High School Bio – Early Life of Barry Bonds Who Had Famous Relatives Willie Mays & Bobby Bonds

Barry Bonds is a famous American baseball player that has been entangled in speculation about performance enhancing steroid abuse during the latter half of his major league baseball career and into retirement. Long before Bonds was enthralled in what seemed at times like endless media speculation he was a promising young baseball prospect from a good gene pool.

Barry was born on July 24, 1964 in the city of Riverside, California which is located about an hour east of Los Angeles. Practically from birth the young Barry Bonds was surrounding with a baseball influence due in large part to the stardom of his father Bobby Bonds who was an accomplished all-star baseball player in his own right.

Even though the son would eventually eclipse the father in terms of fame and statistical success, Bobby Bonds was a popular player who played for eight major league baseball teams including the well-known New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals amongst others. Most baseball fans who followed the sport during the years of 1968-1981 when Bobby Bonds played best remember the iconic player as a three time all-star for the San Francisco Giants who shared the outfield with legendary teammate Willie Mays. Despite the fact that Bobby Bonds and Willie Mays were not united until young Barry Bonds was nearly four years old Willie took on the responsibility of being a high profile godfather to Barry.

Despite being born in southern California Barry Bonds did most of his growing up in northern California in the area of the state commonly referred to as the Bay Area due to its proximity to the San Francisco Bay. Barry played high school baseball at Junipero Serra High School in the affluent San Francisco suburb of San Mateo, California. As a teenager Barry did not limit himself to excelling on the baseball diamond. As a three sport star the naturally gifted young man competed on the varsity baseball, football, and basketball teams. Despite the variety of his athletic successes it was baseball that stood out as his true passion.

After spending his freshmen year of high school on the junior varsity team at Junipero Serra High School Bonds graduated to the varsity squad for his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons in San Mateo. During his senior season the baseball prodigy but up stellar numbers that included a miraculous.467 batting average. For his efforts as a standout prep star Bonds was named a high school All-American and by all accounts it looked like the maturing young man with the famous father and godfather might someday be able to attain the baseball status that his famous relatives reached.

Despite being selected in the second round of the 1982 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft by the San Francisco Giants Barry decided to play college baseball for Arizona State University (ASU) after not being able to work out an amenable contract with the Giants. In interviews later in life Barry would say that he was glad that he decided to attend ASU and receive his diploma in criminology in 1986.