The Barry Bonds Hall of Fame Case

The Barry Bonds Hall of Fame Case

Barry Bonds last played professional baseball in 2007. This means that he was first eligible to be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2013. It’s about to 2018 now and Barry Lamar Bonds is not in Pro Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Now I’m not going to go do a deep dive into the one reason that Bonds is not yet in the Hall of Fame because if you are reading this, you already know why. I’m just want to point out why Bonds should be in the Hall and just how stupid this hesitation to put him in will be in 20 years.

Barry Committed an Unforgivable Sin

So Barry is not in the Hall of Fame because of his connection to steroids. I love Barry so I will always say he is an alleged cheater (lol) since he never failed a test. But for the sake of this, let’s say he knowingly took steroids for the sole purpose of packing on muscle in order to destroy baseballs into another dimension. Okay this argument makes sense I guess. A baseball player shouldn’t be trying to gain an unfair advantage and should be ashamed of doing so. So that means Barry should be barred from entering the Hall of Fame? Okay makes sense but let’s see who else has been barred entrance into this exclusive club? Shoeless Joe Jackson. This guy was implicated as part of the 1919 Black Sox scandal in which the members of the Chicago White Sox took money to throw the World Series. Okay that’s pretty bad. Who else? Pete Rose. The greatest hitter of all time was a degenerate gambler who bet on baseball games WHILE HE MANAGED the Cincinnati Reds. Even though he claims to have never bet against his own team, there seems to be a bit of conflict of interest when betting on games that you have a direct outcome in. This is pretty bad as well. Let’s recap! There are three baseball players that historians can agree on are Hall of Fame talents but are not enshrined because they committed the most egregious of sins. Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose fixed games for money. Barry Bonds took drugs to add muscle to his body. One doesn’t seem like the other. This sure seems hypocritical of baseball to single Barry out.

Barry is a Cheater

In addition to having questionable ethics, Barry is now labelled as a cheater for trying to gain an illegal advantage over his peers (if you’re not cheating you’re not trying, shout out to Eddie Guerrero). You know who else was using steroids while Bonds was playing. Everybody! Okay so not everybody but enough that Barry is getting unfairly singled out. I don’t have the numbers nor do I think anyone ever will but numerous players from the 1990s have said steroids were common place throughout the league. Again, he has never failed a test so keeping him out of the Hall of Fame because he knowingly took steroids (lol) is based on pure speculation. The man was just better at it than everybody.

Let’s see who else tried gaining unfair advantages through illegal ways. Gaylord Perry was notorious for his use of spitballs as a pitcher. The spitball is part of the man’s legacy and is revered for it. He was elected to the hall of Fame 8 years after retirement.

You know what player routinely went against the Constitution of the United States aka the highest law of the land. Babe Ruth. He was beloved for being a drunk and it was a part of his lore. Babe Ruth played the majority of his career during Prohibition. Bonds never broke any Federal Laws Never mind that the Bambino put stats up in a segregated league against pitchers whose first jobs were coal mining and farmhands. Last I checked, Barry only faced pitchers whose job was to baseball.

I’m sure Hall of Fame players during the 70s and 80s used cocaine. The great Willie McCovey admitted as such. As Bill Burr would say, that probably helped batters see every stitch. I’m sure Adderall is prevalent in today’s game. Aubrey Huff admitting to using it during his resurgent 2010 year with the SF Giants which ended with a World Series trophy. So why is it that Barry is the one getting scapegoated? This sure seems hypocritical of baseball to single Barry out.

Barry was an asshole to the Media aka the people who vote

To get into the Hall of Fame, public opinion doesn’t matter. You get in because a select committee gets to vote you in. This committee is made up of media members, writers, other people I don’t know and such. It definitely doesn’t help Barry that he was not the nicest person to these very important gatekeepers but such is life. If everyone was asking me crap everyday about something I didn’t want to talk about, I’d be an asshole too. You know who was nice to the media? Jeff Bagwell, Ivan Rodriguez, and Mike Piazza. Three Hall of Fame players who have been suspected of using steroids but no proof was ever found. That sounds pretty familiar if you ask me.

