Jake Peavy was an absolute class act in Barry Bonds' final at-bat with SF Giants

While many SF Giants fans think of both Barry Bonds and Jake Peavy fondly, one of them perhaps a little more than the other for being the greatest hitter of all time while Peavy was a part of the 2014 World Series run, they aren’t typically thought of together since they represent different eras of Giants baseball.

They did overlap as players though and ironically enough, Bonds’ last at-bat as a Giant in 2007 came against Peavy who was the ace of the San Diego Padres at the time. Peavy spoke about that moment in a recent episode of the All the Smoke Baseball podcast and it was really fascinating to hear him talk about it.

Peavy said that the Padres were bad that year and they had a big lead in the bottom of the sixth when he faced Bonds so he decided that instead of nibbling on the corners and being okay with walking him as so many were, he was going to give him fastballs over the plate but threw two balls and actually felt bad that he wasn’t able to groove one immediately.

He eventually did get one over the plate and Bonds hit it high and he hit it deep but it went to Triple’s Alley and was caught at the warning track. Still, Bonds clearly respected the fact that Peavy was willing to throw him strikes so he could try to have a magical final moment of his career and gave him a hug as he went back to the dugout and got a standing ovation from the fans.

“I got the utmost respect for Barry and he knows it. And that was a special moment," Peavy said of that final AB.

Peavy was meant to be a Giant years before 2014

That is pretty awesome and speaks to the kind of guy that Peavy is. Some guys would have denied Bonds the opportunity to go out with a moment of glory but he respected his talent enough that he was willing to give up a homer and hurt his ERA if it meant one of the greatest to ever do it had a chance to do something really special. He was the NL Cy Young winner that year too so it’s not like he was having a bad season and didn’t care about his stats at that point.

Who knew that seven years player Peavy would be with the Giants and help them make a run in 2014. He understandably gets overshadowed by Madison Bumgarner but I’ll never forget Peavy’s performance in Game 1 of the NLDS versus the Washington Nationals. He pitched 5 and 2/3 scoreless innings and the Giants won the game 3-2. Without that, who knows how that five-game series would have gone so he was definitely worth that trade with the Boston Red Sox.

It’s cool that he and Bonds got to share that special moment together and that whole interview with Peavy is worth a watch. I have seen several clips and they’ve all been fascinating so he’s clearly an interesting pitching mind to examine and is a good Giant both for 2014 and for the role he played in Bonds’s last at-bat. 

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