PITTSBURGH — Barry Bonds was touched in a way he didn’t expect when the Pittsburgh Pirates called to let him know he was being inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
So when the moment arrived on Saturday, Bonds leaned into it.
He donned a gold jacket alongside fellow inductees Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen. He posed for pictures in front of the plaque that bears his name in a plaza just inside the left-center field gates at PNC Park.
And Major League Baseball’s home run king insisted he didn’t think about that other Hall of Fame, the one that has proved elusive nearly two decades after Bonds hit the last of his record 762 homers.
“I don’t have to worry about those things no more in my life,” Bonds said. “[I want to] hang around my grandchildren and my children. Those hopes [of making the Hall of Fame], I don’t have them anymore. I hope to breathe tomorrow [and see] if I can make it to 61.”
Bonds, who turned 60 last month, arrived in Pittsburgh in 1986 as a raw 21-year-old and became the catalyst for a franchise turnaround. The Pirates won three straight National League East titles from 1990 to 1992, a period when the outfielder won the first two of his record seven NL MVP awards.
He left for San Francisco before the 1993 season, a homecoming that seemed predestined considering his ties to the Bay Area. Yet Bonds called his seven seasons in Pittsburgh “the greatest stop for me” because it prepared him for what was to come.
“It was fun,” he said. “Those were good times. I can’t thank you guys enough. This is a great honor. It’s a great journey for me.”
Bonds remains in the top 10 in several categories for the Pirates, including home runs (175) and stolen bases (251). His combination of speed and power made him, as Leyland puts it regularly, “the best player I ever managed.”
The Pirates never advanced beyond the NL Championship Series in the early 1990s, famously losing Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS to Atlanta when Sid Bream chugged home with the winning run on Francisco Cabrera’s single to Bonds in left in the bottom of the ninth.
More than 30 years later, that scar still stings a little, though whatever hard feelings Bonds created by leaving for San Francisco — where his father Bobby Bonds and godfather Willie Mays played — have softened. Bonds said he was “shocked” when owner Bob Nutting let him know he was going into a Hall of Fame that includes franchise icons Roberto Clemente, Honus Wagner and Willie Stargell, among others.
That trio is also enshrined in Cooperstown. Bonds is not. He failed to reach the 75% threshold required during his 10 years on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s Hall of Fame ballot, mostly because of steroids allegations that dogged him during his final years with the Giants.
The Contemporary Player Committee also passed on electing Bonds in 2022, though the committee could reconsider Bonds’ status in 2025.
Bond, who serves as a special advisor for the Giants — who retired his No. 25 in 2018 — seems at peace with whatever may or may not come his way. His only hope is that any honors he might receive occur while his mother Patricia is still alive. Patricia Bonds attended Saturday’s ceremony, as did Bonds’ daughters, Shikari and Aisha.
While achieving a specific part of baseball immortality remains elusive, Bonds — who replied “I don’t have to answer that question anymore” when asked why he thinks he’s not in the Baseball Hall of Fame — understands being honored by the Pirates can help educate fans and future players about Black players’ impact on the game.
“Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, my father, Mays, [Willie] McCovey, all my Black icons are gone,” he said. “That’s it. It’s just me technically and we’ve got Rickey Henderson, we’ve got others. … I just hope my mom is still around if anything else comes along in my life. Big ‘if.'”
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has offensive help on the way with a freshman receiver who just might make a difference against No. 9 Texas on Saturday.
Dallas Wilson is practicing for the first time since injuring his left foot in training camp and is scheduled to make his collegiate debut against the Longhorns, coach Billy Napier said Monday.
Napier called Wilson’s availability “a big deal.”
“Three good days of work last week, and I thought he handled the load well,” Napier said. “He feels really good. So far, so good.”
Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound newcomer from Tampa, was the star of Florida’s spring game in April. He caught 10 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and all indications in fall practice pointed to it not being a fluke.
But Wilson injured his foot late in camp, spent weeks in a protective boot and watched from afar as the Gators (1-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled to move the ball and find the end zone. Florida scored 16, 10 and 7 points, respectively, in consecutive losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami, raising speculation about Napier’s future in Gainesville.
Quarterback DJ Lagway has been the focus of the team’s offensive woes. The sophomore who went 6-1 as a starter last season missed most of the year dealing with injuries and looked rusty when the season began.
