How a 10-Year-Old Barry Bonds Played on the Yankees at the Same Time as His Father

The father-son pairing in MLB is rare. In close to 147 years of MLB history, this feat has seen itself repeated a few times. Even fewer times in the same league. And rarer still within the confines of a single team. Though Barry Bonds and his father, Barry Bonds., have had no love lost between them, the talents were apparent on show between them. Early in Barry’s career, the world saw the Bonds father-son duo feature for the Yankees, although in a slightly different contest.

The New York Yankees are a historic franchise. Having been around for a long time, they have an undoubtedly long story to go. However, an interesting pattern in their book unfolded when Bobby Bonds donned the pinstripes and young Barry was in little league, only starting to take shape as the burgeoning star we all know him as today. In a coincidence for the ages, the Bonds shared a remarkable similarity.

When the Bonds Donned Pinstripes

Author Jeff Pearlman in his book ‘Love Me Hate Me – Barry Bonds‘, narrates the incident of a funny coming together of circumstances. Pearlman, on page 41, recounts the story of Bobby Bonds’ trade to the New York Yankees in 1975 from his hometown San Francisco Giants. Still in little league at the time, Bonds Sr.’s move came at a time opportune for his young son.

Having shown a talent for the game at a young age, Barry had started his little league career in still. Still only 10 year old, the star used to play for the Lions Club Yankees. A team managed at the time by locally famous little league coach Lloyd Skjerdal. While Bonds Sr. was sporting the iconic pinstripes in the Bronx, the younger Barry was preparing for a life in MLB.

But the nature of the sport was such that while going on to post one of the most illustrious careers in MLB, Barry Bonds, never turned out for the Yankees. Instead being drafted first by the Pittsburgh Pirates and eventually landing up with the San Francisco Giants.

Barry Bonds in MLB

Bonds holds some of the most unshakeable records of the league. The 14x All Star was often walked even with bases loaded for the fear of a grand slam down to his superlative hitting.

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Bonds retired from the Major Leagues with perhaps one of the most enviable stat lines. Featuring both as the all-time leader for homeruns in the league with 762 homeruns to his name as well as the holder of the single season record with 73 that he hit in the 2001 season.

The father-son duo is surely one of the most curious in history. Even while sharing some tremendous baseball genes, the two had a fraught relationship that neither shied away from addressing and was often the subject of severe media scrutiny.

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