So just because Barry Bonds was an asshole, should that prevent him from getting elected into the Hall of Fame? I respond by saying Ty Cobb is in the Hall of Fame. Until Babe Ruth came around, Ty Cobb was accepted as the greatest player. Ty Cobb was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was convicted of attempted murder because during a game a went into the stands and assaulted a black spectator. But thank god he didn’t do anything illegal.

On a side note, Bud Selig is in the Hall of Fame. I’m not saying he was an asshole by any means but he was the Commissioner of baseball during the steroid era. He was essentially the CEO of Major League Baseball. In no other facet of life, does the boss get away scot free when a scandal this big blows up (he was also the Commissioner during the 1994 Players Strike). To sum it up, the media is holding a grudge against Barry for some reason. I don’t know what he did personally to them but it sure seems hypocritical of baseball to single Barry out.

The Guilty Pleasure Case – Numbers Don’t Lie

Now this next argument is the one that I actually believe makes the most sense. The man was a Hall of Fame player before he started to use steroids (allegedly). Everyone agrees Barry started using steroids out of jealousy when the nation became infatuated with Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa’s 1998 home run chase. If this is true, let’s take a look at Barry’s career number through the 1998 season. That season was Barry’s 13th in the Majors. He had a .289 batting average, hit 411 home runs, and accumulated a WAR of 99.6. WAR stands for Wins Above replacement and I have no idea how it is calculated but the higher it is the better! Players with similar WAR are Randy Johnson, Joe Morgan, Albert Pujols, and Cal Ripken Jr. These guys are all no doubt Hall of Famers and played 22, 22, 17+ and 21 years respectively. Barry Bonds did it in 13! The only left fielders in the history of the game who accumulated more WAR than Barry did are Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson and Carl Yaz. Did I mention Barry’s number only covers his first 13 years in the league.

Mind you that these are only his offensive numbers. It’s not even taking into account his 8 Gold Gloves earned for his defensive prowess. Other accomplishments about Barry through his 13th season include: 7 Silver Sluggers, 3 MVP’s, 7 Top 5 MVP finishes, a season with both 40 Home Runs/40 Stolen Bases, the inaugural (and only member) of the 400 HR/400 SB club (also charter member of the 500/500 club). The numbers will make my head explode and I already have a headache so I’m not going to get into it anymore.

Can it be agreed then that Barry was a Hall of Fame Player before roids? Good, glad we can agree. Now there are are few things better that sports fans love than hypotheticals. What if Babe Ruth against blacks/latinos, what if Michael Jordan played in today’s NBA, what if the best player got superpowers? Oh wait, that last one actually happened. Do you want to know what is possible when one of the great baseball talents gets injected with a super drug (fyi, Captain America is celebrated for the taking super drugs)? Take a look at Barry’s averages from 2000 – 2004. This was Roids Bonds at his peak. He averaged, AVERAGED, a .340 batting average, 51 home runs, and a war of 10.24. WTF!! You want more numbers…he got on base via a hit, walk, hit by pitch, 53.5% of the time he came up to hit. The average I think is somewhere around 35%. Pitchers feared him so much they just gave him first base an astonishing 872 time over that 5 year period. Over that same period, he only struck out 316 times while hitting 258 home runs. That is ridiculous/unprecedented in terms of efficiency. Peak Roids Bonds is the single most dominant force I have ever seen in sports. I don’t know if I will ever witness anything like it and I thank the man for showing the world truly what is capable when the greatest talent meets science.

In conclusion, Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame. He received 72% of the vote last year and you have to meet 75% so barring a turn of events, he is expected to be elected soon. It is ridiculous though that Barry has been kept waiting this long. At the end of the day, Barry turned to the dark side because of jealousy and who can blame him. He was far superior to McGuire and Sosa yet they were getting all of the love because they juiced so Barry said “you wanna see something crazy” and proceeded to go on a 5 year run unlike anything the game had ever seen.

Happy New Years everybody! Stay safe out there on amateur night. More to come from us next year. Enjoy this highlight reel ✌🏽