There have been rumors before but Tim Redding came right out and said it. On the radio.
He accused former teammate Mike Basick of throwing a fat pitch to Barry Bonds when Barry broke Hank Aaron’s career homerun record.
"I mean, the guy that gave it up, I never want to speak ill of anybody," Redding said. "Mike Bacsik is a stand-up guy. He’s a little quirky, but he’s a nice guy, means well. I think he wanted to give it up. And he can say what he wants in defense or whatnot, but doing the chart, I mean, every ball that Barry hit, the ball was center cut, right down the middle, fastball. You know, I think maybe inside he was thinking he was going to get a little bit more publicity. Maybe, you know, publicity and some money out of it, appearances, stuff like that. But it is what it is. I would have had no problem giving it up. The next night I actually gave up the new record. I gave up a home run [to Bonds] that night, his first at-bat, he kept one fair down the right-field line. And I was the next new record, until the next guy gave one up."
As a curious aside… F.P. Santangelo was one of the radio co-hosts interviewing Redding. Always wondered what happened to F.P.