SanFrancisco.Giants.MLB.com

By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com

"I've felt I've really been misrepresented throughout my career in a way as a bad guy, a bad person, Barry doesn't want to do anything," said Bonds, who won his sixth National League MVP Award on Tuesday. "This gives the licensees a chance to really get to know me, to really know who I am as a person, to really get to show the fans who I am as a person -- that I'm not a difficult person to deal with, that I'm not a difficult person to the fans."

Bonds is the first player in the 30-year history of the union's licensing program to opt out of the collective agreement. By not signing the Players Association agreement, he will now be able to sell his own licensing rights to companies wanting to feature his name or image, but he will not be included in MLBPA licensed products unless those companies work out separate deals with his marketing company, Pro Access Inc.

Bonds said he plans to use the money generated by licensing his name and image to fund charitable programs. Among Bonds' numerous community initiatives is the Barry Bonds Family Foundation's Link 'n Learn program, which provides tutoring, educational software and technology to parents and schools in low-income neighborhoods.

"Closing into the later part of my career, which is now, there are some things I'd like to do personally throughout this community for some kids to continue on my father's legacy of a lot of the things that he's done throughout his charitable things," said Bonds, whose father, Bobby, died of cancer Aug. 23.

"To be able to control my name and likeness gives me that opportunity to be able to self-fund these things, to help people and to give back to the game that I love so much. ... I believe this will give me an opportunity to do some wonderful things here in San Francisco, to a city that I love so dearly and throughout my community, and I can also be able to self-fund those things as well instead of looking for funding, to be able to do these things, to help educate kids, to help put them through schools, to help do a lot of other different things."

Signing the MLBPA agreement gives players a portion of the proceeds from the sale of items produced by companies that obtain a license from the union. Bonds is the first baseball player to decline to sign the collective licensing agreement, but superstars in other sports, including basketball legend Michael Jordan, have made their own marketing deals in the past.

Absent separate agreements with manufacturers, Bonds will not be represented in items like bobbleheads, baseball card sets and video games, and his name may not appear on official Giants jerseys. With 660 homers, Bonds is two shy of tying his godfather, Willie Mays, for third on the all-time list, and he needs 98 more homers to break Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755.

"I've been a member of the licensing group for 18 years of my career," said Bonds. "I think they do a wonderful, wonderful job, an outstanding job. ... I'm not doing this to upset anyone. I'm not doing this to change anything. I admire the [Players Association]; it's a great, great organization. I've been in many strikes, I've sacrificed a lot here. I just feel the opportunities, closing in on these records, [I want] to be able to do some wonderful things for Major League Baseball, to be able to do some wonderful things with Willie and Hank."

Chris Shuttlesworth is an editorial producer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.