HBO is reportedly in production on a Barry Bonds documentary, one being produced by folks who were responsible for excellent docs on O.J. Simpson and the Chicago Bulls [“The Last Dance”].
As of now, it sounds like Bonds is not participating in the project, something that shouldn’t come as a shock considering his adversarial relationship with the media since his playing days. The documentary probably won’t pull any punches in regards to the steroid allegations that plagued the later part of his career, this testy relationship with teammates and the press and allegations of domestic abuse.
Giants CEO Larry Baer was a member of the organization during all of Bonds’ tenure, and told Tolbert & Copes on Friday that he hopes the portrayal of Bonds’ career is a fair one, that balances the good with the bad.
“What bothers me is the people that just have a completely, one way version of who he was, not just as a baseball player, but as a person,” Baer said. “If this does get made I’m just hoping that it will be nuanced and that folks will participate that will give that side of it.”
Baer said that he hopes people who knew Bonds well will participate in order to humanize him. Ironically, Baer, who knew Bonds well, says he will not participate if Bonds doesn’t approve of it.
“Me personally or anybody in our world, I’d want to talk to Barry about it If he’s uncomfortable with it,” Baer said. “I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it. Because there’s so much to it, but again it’s his personal story. We have a trust that I don’t want to violate either. Hopefully, if something gets made, it’ll be a fair-minded portrait. It’s not one-dimensional or two-dimensional, it’s seven-dimensional.”
As an example, Baer talked about the multi-faceted relationship Bonds had with reporter Pedro Gomez. Gomez followed Bonds around during the latter part of his career, and their relationship often seemed testy. Yet, when Gomez passed away, Bonds reached out to his wife and penned a statement, according to Baer.
“I’ll never forget, he really had a tough back-and-forth with Pedro Gomez, who was the wonderful beloved reporter for ESPN that covered Barry,” Baer concluded. “When Pedro passed suddenly and horrifically, Barry called his widow and Barry issued a statement. It’s a multi-dimensional thing that if this thing does get made, I hope it will reveal.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2 – 6 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
