Family, Friends Honor Bonds, ‘Riverside’s Greatest Athlete’

The Inland Empire honored hometown hero Bobby Bonds on Thursday in a packed memorial service for the late Riverside native and former all-star who played for the San Francisco Giants and many other teams.

Bonds, father of current Giant slugger and single-season home-run record-holder Barry Bonds, was a multi-sport athlete at Poly High School who became one of the first in the majors to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season.

He died last month at 57 after fighting lung cancer and a brain tumor.

Thursday’s ceremony at Park Avenue Missionary Baptist Church attracted about 500, including former Seattle Mariners first baseman Alvin Davis and former Minnesota Twins pitcher Tom Hall, both former Riverside residents, as well as former coaches and classmates from Poly High, where Bonds played baseball, football and track before signing with the Giants in 1964.

At the center of the church reigned “Mama Bonds,” Elizabeth Bonds, the family’s 89-year-old matriarch. She sat proudly in her wheelchair as speakers described her son as honest, intelligent, jovial, loving, mischievous, generous, talented and athletic.

“Let’s give a standing ovation for Mama Bonds,” for her devotion, faith and encouragement, said Leon Culpepper, a family friend who grew up with Bobby Bonds. “She raised a great human being.”

During the service, Culpepper also asked Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge to consider renaming Kansas Avenue for Bonds. Loveridge seemed amenable to that idea as well as others being proposed, such as placing a statue of the late baseball player at a Riverside park.

A statue of Bonds and other recent inductees into the Riverside Hall of Fame will be unveiled Sept. 28 near 14th and Market streets.

Bonds “was Riverside’s greatest athlete,” Loveridge said.

A private service last week near Bonds’ home in Northern California was attended by son Barry, Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Willie Mays, and others.

Barry Bonds and some other family members did not attend the Riverside ceremony because of grief and stress, said Bobby Bonds’ nephew Byron Darling, 42.

“Riverside wanted to say goodbye. No matter where [Bonds] lived, he considered Riverside his home.”