Although Lagway’s mechanics seemed improved in the team’s 26-7 setback at Miami on Sept. 20, his offensive line got manhandled and allowed way too much pressure for anyone to notice. Lagway completed 12 of 23 passes for 61 yards against the Hurricanes.
Napier used the off week to get Lagway more live-action reps in hopes of getting him “caught up.” But he also reiterated the need to “play better around him.”
“Each position group needs to step up,” Napier said. “More detail, eliminate errors, eliminate penalties, whatever the case may be. I just think more detail and better overall play around him. And, obviously, he needs to continue to get back closer to being himself.”
Dallas Wilson has been unable to help — until now. The Gators are confident he will change the narrative against the No. 1 scoring defense in the SEC.
“Just having him out is going to be amazing for us,” Lagway said. “His ability to go deep, his ability to make plays underneath and be able to make miraculous plays with the ball in his hands, it’s going to be great to have him back.”
SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said Monday that he would consider leaving ESPN to run for the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama.
The 70-year-old Finebaum said during a recent interview with Outkick that he’d run as a Republican to fill the seat vacated by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who has said he’ll run for Alabama governor in the 2026 elections. Tuberville’s current Senate term ends in 2027.
The qualifying deadline to run for Senate is Jan. 26, 2026. Finebaum said he would likely have to leave his hosting and analyst duties if he decided to run. He told Outkick he’d make a decision within the next 30-45 days.
Finebaum said he hadn’t seriously considered politics, but the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the impetus to give a run at politics further thought. He noted that he had received a “text” from “one or two people in Washington” gauging his interest in politics.
“[It was] something I never thought about before,” Finebaum told Outkick.
Finebaum is currently registered as a Republican in North Carolina, where he works for the SEC Network. He told Outkick he recently moved to Alabama, where he hosted a radio show for years, and would re-register there.
Finebaum hosted radio shows in Alabama for almost 30 years before joining ESPN and the SEC Network. He started his media career as a newspaper writer and columnist.
“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” he said. “I’ve spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”
Bobby Petrino has fired three defensive assistants just one day after being named interim head coach at Arkansas as part of an overhaul of the Razorbacks’ coaching staff.
Petrino dismissed defensive coordinator Travis Williams, defensive line coach Deke Adams and defensive assistant Marcus Woodson in the latest moves after being appointed interim coach for the rest of the season to replace Sam Pittman, who was fired Sunday following five-plus seasons as Arkansas’ head coach.
“I just felt like how we performed on Saturday gave me an indication that maybe Sam had lost the team a little bit because they generally had played really hard for him throughout his tenure,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said of the move, which came on the heels of a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.
Petrino, 64, returned to Arkansas in 2023 as offensive coordinator after serving in a number of jobs. In four years as the Razorbacks’ head coach, he went 34-17, including consecutive seasons with double-digit victories in 2010 and 2011.
“Coach Petrino, as we met yesterday, he accepted this opportunity with the understanding that he also wanted an opportunity to formally be a candidate for our head coaching position, and he will have that opportunity, but we’ll also subsequently run a search for our next head coach at the same time,” Yurachek said.
Pittman’s dismissal, Petrino’s temporary promotion and the defensive assistant dismissals weren’t the only changes. Chris Wilson was named the team’s interim defensive coordinator.
Petrino had high praise for Wilson, who was in his first year with the Razorbacks as an assistant defensive line coach.
“My experience [with Wilson] goes way back to having to battle against him when he had all the great defensive linemen at Mississippi State,” Petrino said. “Very, very impressed with what he’s done throughout his career. Guy’s got a Super Bowl ring. He brings a lot of credibility into the room.”
Several defensive players posted cryptic messages on social media following the firing of Williams, who had served as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2023. Yurachek and Petrino encouraged players to welcome change amid a 2-3 start to the season.
“The No. 1 thing is, you have to get used to change. You know, your whole life there’s going to be change. So how we handle that, our attitude on how we handle that, will determine how quickly we improve,” Petrino said.
Petrino was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in April 2012 that left him with four broken ribs. At first, he said he was riding alone, but a police report revealed a woman was riding with him. The woman turned out to be a former Arkansas athlete who was in a romantic relationship with the married Petrino. The coach had given her a job in the football program and a $20,000 gift.
Petrino was fired by then-athletic director Jeff Long for misleading his bosses about what happened with the accident and his relationship with the football staffer.
Pittman, 63, went 32-34 with the Razorbacks.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.