Barry Bonds played his last game in the city that welcomed him for 15 years last night when the Giants took on the Padres in their home season finale. The Giants have already announced that they have no intention of bringing back their star slugger for another year, even though he wants to play.
That move by the Giants is a bold one that had to be tough. Letting go of the career home run leader, who’s pretty much only loved by the citizens of San Francisco and the face of their franchise for a decade and a half, is no move that you want to be forced to make. But with the state of the Giants over the past few years, it was fairly obvious that they had to make a move, shake things up and go younger.
Whether or not Bonds will catch on somewhere else remains to be seen. He would demand at $15 million to play and is best suited for a DH role, limiting his options to AL teams. Expect this to be a big, plodding story over the winter, but not as big as it was last year.
Also, in Bonds news yesterday, apparently fans voted to have the 756 ball branded and sent to the hall of fame with the asterisk symbol on it. That seems dumb to me. The only reason Mark Ecko would do something like that is to gain some advertising for his clothing line. Congratulations, you defaced what could be considered a national treasure. Why not go piss on the Statute of Liberty while you’re at it?