Despite his tainted past, Barry Bonds still stands as one of the unique symbols of baseball. Although the former San Francisco Giants player never earned a Hall of Fame title, he made millions in almost two decades in MLB. Although Bonds has a non-profit named after him, according to an interviewee in the Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Anti-Hero book, he wasn’t as philanthropic as he seems. As a part of one collaboration, Bonds put forward his financial obligations when asked for charity. 

The book paints an unsightly picture of one of the greatest in baseball and makes some surprising revelations. This incident reminds one of Michael Jordan and the famous homeless man incident.

Barry Bonds was apparently on the fence about charity

From any angle one looks at it, Bonds is a controversial figure in baseball. Many disliked his personality off the field, including Michael Simon, the cofounder of Famous Fixins. The organization had previously collaborated with various ballplayers on cereals and wanted to do the same with the Giants’ player. They called it ‘Barry Bonds MVP Crunch’, and the player himself was excited about it. However, when Pearlman interviewed Simon, the latter didn’t seem starry-eyed about working with a legend.

Pearlman writes on page 206, “As part of the agreement with Famous Fixins, the athletes were asked to choose a charity to donate a percentage of the cereal’s sales… Bonds’ reaction took a sudden turn when he discovered that a charitable endeavor was included in the package. ‘Why should I hand away my own money?’ he complained to Simon. ‘I’ve got bills to pay,’” he added.

The book is a harrowing narrative that doesn’t paint Bonds in a good light. One of the many allegations against the iconic player was this. “Although the side panel of Barry Bonds MVP Crunch reads, ‘Fifty percent of the net proceeds will… be donated to ‘The Barry Bonds Family Foundation,’ Simon says the final total was actually 1 percent. ‘Here’s a guy making millions and millions of dollars, and he would rather have the money go into his pocket,’ says Simon. ‘I’d never met anyone like him.'”

READ MORE – “I Respect Him as an Athlete”–When MLB Home Run Chart Leader Barry Bonds Opened Up About Alex Rodriguez Almost Breaking His Record

According to Simon, the project’s next stage didn’t go too well either.

Bonds was apparently uncooperative too

Despite the supposed excitement that Simon talked about, the Giants player could have been more cooperative later on. The project came into existence when Bonds was on the injured list. But once he recovered, Famous Fixins wanted to take some pictures. However, after waiting in the scorching heat for three hours, Simon and the photographer Albert Ferreira could not go any further.

WATCH THIS STORY – From Alex Rodriguez to Barry Bonds, Top 5 Players Who Aren’t a Part of the MLB Hall of Fame

According to Simon, the ballplayer had complained of a stomachache and wanted to shift the project to a later date. Of the many MLB players collaborating with Famous Fixins, Bonds’ cereal sold the least.