Over the summer, Northside Hitmen outfielder Barry Bonds made history by hitting surpassing Mark McGwire as the all-time homerun leader. Bonds currently has 597 career IAL homeruns. McGwire retired with 591 round-trippers.
Barry "Sledgehammer" Bonds was drafted in 1987 and has played a big part of the Hitmen’s traditionally tough offense. He has hit over 30 homers 11 times and is sure to do it again this year. He hit highs in 1995 and 2002 when he hit 52 and 50 respectively. He scored more than 100 runs twelve times and drove in 100 nine times.Career-wise, Bonds finds himself on a lot of all-time lists. In addition to being numero uno in home runs, his 2345 hits puts him 7th all-time among all Illowa batsmen. He has 1906 runs which puts him first on the list and 1588 rbis which is 3rd. He is also first in walks (1622), third in doubles (521), 7th in stolen bases (509) and ninth in slugging percentage (.563).
| Player | HR |
| Barry Bonds * | 597 |
| Mark McGwire | 591 |
| Rafael Palmeiro | 550 |
| Mike Schmidt | 535 |
| Cal Ripken | 468 |
| Jim Rice | 402 |
| Joe Carter | 399 |
| Jose Canseco | 393 |
| *active in IAL |
Most importantly, Bonds has helped the Hitmen win. During his 17-year tenure with the team, the Northside crew have garnered 4 World Championships and 8 first place finishes.
This year is no different as the Hitmen are in first place by a sizable margin and Barry has a lot to with it. He currently is hitting .316 with 28 homeruns.
originally published Summer 2004