Fatherly Willie Mays Took Bobby and Barry Bonds Under His Wing

San Francisco Giants Hall of Famer Willie Mays influenced the lives of two other Giants, Bobby and Barry Bonds, both of whom who had significant careers of their own. He was Bobby’s teammate with the Giants, while taking on the role of godfather for Barry as a youngster. When Barry later became a Giant, Mays continued their close relationship.

Mays was inextricably linked to the father/son duo, both on and off the field. He was a factor in their on-field performance, serving as a motivator, mentor, and coach. During the course of their personal relationships, he was their confidant, at times helping them with teammate and media issues, as well as the demons affecting their personal lives.

Mays grew up in Fairfield, Alabama, near Birmingham, in the segregated Deep South of the 1930s and ’40s. He learned the game from his father, who played in Black semipro leagues. Willie eventually played alongside his father, who encouraged him to pursue a professional career after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major-league baseball in 1947. He played with the Birmingham Barons in the Negro Leagues for parts of the 1948 and 1949 seasons,1 where manager Piper Davis was instrumental in honing his skills.2 Mays signed with the New York Giants for a $5,000 bonus in 1950 as a 19-year-old.3

Mays was batting an amazing .477 with Triple-A Minneapolis before being called up to the Giants in late May of 1951. There was considerable anticipation about the 20-year-old’s hitting ability, and he didn’t disappoint the Giants as he contributed 20 home runs and 68 RBIs to their pennant-winning cause. He was named the National League Rookie of the Year.

After missing most of the 1952 season and all of 1953 while serving in the US Army, the 23-year-old Mays remarkably earned the National League MVP Award in 1954, based on his 41 home runs, 110 RBIs, and his league-leading .345 batting average, .667 slugging percentage, and 1.078 OPS. He was on his way to becoming arguably the best center fielder in baseball history.

Mays combined power and speed in becoming a perennial All-Star from 1954 through the remainder of career. When he retired after the 1973 season, he was the National League career leader in home runs with 660. He led the league in stolen bases four times and was a 12-time Gold Glove winner. Mays earned his second MVP Award in 1965 and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1979.

Bobby Bonds grew up in Riverside, California, where future major-league player and manager Dusty Baker was his childhood friend. Bobby’s father, Robert, had a drinking problem, which often made home life unpleasant. Bobby resented his father and developed a closer relationship with his mother. But then he followed his father’s path and also became an alcoholic. As early as his sophomore year in high school, Bobby was bringing bottles of wine and cans of beer to his athletic competitions.4

However, his drinking habits did little to affect his performance as an amateur. Bobby was a well-known track and field star in the Los Angeles area. In 1964 he won the state long-jump championship, with a jump only 15 inches shorter than the national record. He once ran the 100-yard dash in 9.8 seconds while wearing baseball shoes.5

Bobby also excelled in baseball, where his speed was a significant part of his game. By his senior season in high school, San Francisco Giants scout Evo Pusich was regularly following him. After graduating from high school, the Giants offered him an $8,000 signing bonus and a guaranteed $500 monthly salary. Pusich told Bobby at his signing, “By the time you get to the big team, Willie Mays will have two or three years left. He’ll be your teacher.”6

Pusich’s sales pitch with Bonds turned out to be true. Bobby broke in with the San Francisco Giants in late June 1968, in Mays’ 17th big-league season, and immediately became a regular starter in right field. The 37-year-old Mays, took him under his wing and oriented Bobby to the life of a major leaguer. Bobby learned how to play the outfield from Mays, who had been a perennial Gold Glove winner. With Mays’ tutoring, Bobby developed into a solid outfielder and won three Gold Gloves of his own.

Like Mays, speed and power became Bobby’s game. He tied Pete Rose to lead the league with 120 runs scored in 1969 and stole 45 bases for third place. He added 32 home runs and 90 RBIs and began drawing comparisons to Mays. He was being touted as Mays’ replacement.

The media began to label Bobby the “next Willie Mays,” a moniker Mays didn’t like for Bobby or himself. This put undue pressure and elevated expectations on Bobby. Mays sought to protect Bobby from resulting distractions, including taking him to dinners and movies. Aware of Bobby’s struggles with alcohol, Mays urged him to focus on the game.7

Bobby had grown up in a racially diverse neighborhood in California, but his time spent as a minor leaguer in Lexington, North Carolina, was filled with hardship due to racial hostility. At one point, he was ready to quit baseball.8 After Bobby arrived in the majors, Mays was able to draw on his own experience of growing up in the South to help Bobby deal with lingering prejudices of teammates, the media, and the front office.

