Barry Bonnell

Robert Barry Bonnell
(Preacher)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 200 lb.
• School Ohio State University
• High School Milford (OH) High School
• Debut May 4, 1977
• Final Game July 12, 1986
• Born October 27, 1953 in Mariemont, OH USA

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Biographical Information

Barry Bonnell won Gold with Team USA at the 1974 Amateur World Series. He recorded his first big league hit on May 10, 1977, with the Atlanta Braves, and hit his first home run on June 5th. He hit his first inside-the-park home run on September 14, 1983, with the Toronto Blue Jays. Bonnell batted .318 for the Jays that year and then moved on to the Seattle Mariners. It was not his first season of hitting .300, as he had hit exactly that as a rookie with the Braves in 1977. But in spite of some high batting averages, he was not a particularly good hitter, as he had little power - in his two best years, he hit 12 and 13 homers as a corner outfielder playing every day - and did not draw many walks either. As a result, only once in ten major league seasons did he have an OPS+ above 100. That came in 1983 when his excellent batting average compensated for any other flaws. But because his career took place just before the sabermetrics revolution, he was considered a much better hitter than he truly was, based entirely on batting average, and received extensive playing time as a result. One sign that he was overvalued was that he never scored or drive in as many as 60 runs in a season.

In his first season with the Mariners in 1984, Bonnell got sick when the team was in spring training, and he tried to play through it. Finally, when he could stand it no longer, Bonnell went to the doctor and found out he had pneumonia. He said that a rare illness - Valley Fever - contributed to his early retirement from the game after the 1986 season, at age 33. "I couldn't even hold the bat up without my arms shaking," he said. "Finally, I said, 'This is something else.' I went in and they did a chest X-ray and it looked like spider webs in there," he said. "It took me a whole year to recover from that. That was pretty much it for me. I played out my contract and I was a bit player the next two years. I had some opportunities to continue on, but I decided I'd rather be with my family and pursue other interests."

In 1990, Bonnell played one more time for the Sun City Rays of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. He was batting .333 in 14 games when the league folded. His brother, Glenn Bonnell, was an infielder in the Cincinnati Reds chain in 1976.

He was a deeply religious man, hence his nickname "Preacher", and felt very bad about making a good salary while not being able to contribute in his final years with the team. A licensed pilot, he offered Mariners owner George Argyros to work off some of his salary by serving as the pilot of his private plane, but Argyros declined.

Related Sites

• Venezuelan League Statistics [1]