Baseball’s all-time HR leader / current Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds was accused by Dodgers OF Joc Pedersen earlier this week of refusing to pose for a photograph during Miami’s visit to Chavez Ravine earlier this season. Speaking with MLB.com’s Terrence Moore, Bonds insists there must be some mistake!
“I got a phone call from somebody about it, and I said, ‘What? I did what?’ So I just called the young man up maybe 45 minutes ago, and I apologized, because that’s what he felt took place,” Bonds said Friday in the visitors’ dugout at Turner Field, where his team is playing the Braves this weekend. “What was really funny about that situation is that I didn’t even know that it happened. I don’t like talking to the media about these things, but I’m telling you about the phone call and that I apologized to the kid, because I’ve never done anything to a ballplayer like that in my life.
“How do the young kids say it nowadays? I didn’t mean to ‘dis’ him. So I made a point today to call him up and apologize.”
“I told him, ‘It’s an unfortunate situation that you felt you had to go to the media to make that statement when, technically, it was an honest mistake, and I didn’t go out of my way to do something like that, because I’ve never done anything like that in my life,'” Bonds said.
As Thom Loverro points out, this is not the first time Bonds has faced charges from another player for somewhat less than gracious behavior.