Bobby learned from Mays that being a superstar meant having the persona of a superstar. For Bobby, it translated into having a bit of swagger, becoming difficult at times with the media, and keeping certain teammates at a distance.9

Bobby had been married before he finished high school, with son Barry being born in 1964. When Barry was 4 years old, he began going to Candlestick Park with his father in a child-sized Giants uniform. He liked going to Mays’ locker and trying to play pranks on him. Mays took to the youngster and often entertained him with playful antics. Mays would take him out to the field to play catch and shag balls.10 Eventually, Bobby’s wife, Pat, asked Mays to become Barry’s godfather, a role he graciously accepted.11 Mays’ personal relationship with Barry continued well into Barry’s adulthood.

By 1971, Bobby had become a legitimate star in his own right. He finished fourth in the voting for MVP, earned his first All-Star selection and captured his first Gold Glove. When Mays was traded to the New York Mets on May 11, 1972, Bobby’s production regressed during the balance of the season. Mays had become an idol for Bobby, who said, “When Willie left, half of me left. I just went through the motions after that. I had no desire, no determination.” He lamented, “It was one of the worst things I could have done – allowing myself to feel that way.”12

The Giants brass had convinced themselves that Bobby was the solution to the aging Mays. Bobby took his place in center field. He was unusual for the time – a power hitter leading off. Even though he averaged 31 homers and 41 stolen bases from 1969 to 1973, it became apparent that Bonds wasn’t going to become another Mays. For that matter, how many players could ever be another Mays? Even Bobby acknowledged the gap. “I never thought of myself as another Mays,” he said. “There was only one of him.”13

Those unrealistic expectations were made worse by his continuing reliance on alcohol, which became public knowledge after his arrest in 1973 for drunk driving and resisting arrest. Perhaps caused by his alcoholism, Bobby developed a persona that revealed itself through moody periods and aloofness. The Giants traded Bobby to the Yankees for Bobby Murcer in October 1974 after Bobby’s lowest home-run and RBI output since his rookie season.14

Barry’s opportunity to hang around Mays at the ballpark ended at age 10 once Bobby was dealt to the Yankees. Barry grew up in predominantly White San Carlos, a suburb of San Francisco, not far from Candlestick Park. He demonstrated a passion for baseball, which pleased his father. Barry would later say Bobby pushed him into a baseball career. A growing tension developed between the two because of frequent separations of Bobby from the family. Years later, Barry said that as a boy he hadn’t liked his father because of the way Bobby treated him and his mother in the home. Barry complained that his father hadn’t paid attention to his athletic and scholastic achievements.15

Barry was a product of his father’s athletic genes and baseball acuity. He learned the game from both his father and godfather. The only Black player on his team, he was a standout for Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, California. The Giants drafted him out high school in the second round in 1982, offering a $70,000 bonus. On the advice of his father and Mays, he instead chose to play baseball at Arizona State University.16

After his junior season with the Sun Devils in 1985, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Barry in the first round as the sixth overall pick. He earned his first MVP Award in 1990. He finished second in the voting in 1991 and followed with another first-place finish in 1992.

After the 1992 season, Barry he became a free agent. Only the Yankees and Giants made serious offers to him, and the Yankees withdrew from the pursuit after he turned down a five-year, $36 million proposal. Supermarket industry tycoon Peter McGowan had just purchased the Giants franchise, keeping it from being relocated to Tampa-St. Petersburg by previous owner Bob Lurie. McGowan hoped to revitalize the team, and he set his sights on attracting Barry back to the San Francisco area.17

The Giants’ prior connection to his father and Mays appealed to Barry. He recalled a childhood dream of playing in the same outfield with them.18 He returned to his baseball roots with the Giants when he signed in December 1992, with the largest contract in baseball – six years guaranteed at $43.7 million, with two option years as well.

The deal was popular in the Bay Area because Barry offered the Giants an opportunity to return to the days when Mays wore the orange and black. Dusty Baker, his father’s childhood friend, was hired as the manager and brought on Bobby as hitting coach. The move united Bobby and Barry from 1993 to 1996.

Upon his signing, there was controversy over which uniform number Barry would take. He had worn number 24 with Pittsburgh in honor of his godfather. It was reported that Mays offered to take the number out of retirement so Barry could wear it. Barry wound up taking his father’s number 25.19

Mays remained a factor in Barry’s life. During their quiet times together, among the topics they discussed were how to be a good teammate and how to deal with the front office and the press. Like his father, these were issues Barry grappled with throughout his Giants career. Barry and Willie’s conversations were a form of “schooling” that Barry never received from his father or his coaches.

