Why Barry Bonds Will Never be Featured in MLB The Show: A Complete History

A Blog by Greg

Whenever MLB The Show announces that they will be introducing a new legend into their Diamond Dynasty, fans in the comment section always sarcastically ask if Barry Bonds will finally be added to the game as a playable character. Those who are aware of the ongoing feud between Barry Bonds and baseball video games have a good chuckle at these comments, while those newer fans are left confused at the fact that the greatest hitter in baseball history has been omitted from the most popular baseball video game series in the world. Those who started playing baseball video games recently will be surprised to hear the real reasons why Barry Bonds’ image and likeness haven’t been present in video games for over two decades and how video game developers found loopholes.

The story begins in 2003 when Barry Bonds, the most popular and dominant figure in the MLB, decided to withdraw himself from the MLB’s licensing agreement through the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). Bonds chose to handle his name, image, and likeness independently in hopes of drawing exclusive deals in merchandise, collectibles, and, of course, video games. Unfortunately for Bonds, the popular baseball video game franchise at the time was unwilling to meet his high demands and decided to simply delete the 7-time MVP from their games. However, things changed in 2004 when game development studio Acclaim Studios found a creative loophole to feature Bonds in the newest installment of their All-Star Baseball series.

When All-Star Baseball 2005 was released on consoles for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, fans of the franchise were surprised to see an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants with incredibly high attributes and statistics matching that of Barry Bonds. The pixelated character did not look like Bonds, the character’s batting stance did not resemble Bond’s stance, and the character was not named “Barry Bonds.” Instead, the character was given a pseudonym: Wes Mailman. That now infamous decision started a trend of big video game developers at the time trying to one-up each other with their own unique and outlandish Barry Bonds replacement character.

While Wes Mailman is certainly a fascinating artifact of baseball video game history, it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bond's replacement characters. Around the same time that Acclaim Studios was developing All-Star Baseball 2005, EA was in the midst of developing their own MLB video game titled MVP Baseball 2004. EA copied Acclaim Studios' formula and made their own replacement character for Barry Bonds, which quickly became one of the most infamous and beloved characters in video game history. The character, named Jon Dowd, was a red-headed, right-handed hitter for the San Francisco Giants whose stats, attributes, and even date of birth were identical to the real-life Barry Bonds.

Wes Mailman may have been the first, and Jon Dowd may be the most iconic, but they are far from being the only replacement characters. The MLB 2K franchise hopped on the trend with the release of ESPN Baseball, which featured a character named Joe Young in place of Bonds. Young replaced Bonds in MLB 2K5, 2K6, 2K7, and 2K8 before finally being retired when the real-life Barry Bonds retired from the MLB. When MLB The Show released their inaugural game, MLB 06: The Show, in 2006, they introduced the now legendary Reggie Stocker. While arguably not as famous as Jon Dowd, he is noteworthy in his own right, as he is the most recent instance of a Barry Bonds replacement character being present in a Major League Baseball video game. In 2016, with San Diego Studios celebrating the 10th addition to their MLB The Show catalog, Reggie Stocker was added to the MLB The Show 16 Diamond Dynasty collection. Bonds hadn’t appeared in a video game in any form since his retirement in 2008, so his return, albeit through the alias Reggie Stocker, was certainly a major storyline upon the release of the game. Unfortunately, the character was only playable through the Diamond Dynasty game mode and was quite difficult to obtain. Most players were only able to use Stocker in MLB The Show 16 if they were lucky enough to draft him in the Battle Royale game mode.

So, while it is highly unlikely that we will ever see Barry Bonds in an MLB The Show game, it is not impossible. MLB The Show has recently shown a willingness to embrace players from the so-called “steroid era,” as players such as Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire have all been added to the game in recent years. Additionally, there is a precedent for a return to major sports video games after a long hiatus. Michael Jordan did a similar move to Bonds nearly a decade prior when he removed himself from the NBA’s licensing agreement in 1992 and was absent from all major basketball video game releases at the time. However, in 2010 Jordan made his return to basketball video games, 7 years after retiring from the NBA, when he was featured in the lauded NBA 2K11. Unfortunately for those hoping for Bonds to eventually appear in an MLB The Show title, Bonds is not the revered figure in the baseball world like Jordan is in the basketball world. Not only has Bonds been denied entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he is also widely regarded as one of the most unlikeable players in baseball history.

I do hope that Barry Bonds makes a return to baseball video games (with his actual name, image, and likeness) one day, but until then, at least we have the strange history of Bonds's feud with the MLBPA and the bizarre replacement characters that were a byproduct of said feud.