Barry Bonds' remarks that Pittsburgh fans were racially biased for jeering Bobby Bonilla and that Pirates management caters to Andy Van Slyke have rekindled tensions on the division-leading club.
Bonds said some fans who booed Bonilla's return to Pittsburgh last week are prejudiced against Bonilla because he's black. He also said they wouldn't have booed Van Slyke, who is white, if he had returned under similar conditions.Bonilla left Pittsburgh to sign a then-record $29.5 million contract with the New York Mets last winter.
"Hell, they didn't do that to Sid Bream last year . . . they gave him a standing ovation last year," Bonds said. "They wouldn't do that to Andy Van Slyke . . . Mr. Pittsburgh. Bobby contributed to this team as much as anybody and he gets booed like that?"
Bonds, in Philadelphia on Monday, denied making remarks about racism.
"To make me a racist, when my wife's not black, is kind of bad," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I mean, that's real bad."
Bonilla was Bonds' closest friend on the Pirates and the two rarely talked to Van Slyke during their years together on the club. Bonds also said Van Slyke wouldn't dare defend the booing of Bonilla "because he knows Bobby could come in here and kick the . . .. out of him."