Pirates induct Barry Bonds, Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen into team’s Hall of Fame

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates inducted three new members into its Hall of Fame on Saturday.

This year’s induction class includes Barry Bonds, Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen.

Bonds, who has been kept out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, says he was happy to get the call to be honored in Pittsburgh.

“It’s great. I mean they just started a couple of years ago so there’s a lot of us up on that wall now that are very grateful because this just started,” Bonds said. “So to bring everything back like that is pretty nice as a whole for all of us because it wasn’t here when I was here.”

It was also an emotional moment for Leyland, who is fresh off his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“First of all let me thank Bob Nutting, Travis Williams, Ben Cherington, for giving me the highest honor that you could ever get by a team. It’s the highest” he said. “It’s unimaginable for me. I’m not sure I deserve it but I’m damn sure going to accept it.”

Long-time catcher and World Series champion Sanguillen talked about his late start to the sport and the inspiration he got from his father.

“I never played ball when I was small. I started to play when I [went] to a bible school in 1962, I was 22 years old,” he said. “And from then... my father said ‘when you do something, do it with love and you’ll be number one. Never quit, you know, fight the battle.”

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