27 MLB records that will never be broken
31. . Barry Bonds. 1986-2007. 232 and 2,558 Walks. 19. player
No one walked more than Barry Bonds, and no one probably ever will. With 2,558 free passes across 22 big league seasons, Bonds smashed Rickey Henderson’s previous career record of 2,190 bases on balls.
Henderson walked more than anyone that came before him because he was a leadoff man that thrived on getting on base in order to steal bags and score runs. Bonds walked because he was patient and because he was feared.
In 2004, Barry Bonds set a Major League record with 232 walks – 120 of which were intentional, and countless others that were unintentionally intentional. He broke his own previous big league record of 198 set in 2002, which broke the record of 177 he set in 2001 at the age of 36.
There are some staggering numbers among Bonds’ career stats, specifically when it comes to intentional walks. Bonds was intentionally walked 688 times, which more than doubled No. 2 Hank Aaron’s career total of 293. There were ten seasons in which Bonds was intentionally walked 30 times or more. Albert Pujols is the only other player in the history of the game to have three such seasons.
Also, as Jordan Shusterman pointed out in 2014, Bonds was intentionally walked more than the Twins, Rangers, White Sox, Orioles, Athletics, Blue Jays, Royals and Tigers. And:
"“Sure, Bonds drew more intentional walks over a span [of] 14 years than eight different teams. But from 2001-2004, Bonds drew more walks than EVERY TEAM. The Chicago White Sox were at the bottom of this list, having only drawn 100 intentional walks over these four seasons. Did I mention Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 120 times in 2004?”"
Crazy stuff. We’ll probably never see anything like it again.
Next: 7 Career No-Hitters