Huge Set Addition - Barry Bonds

With the National being pushed back and possibly canceled, I took the money I had saved up for my trip and went ahead and paid off my car.  I also got myself a little something, since there aren't too many cards to be had out there.  I picked up this nice addition to my 1987 set, a signed Barry Bonds rookie card.

The card is numbered 69/500; I imagine that is from whatever signing this came from.  It was JSA authenticated, and it now in my album.

Bonds (b. 1964) played in the majors from 1986 to 2007 for the Pirates and Giants.  He has 2,935 hits, 762 home runs and a .298 batting average.

He is the all-tome home run leader with 762, the all-time walks leader with 2,558 and the all-time intentional walks leader with 688.  He won 7 NL MVP awards (1990, 1992, 1993, and 2001 to 2004).  He was a 14-time All Star (1990 1992 to 1998, 2000 to 2004 and 2007).  He has the record for most home runs in a season with 73, hit in 2001.  Neither before, nor after, did he hit more than 49. 

Bonds only appeared in one World Series, a 2002 loss to the Angels.  In those 7 games, he hit 4 home runs and had a .471 batting average.

He is the face of the Steroid Era in baseball and this will most likely keep him out of the Hall of Fame.  In my opinion, he was a Hall of Famer before he took steroids, and being one of the most well-known baseball players of all-time should punch his ticket, since the Hall is supposed to tell the story of the game, but that isn't for me to decide.  The all-time hits leader isn't in, either.  If Bonds (and Clemens) get in, then I believe Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe and Buck Weaver should be in, too.

Still, though, I am very excited to have been able to add this card to my set.