Former Giants star Barry Bonds, proper, and supervisor Bruce Bochy meet with the press Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz. as Bonds begins his week-long stint as a visitor hitting teacher.
A Corridor of Fame ceremony that includes Barry Bonds has typically appeared unlikely given his ties to performance-enhancing medication, but it surely’s attainable Bonds’ finest probability of future enshrinement will now coincide with legendary Giants supervisor Bruce Bochy’s first probability.
After Bonds did not obtain votes from 75% of the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America voters on his tenth and last poll, his candidacy can be decided by the Corridor of Fame’s “At the moment’s Recreation Committee,” which considers retired Main League Baseball gamers now not eligible for election by the BBWAA, together with managers, umpires and executives, whose biggest contributions to the sport have been realized from the 1988-2016 period.
A 16-person At the moment’s Recreation Committee is scheduled to satisfy in December, 2022 and eligible candidates should obtain assist from 12 members of the voting physique to be chosen to the Corridor of Fame.
Following a managerial profession that featured greater than 2,000 common season wins and three World Collection titles, Bochy is taken into account an apparent selection for enshrinement. So long as he stays retired, Bochy figures to be a number one candidate for the At the moment’s Recreation Committee, which meets once more in December, 2024, to contemplate this winter.
If each Bonds and Bochy are elected collectively, they'd be inducted into the Corridor of Fame at a ceremony in July, 2023.
It’s too quickly to know, nevertheless, how Bonds’ candidacy can be perceived by a a lot smaller voters than the roughly 400 writers who by no means gave him the assist wanted for enshrinement. Of their opposition to Bonds, many writers cited the Corridor of Fame’s “character clause,” which takes into consideration a participant’s sportsmanship and character.
A few of the 34 % of writers who didn't vote for Bonds pledged by no means to assist a participant who purportedly used steroids.
Bonds and Bochy solely spent one season collectively in San Francisco as Bochy’s debut with the Giants got here in 2007, which was Bonds’ final 12 months as a serious league participant. Bonds hit 28 house runs, posted a 1.045 OPS and broke Henry Aaron’s all-time house run document beneath Bochy, who began a distinct Opening Day left fielder in every of his 13 seasons because the Giants’ supervisor.
Bochy was additionally a part of the Giants’ contingent that first welcomed Bonds again to the group in 2014 because the seven-time Nationwide League Most Useful Participant Award winner returned in an official capability as a visitor spring coaching teacher in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Collectively inside the group, we felt that given Barry’s want to proceed to contribute to the Giants, we must be open-minded about giving him the identical invite that we now have given to different gamers prior to now,” Larry Baer advised the Mercury Information on the time.
The Giants formally retired Bonds’ No. 25 throughout a 2018 on-field ceremony at Oracle Park, making him the primary participant in franchise historical past to have a jersey retired with out first being inducted into the Corridor of Fame.
“In our view, that (Corridor of Fame enshrinement) was by no means a should,” Baer stated earlier than the ceremony. “It’s by no means been an absolute that you just’re within the Corridor of Fame to get it. I feel it was one in every of a number of form of free pointers.”
When the At the moment’s Recreation Committee meets in December, it’s attainable former Giants ace Tim Lincecum can be among the many gamers on the poll. Lincecum made his debut on the BBWAA writers’ poll this 12 months, however did not obtain votes from 5% of the voters, which means he's now not eligible for consideration by the writers.
It’s unlikely Lincecum, a two-time Cy Younger Award winner, will ultimately be enshrined in Cooperstown because the right-hander didn’t benefit from the longevity of most Corridor of Fame pitchers.
Buster Posey, who will debut on the writers’ poll in 2027, is taken into account the strongest candidate amongst former gamers to symbolize the best period of Giants baseball within the Corridor of Fame, however Bochy is perhaps the one actual “lock,” from the group concerned with successful three World Collection titles.