The Miami Marlins current hitting coach, Barry Bonds, will play right field in the team’s final Spring Training game.
Attendance is low for the Marlins Spring Training games and owner Jeffrey Loria hopes to boost the last day of attendance and sell all remaining beer and hot dogs before they start the regular season at Marlins Park, just west of Downtown Miami.
Earlier in Spring Training, Bonds, now 52, won a home-run derby among team players including stars Giancarlo Stanton and Dee Gordon.
“Bonds would be the Marlins third best player and could bat fourth on their team’s line-up,” said Miami sports writer Bob Andres.
Bonds was essentially blackballed from baseball after the 2007 season when his contract expired. He hit 26 home runs and batted .278 yet was unable to find a team. He holds the all-time home run record but chances to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame are low due to his past issues with performance enhancing drugs
Bonds in the lineup will bring plenty more eyeballs on a Marlins Spring Training game.