{"id":644966,"date":"2026-03-26T17:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/644966\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:53:24","slug":"barry-bonds-shares-revelations-on-netflix-call-of-sf-giants-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/644966\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Bonds shares revelations on Netflix call of SF Giants-Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barry Bonds<\/a> had a couple of startling revelations Wednesday while working as an analyst for Netflix<\/a> during the Giants\u2019 7-0 loss to the New York Yankees<\/a> at Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

The seven-time Most Valuable Player, a reluctant and at times surly interview subject during his days with the Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, showed his more excited and expansive side. According to the network, Bonds will also be part of Netflix\u2019s coverage of the Home Run Derby on July 13 and the Field of Dreams game on Aug. 13.<\/p>\n

Netflix played it up too, with 73 kayaks in McCovey Cove to represent each of Bonds\u2019 73 home runs in setting the major league record in 2001. Bonds even knew how many splash hits were included in the total \u2014 nine.<\/p>\n

Seated with host Elle Duncan along with former players Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo during the pregame show, Bonds had one surprising off-hand reveal regarding Giants manager Tony Vitello<\/a>, a controversial selection in that he came straight out of college at Tennessee with no experience in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about the Giants is they\u2019ve always had longtime managers, and Tony, congratulations to you,\u201d Bonds said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never met, but congratulations. I\u2019m happy for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening Night might have been an occasion for their first meeting, if not for Bonds\u2019 gig on the Netflix desk.<\/p>\n

Later, when Bonds appeared in the play-by-play booth in game with play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian and analysts Hunter Pence and C.C. Sabathia, Bonds said the New York Yankees made a last-ditch effort<\/a> to sign the Pittsburgh superstar in 1993.<\/p>\n

According to Bonds, the potential deal was derailed by an ultimatum from owner George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have been a Yankee, but Steinbrenner got on the phone and called and told me we\u2019re going to give you the money to be the highest paid player at that time, but you have to sign the contract by 2 this afternoon,\u201d Bonds said. \u201cAnd I said, `Excuse me?\u2019 And I just hung the phone up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonds said his agent, Dennis Gilbert, wasn\u2019t happy about his client giving Steinbrenner the brushoff. But the Giants came in with a six-year, $43.75 million proposal, and the San Mateo native was sold on coming to his hometown team, where his father Bobby and godfather Willie Mays played.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time I walked down the street to go get lunch, I said, \u2018Let me just think about this,’\u201d Bonds said. \u201cThe Giants called me and I said, \u2018I\u2019m going home.’\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN analyst Buster Olney noted on social media<\/a> that at the time Steinbrenner allegedly reached out to Bonds, he was on suspension (from 1990-93) by then-commissioner Fay Vincent for conspiring against Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield.<\/p>\n

Some other observations from Bonds during his Netflix debut:<\/p>\n

\"SanGiants manager Tony Vitello will need patience to be a major league manager, according to Barry Bonds.\u00a0Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n

Where the Giants are headed under Vitello<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy in the direction they\u2019re going. You have players here now, with (Heliot) Ramos and (Matt) Chapman and (Rafael) Devers, so they\u2019re really established now, it\u2019s time for them to really take and make a move, and allow Tony to gain their respect and then actually be the manager he wanted to be his entire life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a childhood dream of his, and we should honor that, we should respect that, and time will tell what comes out of that. He doesn\u2019t pick the players. He\u2019s not upstairs. He just needs to gain respect, do his job like he did at Tennessee, bring that same vibe here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why patience will be a virtue for Vitello<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have eight-game losing streaks. You might have a 10- or 12-game losing streak, and it\u2019s going to be how he manages in those bad times. You don\u2019t have too many of those in college. We have 162 of those here in the big leagues and you better be able to understand how to deal with your players when situations are not going well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge\u2019s value as a teammate<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go back to myself and all the criticisms that I\u2019ve been through. I may not have talked to anybody off the field, but that was just me. But on the field I was probably the best teammate you would ever have. I took more walks for my team, got on base for my team, and that\u2019s what baseball is about. Aaron Judge brings that to his team every day, year in and year out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The automated ball-strike challenge system<\/p>\n

\u201cI like human error. To me, it\u2019s always been in the game. And when I played, you earned the umpire\u2019s respect and you could get the balls. If the umpire was setting up on the inside of me, I knew I could get the outside pitch the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

On second thought . . .\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind the ABS system. I really don\u2019t. I think it\u2019s going to be good for the game. A lot of things have changed that I was not favorable about at the time. I like the pitch clock. I don\u2019t mind it anymore. I want it to determine the game, though, not the umpires. I don\u2019t think human error should dictate the end of the game. If you challenge it and you\u2019re right, let\u2019s continue playing. And if the umpire\u2019s right, he\u2019s right. The game is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Forbes magazine<\/a>, Vasgersian said why it was important for the network to bring in Bonds.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s really heard Barry in long form analyze the game,\u201d Vasgersian said. \u201cForget about his own career and what fans may be predisposed to thinking about him. He\u2019s got people that love him, he\u2019s got people that don\u2019t support him. He played the game at a super high level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry Bonds had a couple of startling revelations Wednesday while working as an analyst for Netflix during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[106,1664,5,15374,162,4,40646,62,1792,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,1870,4873,27225],"class_list":["post-644966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-san-francisco-giants","tag-aaron-judge","tag-barry-bonds","tag-baseball","tag-george-steinbrenner","tag-giants","tag-mlb","tag-netflix","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-oracle-park","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfranciscogiants","tag-sf","tag-sf-giants","tag-sfgiants","tag-tony-vitello","tag-willie-mays","tag-willie-mccovey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116296760416871599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644966","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=644966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}