Barry Bonds

Bonds came to baseball with an unparalleled pedigree. The oldest son of three-time Golden Glove winner and former San Francisco Giant Bobby Bonds and his wife, Pat, the younger Bonds began hanging around the Giants' locker room as a child. But he spent as much time out on the field, chasing fly balls with his father and godfather, the legendary Willie Mays. Another baseball great, Reggie Jackson, is a distant cousin, and Olympic sprinter Rosie Bonds is his aunt. Bonds has claimed that, even before kindergarten, he could hit a whiffle ball so hard it could break glass.

By the time he entered Serra Juniperro High School in San Mateo, California, Bonds was an all-around athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football. His big-league talent already evident, Bonds was offered a $75,000 contract when he graduated in 1982. Equally evident was Bonds' belief that baseball is first and fore-most a business, an ethos he would continue to espouse throughout his career. When the Giants turned down his request for more money, he opted to buy time playing college ball at Arizona State University where, by his junior year he had been named to the All-Pac 10 team three years running. In 1985, after hitting twenty-three home runs and compiling a .347 career average, he was named to the Sporting News All-American Team. But it was not just the seeds of Bonds' athletic ability that were beginning to show at ASU. Already, the standout was gaining a reputation as off-putting and self-absorbed. "I liked the hell out of Barry Bonds. Unfortunately, I never saw a teammate care about him," his former coach, Jim Brock, told Sports Illustrated. "Part of it would be his being rude, inconsiderate and self-centered. He bragged about the money he turned down, and he popped off about his dad. I don't think he ever figured out what to do to get people to like him."