San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds Sets MLB Record

On May 4, 2002, Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run as a San Francisco Giant, leading his team to a 3-0 win over Cincinnati. Bonds is the first player to hit 400 homers for one team and 100 with another (Pittsburgh Pirates). Bonds would finish his career as Major League Baseball's All-Time home run leader with 762 home runs.

Barry Bonds hitting his 400th home run as a San Francisco Giant.

 It took Bonds 21 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants to Break Aaron’s record of 756 home runs, which stood for 33 years. Bonds would finish his career and is still the all-time leader in MLB history for most career home runs. Part of Bonds’ success came from the fact that he is the All-Time leader with consecutive seasons of 30 or more home runs, in which he has 13, from 1992-2004.

Bonds also leads the MLB in home runs in a single season with 73, career walks with 2,558 and career intentional walks with 688.

Bonds was also a seven time National League MVP. His seven MVP awards are four more than the next player. 

In the American League, former Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio earned three MVP’s. Two of DiMaggio’s teammates also earned three MVP’s, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. Current Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez also has three MVP’s.

In the National League, St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial earned three MVP awards in his career. Former Brooklyn Dodger Roy Campanella earned three MVP’s. Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt and another former Cardinal in Albert Pujols also earned three MVP awards.

On top of being on of the most decorated hitters of all time, Bonds also was an outstanding outfielder in his younger years as he racked up eight Gold Glove awards from 1990-1998. As of 2009, Bonds was the Left Fielder to win a Gold Glove in the National League.

He is also tied with his father Bobby for the most seasons of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases with five. Bonds would continue his terror on the base paths throughout his career and managed to become the only member of the 400/400 club, hitting over 400 home runs and stealing over 400 bags. He would then further himself from the rest of baseball when he entered the 500/500 club in 2004 when he swiped his 500^th stolen base.

Bonds’ was also just a season shy from joining the elusive 3,000 hit club, as he finished his career with 2,935 hits.

Bonds’ stats indicate he should have been a first ballot Hall of Famer into Cooperstown, however, with the steroid issues and Balco perjury scandals it is unlikely that Bonds will be nominated into Cooperstown ever

Berra Wins MVP

On Nov. 8, 1951, Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees picked up his first MVP award. 

Berra hit .294 that season and hit 27 home runs. Berra was an All-Star catcher 18 times, every year from 1948 through 1962. 

There were two All-Star games in 1959, 1960, and 1961, in which Berra was a selected to be a part of both.

He would also in the MVP award in 1954 and 1955.

His three MVP awards are tied second All-Time with Philadelphia Athletics great Jimmie Foxx, St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial, former New York Yankee teammate and Martinez native Joe DiMaggio, another former teammate and Yankee great Mickey Mantle, Brooklyn Dodgers catcher great Roy Campanella, former Philadelphia Phillies great Mike Schmidt, former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and current New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez. 

The three MVP awards won by Berra are only behind Barry Bonds, who has seven, and won four straight from 2001 to 2004.

Berra was part of the Yankees from 1946 to 1963 as a player; in 1963 he was a player and coach for the Bronx Bombers. In 1964 he served his first term as manager for the team. 

After managing the team for one year he would jump back into coaching from 1976 to 1983. He would take his second stint as manager in 1984 through 1985. 

During his time with the Yankees, Berra helped the elder New York franchise to 13 World Championships as a player, manager and coach in 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1977 and 1978.

Berra would also play, coach and manager for the other New York team, the Mets. He would help the New York “Miracle” Mets to a World Series title in 1969.

Berra would have his no. 8 jersey retired by the Yankees on July 22, 1972 and would be inducted into Cooperstown Baseballs Hall of Fame in 1972, with 85.61 percent of the vote. It was the first time he was on the ballot.

Since his time from baseball, Berra has written several books including:

Yogi: It Ain't Over (1989). The Yogi Book: 'I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said' (1998). When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes (2001). What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All (2002). Ten Rings: My Championship Seasons (2003). Let's Go, Yankees! (2006). You Can Observe a Lot by Watching (2011).

Bonds Hits 73

On Oct. 7, 2001, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds records home run 73 of the season against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dennis Springer.

Barry Bonds would finish the 2001 season with 73 home runs, a new major league record, breaking Mark McGwire’s record of 70 home runs that was set just a few years earlier in 1998. Bonds received the Babe Ruth award in 2001 for leading the MLB in home runs.

Bonds would never reach the plateau of 70 home runs again, but his record still stands today. The 2001 season was the fourth season in which Bonds was named the National League MVP, the first as a San Francisco Giant. The three previous MVP awards came while he was on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2001 MVP award was also the first of four consecutive MVP awards Bonds would receive while playing for the Giants as he also won the award in 2002, 2003 and 2004. No other player has won four MVP awards, let alone four consecutive MVP awards.

The 2001 season also saw Bonds draw in a few more records besides home runs, including 177 walks, and had .515 on-base percentage, a feat which had not been seen since Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams over forty years earlier. Bonds’ slugging percentage in 2001 was also a major league record, which still stands, as he hit an astounding .863.

Earlier in the 2001 season Bonds had also hit home run 500 putting him in great company, at the time only 16 other players were in the 500 home run club. Since Bonds reached the feat eight other players have reached 500 home runs.

Bonds is not yet a member of the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame but should be  in my opinion. Whether or not you believe steroids helped Bonds reach the home run feats, he was still a great player in the batters box or on defense. Bonds won an unprecedented seven MVP awards in his career, four more than the next players on the list, which include Hall of Famers, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, and Mike Schmidt. Two active players also have three MVP awards, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Anaheim Angels first baseman Albert Pujols.

Bonds also holds 17 MLB records including most walks in a season, and a career, and shares a piece of four other records including most seasons (five) with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, which tied his father Bobby. Barry and Bobby are also the only father and son duo to be in the 30-30 club.

Bonds Walked 200 Times

On Sept. 11, 2004, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds is walked three times in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the three walks Bonds became the first player to ever be walked 200 times in one season.

That season Bonds would set two different walk records in a single season, most walks in a single season with 232, most intentional walks with 120. He would also set a record for the best on-base percentage with .609. He would be named the MVP, for the fourth year in a row, in part to his seventh MVP award, also the most all time.

Never before had a player been intentionally walked more than 68 times, which Bonds did two years prior on 2002. To measure how outstanding being intentionally walked 120 times in a single season is here are the top five players and their amount of intentional walks in a single season. 1 – Bonds, 120, 2004. 2 – Bonds, 68, 2002. 3 – Bonds, 61, 2003. 4 – McCovey, 45, 1969. 5 – Pujols, 44, 2009. This stat was first kept in 1955, so Babe Ruth might have been on the list in front of McCovey or Pujols, but there was no official stat for being intentionally walked then.

Of the top 27 most intentionally walked players in a single season Bonds hits the list 11 times, while the next closest player is Albert Pujols with three. But all three of Pujols’ seasons that are on the top 27 still wouldn’t amount to what Bonds was intentionally walked in 2004. Pujols’ three seasons of intentional walks accumulate to 116, Bonds had four more than that in one season.

In his career Bonds was walked more than any other player with 2,558 walks, all of which came in the National League, for the Pirates and Giants. Babe Ruth, who owns the American League record for walks in a career, had 2,042 walks. Rickey Henderson is the number two player all time in walks with 2,129 walks, but his came in both the American and National Leagues.