Brock Lee Bond (born September 11, 1985) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player. A Switch hitting second baseman, Bond played nine seasons in Minor League Baseball. Before playing professionally, Bond played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

Amateur career

Born and raised in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, Bond attended Lindbergh High School, where he was a quarterback on the football team and infielder on the baseball team.

Suburban Journals Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis was a group of publications in the St. Louis region owned by Lee Enterprises. The chain served the St. Louis and St. Charles counties in Missouri and in the Madison, Monroe and St. Clair Counties in Illino ...

named Bond the Athlete of the Year in 2003. Bond played

Little League Baseball Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationScott Van Slyke. Andy Van Slyke, Scott's father, told Bond that he could play in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. After high school, Bond attended the

, where he played

for the Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team. Bond transferred to the

, where he played for the

Missouri Tigers baseball The Missouri Tigers baseball team represents the University of Missouri in NCAA Division I college baseball. The Missouri Tigers had an overall record of 2053-1339-17 entering the 2012 season. Head coaches Year-by-year record CB=''Collegiate ...

team.

Professional career

The

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

drafted Bond in the 24th round of the

2007 MLB Draft The 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players and was held on June 7, 2007 and June 8, 2007. The first day session of the draft included the fi ...

. The selection was a mistake, as the Giants meant to select

Casey Bond Casey Bond (born October 5, 1984) is an American actor, film producer and retired professional baseball player. He is most noted for playing Chad Bradford in the 2011 film ''Moneyball (film), Moneyball''. Before becoming an actor, Bond played as ...

. The Giants then selected

in the 25th round. “Mistakenly, yes, Brock was taken first ahead of Casey,” Giants vice president Bobby Evans acknowledged. “But we planned to take both of them all along.” Bond signed with the Giants and began his professional career with the Arizona League Giants. He was then promoted to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League in which he led the team in hitting with a .342 batting average. Bond began the 2008 season with the Augusta GreenJackets of the Class A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

where he serves as a backup to Nick Noonan. On the suggestion of Steve Decker,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

of the San Jose Giants of the Class A-Advanced

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leag ...

, the Giants promoted Bond to San Jose. He was promoted to

Connecticut Defenders The Connecticut Defenders were a Minor League Baseball team based in Norwich, Connecticut. The team, which played in the Eastern League, was the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants major-league club from 2003 until following the 2009 ...

of the Class AA Eastern League in 2009. Bond was named to the mid-season and post-season all-star teams and led the league with a .333 batting average and a .429

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

. He was then promoted to the Fresno Grizzlies of the Class AAA

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

(PCL) for the 2010 season, and was named to the PCL all-star game in Lehigh Valley. Bond was named the starting second baseman and was the first batter of the game. Bond missed the majority of the 2011 season after suffering a concussion. He played in winter baseball in the Australian Baseball League in the 2011–12 off-season. Bond played for Fresno in 2012, he finished fifth in the PCL with a .332 batting average and third in the PCL with a .422 on-base percentage. The Giants invited Bond to Major League

Spring Training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

in 2013, giving him an opportunity to compete for a roster spot in the majors for the Giants. The Giants sent him to their minor league complex in mid-March. At the end of spring training, Bond won the Harry S. Jordan Award, given to the player in his first spring training whose spirit best exemplifies the Giants. He suffered an oblique injury at the end of spring training and was assigned to San Jose to rehabilitate. As Bond had been a member of the Giants' organization in minor league baseball for seven seasons, he became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

at the end of the 2013 season. The

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

signed him to a minor league contract for the 2014 season. The

Winnipeg Goldeyes The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a minor-league baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Professional Baseball, which they joined in 2011. Previously, the Goldeyes were members of the Northern ...

signed Bond. He had a batting average of .326 and an on base percentage of .448 for the Goldeyes. Bond began the 2015 season with the Arkansas Travelers of the Class AA

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

, an affiliate of the

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

. He was released on May 31, but signed by the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

and assigned to the Albuquerque Isotopes of the PCL on June 1.

Post-playing career

Bond learned

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

in 2014, while playing for the Baltimore Orioles. He enrolled at

Maharishi University of Management Maharishi International University (MIU), formerly Maharishi University of Management, is a private university in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded in 1973 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and features a "consciousness-based education" system that includes ...

in fall 2015, studying Vedic Science. He became a certified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique after completing a five and a half month TM teacher training course in Bali, Indonesia. In 2019, Bond was a volunteer assistant coach at San Jose State under Brad Sanfilippo. The first base coach, Bond helped coach hitting and outfielders.

Personal

Bond's father is a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

; he worked on Busch Memorial Stadium. Bond's elder brother is in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

, having graduated from the Air Force Academy. His younger brother, Brett Bond, played baseball at the

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bond, Brock 1985 births Living people Albuquerque Isotopes players Arizona League Giants players Arkansas Travelers players Augusta GreenJackets players Baseball players from St. Louis Baseball second basemen Connecticut Defenders players Fresno Grizzlies players Missouri Tigers baseball players Richmond Flying Squirrels players Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players San Jose Giants players San Jose State Spartans baseball coaches Sportspeople from St. Louis Winnipeg Goldeyes players