San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds is going after Major League Baseball over the way his career ended in 2007.
According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the All-Time home run king is proceeding with a case against MLB and claiming collusion by the league’s owners. Bonds apparently feels that teams got together after he played his last game in 2007 — a season in which he set the all-time home run record with 762 homers — and agreed not to sign him.
For now, Bonds is working with the MLB Players Association to file a grievance. However, Heyman notes that he could decide to file a lawsuit after going through the grievance process.
Bonds, who was waiting for his legal issues with BALCO to be resolved before going forward with his case against MLB, says he received no contract offers after the 2007 season. He played in 126 games in 2007 and finished with a .276 average, 28 home runs and 66 RBI. He suggested at the time that he was willing to play for a minimum salary. Bonds believes there was a “concerted effort” to keep him out of the game of baseball after that season.
Bonds had a short visit with the Giants during spring training last year and worked with some of the team’s players. The Giants discussed the possibility of expanding his role with the franchise back in February, but nothing ever came of it.
Last month, Bonds made headlines when he gave the least surprising defense of a certain MLB slugger that you will ever hear.
It seems fairly obvious that no team signed Bonds after the 2007 season because of his link to performance-enhancing drugs. Does that mean MLB and its owners got together and made a joint decision to not sign the scorned slugger? Not necessarily.