When Bobby was cancer-stricken and near death in August 2003, Mays visited him in the hospital. Bonds told him, “Willie, you’ve got to take care of Barry. He’s not going to listen to other people like he does you and me.”20 Barry took his father’s death hard. Bobby’s stint as Giants hitting coach had drawn Barry closer to him. Despite his taking time off to manage his father’s personal affairs, his performance didn’t suffer. He earned his third straight MVP Award and sixth of his career. Upon receiving the award, he said, “This is more special to me than any award I’ve ever received because it’s dedicated to my father.”21

Mays heeded Bobby’s request and made himself available to then 39-year-old Barry during the offseason after Bobby’s death. Mays was a source of comfort that Barry valued. “Just being with my godfather trying to go through the healing process without my father, just through our conversations and support of me in the wintertime has changed my outlook on a lot of things,” Barry said. “[Bobby has] been my coach my whole life. The best thing is, Willie has taken that role for me now and he’s been working out with me three days a week in the wintertime and easing the pain for me to go through the process without my father.”22

Barry was called to testify before a grand jury in December 2003 during the BALCO steroids case. When spring-training camps opened in 2004, the investigation results were on everyone’s mind. While Barry was not indicted, his association with BALCO officials was well-known. Early in March 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Barry was one of the players to receive steroids from BALCO, which was at the center of the major leagues’ PED scandal.23

Mays continued to support Barry with frequent visits to the Giants clubhouse during the season. While Mays was publicly silent on the allegations, he remained Barry’s confidant during the challenging time. Dusty Baker realized Mays was a reassuring influence with Barry and deferred to Mays for heart-to-heart discussions with the embattled player. Baker said, “What Willie was telling him superseded and was more important than what I could’ve told him. He was coming in with a different level of respect. It was almost like the Lord talking to him. I wasn’t the Lord, not even close. But Willie was Willie Mays, man.”24

With the start of the 2004 season, Barry was apprehensive about passing his hero’s 660 career home runs. He said, “I never wanted to pass him. Willie’s my idol. But he’s the one who encouraged me to go after it all. My dad always did, and I listened to my dad, but like I said, Willie put the period after the sentence.”25

Barry tied his godfather in the Giants’ home opener at SBC Park on April 12, 2004, with a three-run homer into McCovey Cove. After Barry rounded the bases, Mays emerged from the Giants’ dugout with a diamond-encrusted souvenir Olympic torch that he presented to Barry with a fond embrace. It served as a symbol of “passing the torch” to the 39-year-old slugger.26 After the game, Barry said, “My father was supposed to be the next Willie Mays. I kind of kept the tradition in my family. It feels great.”27

Barry passed Mays the next day, leaving only Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth ahead of him. Even with Mays in the stands, there wasn’t as much ceremony and fanfare around this homer as there was the previous day. Barry admitted that 660 was more special because of his relationship with Mays. He said, “Six-sixty was the one. That’s the one that will be on my desk forever. I don’t feel I’m ahead of Willie because Willie is my mentor. He always will be. I still feel he’s the greatest player of all time. That hasn’t changed.”28

If Barry was bothered by all the negative press from BALCO, he didn’t show it on the field. Incredibly, he was able to record the best batting line of his career – .362/.609/.812 – and his seventh MVP Award.

Three years later, 42-year-old Barry finished his career with 762 home runs, the most in baseball history. As late as 2022 he was on the all-time Top 10 list for on-base percentage, slugging average, OPS, and OPS+. One of the most feared hitters in the game, he is the all-time leader in walks and intentional walks. His seven MVP awards are the most in history for one player. These were numbers that certainly should have earned him a plaque in Cooperstown.

Yet, when Barry became eligible for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013, the specter of his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs hung over his head. He received only 36.2 percent of the vote, well short of the 75 percent minimum required to be elected. Barry became one of the poster boys of annual campaigns by many baseball writers to refuse votes for players associated, real or perceived, with PEDs. While some of the living Hall of Famers, like Joe Morgan, publicly spoke out against the players’ election,29 Mays became a vocal supporter of Barry. (Bobby Bonds spent 11 years on the Hall of Fame ballot and topped out at 10.6 percent in 1993.)

