The Ballots are out.
For the fourth year, career home run leader Barry Bonds has the opportunity to be voted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Along with previously eligible players, he is battling for a spot against a number of notable first-years like Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Hampton, and Jim Edmonds.
All of those listed should be in one day. All except, Bonds.
Why is it the home run king hasn’t made it yet? We all know it, steroids.
For most of his post-2000s career, Bonds was in and out of federal courtrooms on his use of steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, or BALCO. He was first investigated on these charges because his personal trainer who was found to have possession of performance enhancing drugs.
Spectators also saw Bond’s weight gain throughout the years, a usual effect of PED’s as the body builds more muscle. The designated hitter/outfielder was listed at 185 pounds during his rookie season in 1986, which increased to 228 pounds by 2003, according to TIME.
Bonds’ performance on the field also drastically improved. In 2001, already 15 years into his career, Bonds hit a record 73 home runs in one season, and ended the season with 173 RBIs.
Bond spent the first seven years of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates who drafted him sixth overall in the 1985 draft. He moved on to play the majority of his career, 15 seasons, with San Francisco Giants. He compiled 756 home runs, 2,227 runs, 1,996 RBIs and a .298 batting average in nearly 3,000 games. He also earned a record seven MVP awards, four more than the winner of the second most.
On Aug. 7, 2007 he broke Hank Aaron’s 31-year record with his 756th career home run. But the question is: how many of those home runs should really count?
It was proven Bonds took steroids. The now 51-year-old tried to play it off by stating in federal court that he did unknowingly. He was initially found guilty of obstruction of justice for lying about that his statements, but the ruling was eventually overturned.
Bonds has come away with this scandal, unscathed. His numbers hold up, and he is still eligible for the Hall of Fame.
But he cheated. He changed his body to try and become better than anybody else and he did so illegally. If the Hall of Fame is simply for famous players than Bonds is definitely up there because he was a major part of the reason there are mandatory drug tests in Major League Baseball now.
Why should a man who cheated be allowed into such an exclusive organization? Pete Rose is banned for betting, while Bonds is allowed in after altering his body to perform better.
Barry Bonds is not a Hall of Famer. He is a cheater. I’m sure he worked hard for the opportunity to play in the MLB and put in a lot of time for some of his early accomplishments, but after taking steroids, the world doesn’t know how many of his home runs or hits were from PEDs.
Nobody can know which games he was on steroids, subtract the statistics from those games, and then see where he stands. It doesn’t matter if Bonds didn’t take steroids during a certain point in his 22 year career, the fact that he did, dishevels that entire span and makes it not useable and incomparable in Cooperstown.
