{"id":643976,"date":"2026-03-26T05:52:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/643976\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T05:52:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:52:52","slug":"barry-bonds-reveals-on-opening-day-broadcast-he-was-nearly-a-yankee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/643976\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Bonds reveals on Opening Day broadcast he was nearly a Yankee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barry Bonds, New York Yankee. <\/p>\n<p>It could\u2019ve happened, according to MLB\u2019s all-time home run leader.<\/p>\n<p>Bonds, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/11\/sports\/netflix-interested-in-hiring-barry-bonds-for-mlb-coverage\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as part of Netflix\u2019s coverage<\/a> of Yankees-Giants on Opening Day, revealed on the streamer\u2019s broadcast that he nearly became a member of the Bronx Bombers during his first free agency in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gotta tell you a story because George [Steinbrenner] isn\u2019t here anymore,\u201d Bonds said. So I can tell the truth. I would\u2019ve been a Yankee, and Steinbrenner got on the phone, and they called us and he told me, \u2018Barry, we\u2019re going to give you the money,\u2019 highest-paid player at that time, \u2018but you have to sign the contract by 2 o\u2019clock this afternoon. I said, \u2018Excuse, me?\u201d and I hung the phone up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bonds said his agent couldn\u2019t believe what he said to Steinbrenner, and after going for a lunch, the Giants called him and the slugger decided to \u201cgo home,\u201d where his dad, outfielder Bobby Bonds, started his own playing career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the truth, that\u2019s what I was told,\u201d Bonds replied when play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian said the story would go viral on social media.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3989071;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38896979\" width=\"825\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-75733179_445ec5.jpg\" alt=\"Barry Bonds #25 of the San Francisco Giants prepares to bat in the fourth inning against the Atlanta Braves during a Major League Baseball game on July 26, 2007 at AT&amp;T Park in San Francisco, California.\" class=\"wp-image-38896979\"  \/>Barry Bonds prepares to bat in the fourth inning of a Giants game against the Braves on July 26, 2007 at AT&amp;T Park in San Francisco. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Bonds joined the Giants in 1993 and played the rest of his career in San Francisco, hitting 586 home runs,  setting the single-season record with 73 in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>Even without Bonds, the Yankees built an incredible core of players who won four World Series titles during the period from 1996 to 2000.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50810015;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38896980\" width=\"890\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-457537459.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner talks to the media during Game Four of the World Series against the Atlanta Braves on October 27, 1999 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York.\" class=\"wp-image-38896980\"  \/>Yankees owner George Steinbrenner talks to the media during Game 4 of the World Series against the Braves on Oct. 27, 1999 at the Stadium in The Bronx. Sporting News via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Bonds, while smashing records, only made the World Series once, losing to the Angels in a seven-game classic in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Had a 2 p.m. ultimatum never been on the table, could Bonds have done all that damage \u2014 and more \u2014 in The Bronx? One can only imagine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry Bonds, New York Yankee. It could\u2019ve happened, according to MLB\u2019s all-time home run leader. Bonds, as part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[1664,5,15374,4,2046,18513,40646,62,185,4298,7486],"class_list":["post-643976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-barry-bonds","tag-baseball","tag-george-steinbrenner","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-mlb-opening-day","tag-netflix","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-sports-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116293924834778262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}