonds said his agent, Dennis Gilbert, was stunned. He said he went to get lunch, and by the time he walked down the street to think it over, the Giants called. He chose to go home to the Bay Area, where he grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula. His father Bobby Bonds played for the Giants from 1968 to 1974, and his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, spent most of his career in San Francisco.
Bonds signed a then-record six-year, $43.75 million deal with the Giants in December 1992. He went on to hit 586 of his 762 career home runs in San Francisco but never won a World Series, coming closest in 2002 when the Giants fell to the Anaheim Angels in seven games.
The timeline does not add up
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
It is a great story. The problem is that key details do not match the historical record.
Steinbrenner accepted a lifetime ban from baseball in July 1990 after paying a known gambler for damaging information on outfielder Dave Winfield. He was not officially reinstated by MLB until March 1993. Bonds signed with the Giants in December 1992, which means Steinbrenner was still banned from running the Yankees when the deal went down.
That raises an obvious question: was Steinbrenner secretly calling free agents while he was barred from the game? Or is Bonds misremembering who he spoke to and what was said?
The New York Times reported in 1992 that the Yankees offered Bonds a five-year, $36 million contract and gave him a two-day window to accept it. When Bonds declined, Yankees general manager Gene Michael pulled the offer. The Times report made no mention of Steinbrenner being involved in the negotiations.
“We wanted him and now it’s off,” Michael told the Times at the time. “We’re going for pitching. Maybe it’s the right thing to do.”
So Bonds says Steinbrenner gave him until 2 o’clock that afternoon. The Times says the Yankees gave him two days. Bonds says he hung up on the Boss. The record shows the Boss was banned from baseball. Fans and historians can decide which version to believe.
What the Yankees built without Bonds
Missing out on Bonds turned out just fine for the Yankees. Without the massive contract on the books, the Yankees organization invested in its farm system and developed what became known as the Core Four: shortstop Derek Jeter, closer Mariano Rivera, catcher Jorge Posada and starting pitcher Andy Pettitte. That group led the Yankees to four World Series titles in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000, with a fifth in 2009.
Bonds, meanwhile, never won a championship. He put together some of the most prolific individual seasons in baseball history, winning five more MVP awards with the Giants and setting the single-season home run record with 73 in 2001. But a ring eluded him throughout his 22-year career.
A revealing moment on a big night for the Yankees
The Bonds revelation came during a Yankees blowout. New York routed the Giants 7-0 behind 6 1/3 shutout innings from Max Fried and a 10-hit attack that featured five runs in the second inning off San Francisco ace Logan Webb. It was the Yankees’ fifth consecutive Opening Day victory.
Wednesday’s game was the first MLB contest to air exclusively on Netflix. Bonds was one of several guests brought in for the broadcast, and his story was easily the most talked-about moment off the field. Whether every detail holds up under scrutiny is another matter entirely. But it offered a fascinating glimpse at how close the Yankees came to landing the greatest power hitter of his generation, and how a phone call, real or embellished, changed the course of the Yankees and Giants franchises forever.
