Barry Bonds is MLB’s all-time home run king. He’s one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game.
He was also forced out of the game following the 2007 season. While some will have us believe this was due to a regression from top dog to over-the-hill veteran, Bonds himself is not buying that.
According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, Bonds is currently in the midst of filing a collusion lawsuit against MLB teams for keeping him out of the game and forcing him to miss a payday in 2008.
Bonds has long contended that a collusion of MLB owners effectively ended his career following the ’07 season, when he set the career home run record.
Bonds has said since he believes there was a concerted effort to keep him out of the game by baseball powers, though he sought to wait to file suit until his legal issues related to BALCO were resolved.
The CBS Sports scribe goes on to indicate that Bonds decided to move forward in this process after a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed his 2011 felony conviction for obstruction of justice relating to grand jury testimony back in 2003.
It’s not yet known whether Bonds has actually filed suit, but the expectation is that the case will be heard at some point this year.
Bonds has a legitimate gripe here.
Has last season in the Majors back in 2007, the year in which he broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home run mark, Bonds hit .276 with 28 homers and 66 RBI in 126 games. He also led the Majors with a .480 on-base percentage and 132 walks.
The 50-year-old Bonds would like us to believe that MLB teams colluded against him to keep him from playing in 2008. That’s only magnified by the fact that he was willing to play for the league minimum.
Photo: USA Today Sports