25

I've just watched video of the ceremony in San Francisco Saturday to retire Barry Bond's number 25.  The Giants organization planned it well: 25 years after Bonds joined the Giants, and before a game with the only other Major League team Bonds played for, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I only saw Bonds in one game at the San Francisco ball park (he struck out twice.)  But I saw him in probably a dozen games in his Pittsburgh years.  In one of the last games, I saw him hit safely to all fields, at least 4 hits, mostly rocket line drives that could take your breath away even if they stayed in the park.

So perhaps it was fitting that the most important words spoken about Bonds at this Saturday's ceremony were from his Pirates manager Jim Leyland--that is, at least in one important context.

There are probably Giants fans who were surprised that Bonds' number hadn't been retired long ago.  We all know why not.  But now with the entire organization behind him, this ceremony, this display provides a powerful boost to Bonds' chances of finally getting into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays spoke at the ceremony, though apparently he wasn't scheduled to do so, and he issued the call: vote him in.  Maybe I'm prejudiced by my Pittsburgh roots, but I believe Leyland's carefully worded statement was even more important: "Without question, [Bonds] is the best player I ever managed in my 22 years as a major league skipper."  

Those are powerful words coming from one of the most revered managers (he won a World Series title with the Marlins) who is himself likely to be voted into the Hall.

Bonds won the National League MVP twice in his six Pittsburgh seasons. He won his first in 1990 when he hit .301 with 33 homers and stole 52 bases, and won a Gold Glove.  He won his second in 1993 with similar numbers.  He wound up winning 7 MVPs--no other player has won more than 3.  That's just the beginning of his records, which no other player in any "era" in which he played could equal.  Barry Bonds belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame, or nobody does.