While not having the same consequence to his career as Barry, Mays had experienced his own banishment of sorts. In 1983 Commissioner Bowie Kuhn prohibited Mays and Mickey Mantle, both then retired, from associating with major-league clubs while they were working for an Atlantic City casino as goodwill ambassadors. Mays was bitter about the situation and later felt it had tarnished his image.30 In a way, he could relate to Barry’s being blocked by Hall of Fame voters.31

At the Giants’ ceremony to retire Barry’s jersey number 25 in August 2018, Mays called for baseball writers to vote his godson into the Hall of Fame.32 Mays urged, “You go by the numbers, he should be in. When I was on the ballot in ’79, twenty-three writers didn’t vote for me. You never know. I just think he should have the honor.”33

Mays was in the minority, though, as most of the baseball writers continued to pass over Bonds on their ballots. When he received 60.7 percent of the vote in 2020, it appeared he might be on the verge of overcoming the PED bias. But in his last year on the ballot, 2022, he finished with only 66 percent.

Bobby never met the expectations of being “the next Mays” and his productive career is largely underappreciated. Mays was the standard to which Barry aspired. Barry wound up rivaling the Hall of Famer as one of the best hitters of all time, although his career remains tainted by the BALCO case.

Willie, Bobby, and Barry share one set of milestone statistics involving their patented combination of speed and power. They are three of only eight players (as of 2022) to hit 300 home runs and steal 300 bases. Bobby and Barry are the only players to hit more than 300 home runs and steal more than 400 bases.

RICHARD CUICCHI joined SABR in 1983 and is an active member of the Schott-Pelican Chapter. After his retirement as an information technology executive, Richard authored Family Ties: A Comprehensive Collection of Facts and Trivia about Baseball’s Relatives. He has contributed to numerous SABR BioProject and Games Project publications. He does freelance writing and blogging about a variety of baseball topics on his website, TheTenthInning.com, and is a regular contributor to CrescentCitySports.com. Richard lives in New Orleans with his wife, Mary.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

 

NOTES

1  Neither Seamheads.com nor Baseball-Reference.com shows any statistics for Mays with Birmingham in the 1949 season. His biography in Willie Mays, A Biography says that he was with the team in 1949.

2  Mary Kay Linge, Willie Mays, A Biography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005), 17.

3  Linge, 19.

4  Jeff Pearlman, Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), 17.

5  Pearlman, 19.

6  Pearlman, 21.

7  Pearlman, 26.

8  Pearlman, 21.

9  Pearlman, 33.

10 Steven Travers, Barry Bonds: Baseball’s Superman (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, 2002), 35.

11 Linge, 149.

12 Ron Fimrite, “Getting It All Together,” Sports Illustrated, April 8, 1974. https://www.si.com/vault/1974/04/08/628485/getting-it-all-together. Accessed September 12, 2022.

13 Fimrite.

14 Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, Game of Shadows (New York: Gotham Books, 2006), 25.

15 Fainaru-Wada and Williams, 26.

16 Fainaru-Wada and Williams, 28.

17 Pearlman, 138.

18 Linge, 175.

19 David Bush, “Bonds Will Wear No. 25,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 11, 1992: E1.

20 Willie Mays and John Shea, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020), 275.

21 Guy Curtright, “Emotions Strong for MVP Bonds,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 19, 2003: 3D.

22 Henry Schulman, “‘The New Say Hey Kid’: With Mays in Support, Bonds Set to Embark on His Toughest Season,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 24, 2001: C1.

23 Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, “Bonds Got Steroids, Feds Were Told,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 2, 2004: A5.

24 Mays and Shea, 24, Life Stories, 285.

25 Mays and Shea.

26 Gwen Knapp, “660: Bonds Ties Mays,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 2004: A1.

27 Henry Schulman, “Bonds Equals His Godfather When Blast Counts Most,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 13, 2004: D1.

28 Ray Ratto, “Bonds’ HR One-Ups Mays,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 2004: D1.

29 Joe Posnanski, “Joe Morgan’s Letter,” Joe Posnanski Blog, November. 21, 2017. https://medium.com/joeblogs/joe-morgans-letter-9e113815983d. Accessed September 26, 2022.

30 Linge, 173.

31 One of new Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s first actions in March 1985 was the reinstatement of Mantle and Mays.

32 Mark Townsend, “Willie Mays Says Barry Bonds Belongs in Hall of Fame as Giants Retire No. 25,” Yahoo Sports, August 11, 2008. https://www.yahoo.com/video/barry-bonds-honored-giants-willie-mays-emotional-jersey-retirement-ceremony-012435543.html. Accessed October 2, 2022.

33 Mays and Shea, 289.