When it goes on the blog it’s there forever, and I want the following cemented among my observations.

Bobby Bonds is one of the most underrated Major League Baseball players of all time.

Bobby Bonds played 14 seasons in MLB, retiring at age 35 in 1981. I never saw him play, and there were only two things I knew about him growing up. They were both knocks. One, he was Barry Bonds’ dad, and since Barry was a punk, his dad must have been a punk too. I think this characterization is unkind and perhaps untrue, but that was the sentiment.

Two, he played for a lot of teams. This was a dig as well. In fact there were eight, which nowadays is probably less than average. At the time it seemed as though he couldn’t stick with a team, either for performance, attitude, or financial reasons, but again I question this. His on-field performance speaks for itself (more on that later), and whether either of the second and third points were ever true, through a modern lens who can blame him? No one now faults players for wanting to get paid, and I kind of give any Black man in this country born before about 1960 a pass for having a chip on his shoulder. Ugly words like “uppity” and the like are just code for a racism that still lived in baseball way too long after Jackie Robinson.

This said, let’s look at Bobby’s on-field performance. The greatest knock against him in his day was that he struck out a lot. True, he made a lot of outs, but he got on base a lot too, and with 461 career steals took extra bases as well. Even with tailing off a bit at the end he had a career OPS+ of 129, and 57.9 WAR according to Baseball Reference. From 1969-1975 (his peak WAR seasons) his WAR was 40.3, or 5.8 per season. During those years he averaged just under 30 home runs and 40 steals. That’s basically seven 30 homer and 40 steal seasons in a row. No one ever had more 30-30 seasons than he did (five), and the only other man with five… is his son.

So he struck out a lot. I’d call this “ahead of his time.”

So he spoke his mind a bit. I’d also call this “ahead of his time,” especially for a Black man.

Played for a bunch of teams? That’s the definition of the modern player.

And in those peak WAR seasons he played in an average of 154 games a year. That’s much better than the modern player.

Other than his son, he’s still the only player in MLB history with at least 300 home runs and 400 steals. The only people on that list are named Bonds. Not Aaron, not Mays, not A-rod. Just Bonds. His “power-speed number” as developed by Bill James? Fifth all time, after Barry, Rickey, Willie, and Alex. Not a bad list. Adam Darowski and company’s “Hall of Stats” calculates Bonds with a 112 rating, placing him comfortably among the ranks of those mathematically qualified for Cooperstown.

Sure, Bobby had his faults. For part of his life he was an alcoholic. But he joined AA after his playing career ended and he mended his relationship with his family, and he was a mentor to many young Giants in his role as coach, scout, and front-office employee.

Bonds died in 2003, and it’s unlikely he’ll ever get a posthumous vote into Cooperstown, but you never know.

He got his mention here.