It has been over two decades, but it is still impossible to forget the horrifying time of the 9/11 attacks. It was a challenging time for everyone in the country when almost three thousand people lost their lives, and countless others were left injured. The attacks also terrorized every citizen of the United States, including MLB players. Merely a day after the dreadful attacks, media houses approached the San Francisco Giants team, who were stranded at Enron. There, the San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds also shared his side of the story of the terrifying attacks.
The day, which was supposed to be the one for thousands of baseball fans to enjoy Bonds hitting the 64th homer of the season, turned out to be a nightmare for everyone in the country. Instead of cheering for Bonds in the ballpark, everyone was watching the terrors of 9/11 getting unfolded on the screens of their televisions. Apart from the chaos in the country, there was something else terrifying going on at Bonds’ place. Talking about the same, the Giants legend opened up in detail in his book Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero.
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Chasing a home run didn’t matter to Barry Bonds!
Within days, Bonds and many lives were turned upside down. The Giants at the time were visiting Texas when everything was going well in Bonds’ life. On September 10, a day before the attacks, Bonds had received a death threat at the Houston television station. Terrified by the news, the former baseball player somehow put himself to sleep before his telephone woke him up.
Already terrified, as he picked up the call, a plane had hit the World Trade Center. As the famous author Jeff Pearlman wrote in his book about Barry Bonds, the disputed home run king just wanted to return home to his family. Instead, he was struck in Enron, Texas. On September 12, when the media approached Barry, he said, “I just want to be home. The people want to know what their leaders are thinking, not us. People want to hear more what [President Bush] is thinking. I hurt a lot for those people, I hurt a lot. We are caring people just like you guys. We care about people, too.”
In simple words, Bonds let the journalists know that it wasn’t them they should be talking to. But instead, the leaders of the country.
Bonds paid tribute to the lives lost!
A week after the terrifying attacks of 9/11, the game was resumed, trying to get things back to normal, however hard it might have been. At the time, Bonds pledged to donate $10,000 for every home run he hit. The moment the play was resumed, Bonds was seen wiping tears, waving a miniature American flag along the third base line. 2001 then went on to become a memorable year for the MLB legend, as then he hit record-breaking 73 home runs in the season.
Despite everything Bonds did during those horrific times, he remained one of the most hated and controversial players in the league. It was because of almost everything he mainly did off the field. The alleged hatred that people had against him had only increased after his connection to PEDs was released.
It’s been over two decades since that day, but the country is recuperating from those events.
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Written by
Edited by
Abhishek Kumar