Barry Bonds Before And After Steroids

Sad part is he never needed to go down the PED path. He was great without it. It was his pride and ego that drove him down that path when he saw the accolades other PED players were receiving.

For those old enough to remember watching Bonds during his steroid era, the video can’t truly capture how incredible he was to watch. During this period if you threw Bonds a strike that caught any decent part of the plate, the ball was leaving the yard, period. He was walked once a game of not more, and on at least one occasion intentionally walked with the bases loaded. It was a surreal scene to watch his at bats.

I'll never forget seeing Bonds during the 1998 Home Run derby. Watching Mark McGwire launch moon shot after moon shot. I think Sosa ended up winning. Anyway Bonds is watching McGwire like a kid who just saw the greatest toy any kid could ever hope to get from Santa under the Christmas tree. More excited than the fans almost. It was the next year in 99 he showed up 20 pounds heavier, head shaved, forehead popping out like a cro magnon and his HR % jumped from 5.3% to 7.8% and of course only went up from there. His stolen bases went from 28 to 15 as he lost speed. less doubles and triples as well he was just swinging for the fences. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he did.

I saw Bonds hit 2 in Kansas City. When the dude came to bat, you couldn't hear a peep in a sold out stadium crowd. The ball coming off his bat made a sound I have never heard from any other hitter, ever. The ball jumped to every field with such a scary pace, no matter if he had gone to the opposite field or pulled it. Sad thing is, as some mentioned, he was doing that before he was juicing.

Bonds: What time is puberty? Aragorn: Barry, you're in your 30s. You've already had puberty Bonds: I had first puberty, what about second puberty?

When he joined the Giants he took the name literally.

During his freak years everyone just focused on the hr totals, but equally impressive to me was that Dbacks game in the video, he stroked his 40th hr while posting a .341 avg, and his obp was even more gaudy. Literal video game numbers

You can see a distinct difference in Barry Bonds’ build from his days as a Pirate to his days as a Giant. Plus, the homers he hit went a whole lot further when he was a Giant than they ever did while he was a Pirate.

Bonds before steroids: "You don't want me to get angry." After steroids: "Hulk smash puny baseball."

Years ago I worked out 7 days a week with three other guys. Two of the four decided on the juice and one guy and myself decided to not. The growth of the other two (after two years of being neck and neck in workouts) was unbelievable. I am not saying that it was the steroids alone but one guy lost his mind and house and cars and marriage and the other guy, once he stopped juicing, stopped working out and disappeared. Haven't seen or heard of him in years. Does it work? You bet your ass it works! Overnight! But Boys, let me tell you this one very isolated story ... these two guys were "all kinds of f*cked up after getting on the juice"! Gains? You betcha! Temporary? Definitely? Did it F them up? I am not a doctor but I saw what I saw and it was bad.

Bonds and Griffey jr have the smoothest swings in the history of the game

Without steroids, he probably would've retired about 6-7 years sooner with about 300 less HR, but he would definitely be in the Hall of Fame.

3:18 “This one is headed for New Jersey!” Easily my favorite Jonny Miller call

I remember some commentator or former player saying,"players usually lose bat speed as they age, Bonds' bat speed is getting faster."

The thing with Bonds is that he was a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer if he had never touched 'roids/PED. He was on a pace to be a top 15 player All-time had he never touched 'roids/PED.

The 90s were unreal. The home run chase between Sosa & McGwire was insane. I remember every day checking Sportscenter and it seemed like every single day one of them had hit a home run. The other thing was Arizona Diamondbacks pitching. Schilling and Johnson regularly were throwing complete game shutouts or 8 IN 1 R 12 Ks. On a daily basis. Ken Griffey Jr and Barry Bonds were killing the ball. When Bonds finally decided to take over, it wasn't about the power alone. His batting average became insane. .340 .370 & then he mastered the strike zone on a godly level. If you threw it in the zone. GONE. If you missed he wouldn't even flinch. He calmly watched the ball pass by as if it was in slow motion. Ive never seen someone so locked in for so long. Not Judge, not Pujols, not Soto, not Griffey Jr, Sosa, McGwire, etc. Bonds was better than Ted Williams on roids. Even when he retired his last season was amazingly efficient. He couldn't run for squat but he probably could have DH'd for 3-4 more years but the league shut that down. I have no doubt that he had 75 more HRs in him. Maybe more.

It’d be good if you added some context and wrote his age or the season he was in when he hit each home run to better understand where he was in his career at that point.

Three of us were workout partners and we would hit the gym every morning and every evening 6 days a week, we worked out like animals. At the same time, 3 individuals joined the gym approximately our age. They were fit, in good shape but after a period of time started injection steroids. Within 7 months they left us in the dust, they grew and gained so much muscle and size in such a short period of time that it frustrated us. We were working out 3 hours per day and they surpassed us in no time. Years later I run into one of them and he has lost 90% of the size he gained and later I ran into another one of his training partners and he was overweight. Steroids allowed them to make incredible gains but it is fleeting. Look at before and after pictures of former Mr. Olympias. If you want gains that last go natural, it is slower, more difficult but healthy and long lasting!

Barry just wanted to make sure the little kids in the triple deck got a souvenoir. What a guy

I remember telling people that MLB wouldn`t do anything about steroids until they improve a pitchers fastball.