If Your Birthday is July 24th...

...you share it with Barry Bonds.  Baseball's all-time -- and single-season -- home run leader was on a likely Hall of Fame track when he left the Pirates for the Giants as a 1993 free agent.  But his San Francisco years remain under a cloud due to strong suspicions of PED use.  The son of former Giants star Bobby Bonds and godson of Willie Mays spent 22 years in the major leagues, was named NL MVP seven times and an all star 14 -- while leading San Francisco to the 2002 National League pennant.  Those connections to the BALCO scandal, including an obstruction of justice conviction that was later overturned, apparently soured the writers who vote for Cooperstown induction -- despite sparkling statistics, he never gained the needed 75% of the vote in any of the 10 years he was eligible.  Now, he'll wait for reconsideration by a veterans committee.

My image of Bonds is from 2016, when he served as the Marlins hitting coach.

Nolan McLain is the best of the Mets current crop of young pitchers. He broke in with a splash in 2025, winning five of his eight starts.  And in the midst of this hugely disappointing season, the North Carolina native and Oklahoma State product has been a ray of hope, apparently following  the footsteps of past franchise legends such as Seaver, Gooden and deGrom.

McLain rapidly rose through the Mets minor league system.  This image is from last July, when he was with AAA Syracuse. 


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