Barry Bonds Reveals He Refused to Sign With Yankees After Call With George Steinbrenner

Barry Bonds told an incredible story on Wednesday night about a moment nobody knew about that changed baseball history.

During Netflix’s broadcast of MLB’s Opening Night game between the Giants and the Yankees, Bonds was brought into the booth for some analysis. He revealed that he was on the verge of signing with New York as a free agent back in 1992, before deciding to join his hometown Giants. The reason he didn’t is fascinating.

Apparently, a call from Yankees owner George Steinbrenner turned Bonds off. The full story is below.

I got to tell you a story because George isn’t here anymore, so I can tell the truth. I would have been a Yankee, but Steinbrenner got on the phone, and he called us and they told me, “Barry, we’re gonna give you the money, the highest-paid player at that time, but you have to sign the contract by 2 o’clock this afternoon.” And I said, “Excuse me?” And I just hung the phone up.

And I went to go get lunch and Dennis Gilbert, my agent, and them were like “Do you know what you just did?” And I’m like, “Do you know what he just said?” I just said forget it and by the time I walked down the street to go get lunch and said, “Let me just think about this,” the Giants called me and I said, “I’m going home.”

That is absolutely wild.

Bonds was the reigning NL MVP in 1992 when he was a free agent. He won two MVPs as a member of the Pirates and was among the best players in the game. He was an unrestricted free agent and several teams chased him. He wound up passing on the Yankees’ offer to sign a then-record six-year, $43.75 million contract to play for the Giants. Bonds’ father had played the first seven years of his career with the Giants, and his godfather, Willie Mays, played 21 of his 22 seasons for the franchise.

Given how Bonds played in the 90s, he may have made the Yankees an all-time juggernaut.

From 1993 through 2004, Bonds hit 527 home runs, with 1,746 hits in 1,706 games. He slashed .317/.479/.689 with an absurd OPS+ of 205 and produced a staggering WAR of 104.5. He won five MVPs after joining the Giants, including four in a row from 2001 to ‘04, a chunk of time in which the Yankees lost two World Series. Yes, years later, we learned Bonds was juiced to the gills for a chunk of that, but during that time, he went on one of the greatest offensive runs the game has ever seen.

Bonds ended his career as baseball’s all-time home run leader (762), and earned a record seven MVP awards. He is also the sole member of the 500 home run/500 stolen base club and holds the single-season home run record with 73.

It’s truly incredible to think what might have been. Bonds never won a World Series as a player, and the Yankees won four during the time he was a member of the Giants.

It all could have been different if Steinbrenner had allowed him to sign the contract at his leisure.