Barry Bonds Feels 'Sense Of Completion' After Inclusion In 1st Giants World Series Celebration
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - Barry Bonds - the man who was once the center of the baseball world as he chased baseball's most sacred records in a Giants uniform - is apparently all the way back from steroid purgatory, at least as far as the San Francisco Giants are concerned.
Bonds was back in the spotlight Friday at the World Series victory parade where he was spotted in the procession right alongside Willie McCovey and other Giants greats. Bonds has been welcomed back by the team this year after spending several seasons away from the spotlight as the blowback from the steroid era shot squarely in his direction.
The team signaled that he was welcomed back this year when they made him a special instructor during Spring Training. He was spotted around the team several times through the year, even hosting Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in a luxury box during the World Series.
Bonds, who's father was also a star for the Giants, told KPIX 5's Vernon Glenn that this feels like the completion of a journey that his godfather Willie Mays started when he moved west with the Giants. Mays won a World Series in New York, but the title eluded him (and two generations of the Bonds family) in San Francisco.
"When I came I was a little boy wanting to play for a team," said Bonds. "My godfather got to do this when he first came in in '58. I feel a sense of completion…but wow, what a great team."
Bonds even took to Instagram to show of his vantage point of the party:
It doesn't sound like Bonds plans on disappearing from the Giants family again any time soon.
"How about a couple of more World Series wins and we can keep doing this. I want to keep doing this," Bonds said. "It's my first one. I want to do it again."