Ricky Bottalico is pushing back hard after Netflix’s All-Star Game pre-show revisited one of the most famous hit-by-pitch moments of his career. The former Phillies reliever says Elle Duncan got it wrong when she suggested the pitch to Barry Bonds in 1998 simply got away from him, and Bottalico made it clear he was not buying that version of events.
The exchange traces back to the 1998 game between the Phillies and the Giants, when Bottalico plunked Bonds and set off the only time Bonds ever charged the mound. During the Netflix segment, Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rizzo were part of the conversation, and the old feud suddenly had fresh life again. For a lot of baseball fans, it was one of those old stories that never really dies, especially when the All-Star Game is back in Philadelphia.
Bonds himself did not back up the idea that the pitch was accidental. He said, “No, it didn’t, it did not get away,” Bonds said. “He’s a good pitcher and he’s a good man. In that situation, it was part of the game of baseball during that time, and I accepted it.”
Bottalico responded on before the MLB All-Star Game, and he did not soften his words at all. “That is a bold-faced lie.” he said. “I’ve told the story on this show, I’ve told the story on NBC Sports Philadelphia, I have told the story. I was told to go in and hit Barry Bonds. It’s that simple.
He also said the old school code of the game forced players into saying one thing publicly and another thing privately. “When it happens, in the newspapers in the next day and all that back then, I had to say I didn’t do it on purpose or else I’m suspended for a month. It’s that simple. Yes, we had to lie back then.”
Bottalico said the reaction in the clubhouse told him everything he needed to know. He walked back in after the incident, and his coaches reportedly shut the discussion down fast, telling him, “Do not tell me you did it on purpose.”
Then he turned his fire directly toward Duncan, saying, “Elle, wrong, wrong, wrong, oh did I say wrong? Wrong,” he added.
According to Bottalico, there was more to the moment than one pitch in one game. He said the Phillies were irritated with Bonds because he stole a base while the Giants were already ahead by seven runs, and he also claimed he was not even supposed to be on the mound that day. Bottalico said he was coming off surgery and had already pitched the night before, which made the whole situation even more tense.
That context matters because Bottalico has always been known as a hard-nosed competitor, not someone looking to invent drama after the fact. His one All-Star appearance came in 1996, when he posted a 3.65 ERA over 69 outings, and he spent five straight seasons with Philadelphia before bouncing around as a veteran bullpen arm. The numbers paint the picture of a steady reliever, but the Bonds moment is the one that still follows him around.
The bigger story here is how baseball memories keep getting reopened by modern broadcasts and streaming specials. A moment that lived for years as a rough, old-time baseball tale suddenly turned into a live argument again, with everybody involved having a version and nobody eager to back off it.
That’s what made Bottalico’s comments hit so sharply. He wasn’t trying to polish the past or make it sound cleaner than it was, and he clearly wanted the record to stay messy, honest, and a little uncomfortable. In his world, that pitch was intentional, the explanation was simple, and anybody calling it something else was asking for a fight.
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