Barry Bonds to Sue MLB Owners for Collusion

After eleven years of litigation and much hoopla involving the greatest home-run hitter in MLB history and his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, the United States Court of Appeals in April reversed the sole conviction that federal prosecutors were able to pin on Barry Bonds.

Now Barry Bonds is about to unleash some hoopla of his own.

Bonds, who owns the all time home-run record with 762 and the single-season record with 73, is considering filing a suit against Major League Baseball owners for collusion. He charges that they blocked him from obtaining employment after the 2007 season.

Sports Illustrated reported that Bonds at the time said that he would play for the minimum if he received an offer, but he never got one. Bonds certainly wasn’t washed up yet, even after 22 years in the bigs.

Aside from breaking the career home-run record in the 2007 season, the seven-time MVP still had some pop in his Louisville slugger. Bonds hit 28 home runs that year while leading the National League with a .480 on-base percentage and 1.045 OPS.

CBS Sports reported that Bonds made $19.3 million in 2007, which included $5 million in incentives. Despite his production and handsome paycheck, Bonds’s surly reputation and his link to PEDs rendered him unpopular with fellow players, owners, and the fans.

Given his historic home run stats and his lifetime .298 batting average, the former SF Giants outfielder should have been a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. Obviously, judges couldn’t overlook the negatives on Bonds at the ballot.He garnered a mere 36.8 percent vote, less than half needed for enshrinement, in 2015.