Barry Bonds

Where Bonds ranks on ESPN's list of top 100 21st century athletes

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Barry Bonds is one of, if not the greatest MLB hitter of all time. His legacy is open to debate, but there is no debating his place in baseball history.

Or professional sports as a whole.

ESPN recently ranked the top 100 athletes of the 21st century (since 2000), and Bonds, along with Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry, both represented the Bay Area in the top half of the list.

38. Barry Bonds, baseball

Key accomplishments: Since Jan. 1, 2000: 317 home runs (MLB-record 73 in 2001), 1,128 walks, four consecutive MVPs (2001-04), six-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, two batting titles.

"Bonds is the best living baseball player, and never was he better than the eight seasons he played this century," Jeff Passan wrote. "In that time, he smashed the single-season home run record, got on base at a 51.7% clip -- a figure last reached in an individual year by Ted Williams in 1957 -- and came as close as anyone to mastering the art of hitting. Bonds' steroid use has kept him out of the Hall of Fame, but those who witnessed him play know: 21st-century Bonds was the closest we've seen to Babe Ruth."

Arguably the greatest MLB hitter of all time ranked No. 38 might come as a surprise at first, but the list consists exclusively of athletes who played from 2000 to the current day. Bonds made his MLB debut in 1986 and played the majority of his career (14 seasons) before the turn of the century. He only played eight seasons from 2000-2007.

The 37 players ranked above Bonds are:

  1. Michael Phelps, swimming
  2. Serena Williams, tennis
  3. Lionel Messi, soccer
  4. LeBron James, basketball
  5. Tom Brady, football
  6. Roger Federer, tennis
  7. Simone Biles, gymnastics
  8. Tiger Woods, golf
  9. Usain Bolt, track
  10. Kobe Bryant, basketball
  11. Novak Djokovic, tennis
  12. Rafael Nadal, tennis
  13. Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer
  14. Stephen Curry, basketball
  15. Katie Ledecky, swimming
  16. Tim Duncan, basketball
  17. Shaquille O'Neal, basketball
  18. Patrick Mahomes, football
  19. Lewis Hamilton, auto racing
  20. Aaron Donald, football
  21. Diana Taurasi, basketball
  22. Sidney Crosby, hockey
  23. Kevin Garnett, basketball
  24. Albert Pujols, baseball
  25. Floyd Mayweather, boxing
  26. Peyton Manning, football
  27. Randy Moss, football
  28. Nikola Jokic, basketball
  29. Michael Schumacher, auto racing
  30. Mike Trout, baseball
  31. Clayton Kershaw, baseball
  32. Marta, soccer
  33. Miguel Cabrera, baseball
  34. Tamika Catchings, basketball
  35. Dwyane Wade, basketball
  36. Maya Moore, basketball
  37. Ichiro Suzuki, baseball

Among the 100 athletes on the list who have played in the 21st century, Bonds is the fifth-highest-ranked baseball player behind Pujols, Trout, Kershaw, Cabrera and Suzuki and one of 17 total baseball players on the list, including Justin Verlander (No. 40), Alex Rodriguez (43), David Ortiz (45), Max Scherzer (46), Adrian Beltré (52), Derek Jeter (53), Mariano Rivera (59), Shohei Ohtani (62), Mookie Betts (73), Bryce Harper (79), Roy Halladay (88) and Pedro Martinez (92).

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