Barry Bonds was once walked with bases loaded

Barry Bonds is regarded as one of the most dangerous hitters in MLB history. SI's Stephanie Apstein recounts the story of the time Bonds was walked with bases loaded.

Barry Bonds was once walked with the bases loaded, intentionally. As wild as it seems, that's how fearsome Bonds was as a hitter when at his peak. Sports Illustrated's Robin Lundberg talked about the moment with baseball writer Stephanie Apstein, who wrote an oral history recounting Buck Showalter's decision to walk in a run rather than pitch to Bonds. Check out what went into the then Diamondbacks manager's thinking when facing the San Francisco Giants great.

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Robin Lundberg: My favorite Barry Bonds stat is that at the peak of his powers on any given swing, he was only slightly more likely to swing and miss than get an extra-base hit, which is probably why he was once walked intentionally with the bases loaded. For more, I'm joined by our Stephanie Epstein, who has an oral history of said walk. Stephanie, first of all, when you go back and talk to people about it, are people still incredulous that it happened? 

Stephanie Apstein: Yeah, everybody said, oh, yeah, you know, I hear about this all the time. Still every anniversary we talk about it. Guys go back and forth. They hear from their friends. Everybody still remembers. This stands out as a moment that really they could tell if the time was going to be memorable.

Robin Lundberg: You know, I always say that Barry Bonds was the best before cheating and he was the best at cheating. And I know this is enhanced Barry Bonds we're talking about, but still, how ridiculously good was he that this would even be considered by someone like Buck Showalter?

Stephanie Apstein: Showalter said to me, if I wanted to end the game for sure, right then I would have let Barry hit. He felt like that there was no outcome other than Barry getting there. There was no chance he was going to make it out. And so the only way to give his team a chance was to put him on with walking around. Pretty amazing.

Robin Lundberg: Do you think we'll ever see anything like that again? 

Stephanie Apstein: We saw one 10 years later, John Madden did it to Josh Hamilton. I'm not sure there's anybody. We don't see a lot of intentional locks anyway. Now, I'm not sure there's anybody who strikes the same level of fear into the hearts of pitchers across the league now.

Robin Lundberg: Yeah, not since Barry Bonds, of course. Stephanie, I appreciate your time, as always. 

Stephanie Apstein: Thanks for having me.