Barry Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, confirmed Bonds’ seemingly fanciful claim on the Yankees-Giants Netflix telecast that George Steinbrenner called him when he was a free agent in late 1992 and made an offer with a deadline. What’s especially interesting about that is that Steinbrenner wasn’t supposed to be doing any baseball business then, as he was suspended from mid-1990 until March 1, 1993.
“I recall standing next to Barry in my office in Beverly Hills while he was on the phone with George. Although I could not hear what George was saying, I know the substance was that he was giving Barry a deadline to accept the Yankee offer,” Borris told The Post. “I witnessed Barry saying ‘No, thank you,’ and he hung up the phone.
“I remember at the time feeling uncomfortable because the Yankee offer would have made Barry the highest paid player and Peter Magowan was not yet the official owner of the Giants, so any negotiations we were having with the Giants didn’t have any teeth in it,” Borris continued.
In any case, all Bonds’ agents agree that Bonds much preferred the Giants since he grew up in San Francisco, Willie Mays was his godfather and the Giants’ deal also gave the Giants hitting coach job to Barry’s father, Bobby. “There was a lot of romanticism,” around San Francisco, recalled another Bonds confidant.
