Barry Bonds’ Hall of Fame snubbing says more about Baseball Writers Association of America voters than it does about Bonds
I had initially outlined a piece about Barry Bonds’ place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame several years ago but had never gotten around to writing it. My appetite for sports shifted over time and my focus was elsewhere. Baseball just wasn’t as important to me as it had been earlier in my life. However, I grew up loving the game. It was my favorite sport throughout childhood and remained that way for a solid chunk of my formative years. I mention all this because, even as my interest in baseball waned, I was (and still am) passionate that Bonds belongs in Cooperstown. I figured there would be ample time to come back to the idea but years went by. As Bonds’ 10-year eligibility window officially closed on January 25th, 2022, that time to revisit the idea is now.
In his final year of eligibility, Bonds received 66% of the available BBWAA votes for enshrinement. It was the highest percentage he had received since he had first hit ballots back in 2012 and there’s a reasonable chance he would have eventually reached the required 75% threshold, over the next five years. However, in 2014, the HOF changed the eligibility window from 15-years to 10-years, after Bonds had already started the process. Exemptions were made for other players who were already past the 10-year mark but not for him. Both Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens were on the same cycle and never had enough votes to pass the threshold either despite all three of them being the leading vote-getters during the 2021 HOF vote. It’s not too hard to read between the lines as the three of them are inexorably tied to the steroid/performance-enhancing-drugs/BALCO scandal that erupted in 2005.
The scandal led to a congressional investigation where several of the league’s star players were called upon to testify, including Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire who had reignited interest in Major League Baseball as they chased Roger Maris’ single-season home run record during the summer of 1998. It was a very public black eye for MLB as they enjoyed the benefits of that thrilling chase while simultaneously looking the other way in the wake of the 1994-95 strike season that decimated attendance, TV ratings, and revenue. It’s not so much that the league was angry that PEDs were being used, they were angry they got caught.
Cheating is as much a part of baseball’s history as peanuts and hot dogs. As far back as the 1880s, documentation exists to show that PEDs were being experimented with, not to mention spitballs, pine tar, and the sign-stealing debacle that engulfed the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox after they “won” the World Series in 2017 and 2018. However, for some reason, the steroid-related PED cheating of the 80s, 90s, and 00s is stuck in the craws of many baseball writers more than anything else. It’s tough to say why that’s the sticking point for so many, but there’s been a concerted effort to keep the PED users from the HOF.
In 2017, Hall of Famer and former broadcaster Joe Morgan wrote a letter to the HOF voters, citing a group of other HOFers, reflecting that position and urging them to not vote for “steroid users” or players that were identified as such by the Mitchell Report. On the one hand, I get the purity of the game argument, but there are already plenty of players in the HOF from both the PED era and the amphetamine era. Beyond that, former MLB commissioner Bud Selig, who was in office during the steroid era and subsequently denied having any knowledge of it until after the home run chase of ’98 while also testifying to Congress that he was aware of the problem as far back as 1994, is in the HOF. Obviously, not everybody in the HOF has skeletons in their closet but there are clearly some flexible double standards that are applied. That would suggest that the Hall is not a litmus test of character.
I get the knee-jerk reaction to “intentionally-enhanced” players shifting the competitive scales and I think that’s ultimately where the line gets drawn on Bonds. When the new-and-improved version of Bonds returned in 2000, he made the game look incredibly easy and the media finally loved and embraced him for it. His chase of McGwire’s single-season home run record and eventually Hank Aaron’s all-time record was the exact kind of drama that captured the public imagination and kept MLB and the writers that covered it in high demand. However, he was always something of a polarizing figure up until that point in his career.
Bonds was confident, gifted, charismatic, and not at all afraid to let you know about it. Growing up, I remember hearing him described as an “asshole” or “prick”, not by the media directly but indirectly by fans. He wasn’t the buttoned-down personality that most of the baseball media wanted from their superstars, especially their Black ones. He had swag for days, posed after homers, strutted, did topless photoshoots at batting practice, danced, rocked multiple gold chains, and backed up every bit of that with his play on the field. Players today are still chastised by baseball media for such behavior and Bonds was doing that more than 30-years ago. So, naturally, he had an adversarial relationship with the media. However, I always saw him as a player that wanted to be loved rather than being placed in the villain role. When he was finally embraced as a hero of the game by the media, in pursuit of the aforementioned records, Bonds leaned into it. He became the biggest name in the game and one of the biggest athletes in the world. Ultimately, I think that’s what led to the chasm we are now faced with among the voting writers that are still holdouts.
My take is that it wasn’t so much that Bonds was juiced. Anybody with two eyes could see he had bulked up massively after returning from injury in 1999. Most people carry more weight as they age but this was a substantial gain in muscle mass and I think most people could read between the lines. Anyway, I believe it was the tacit endorsement of those actions, by the media that had finally embraced Bonds, that ultimately led to the kind of resentment that’s kept him out of the HOF. It’s more than the writers, at least the baseball purists among them, couldn’t forgive themselves for supporting Bonds than it was about forgiving the man himself. I could be wrong, but that’s my read on the situation.
First of all, if you’ve made it this far, thank you. Secondly, I haven’t even gotten to my argument in favor of Barry being in the Hall, I’ve just been pointing out the ludicrous nature of the reasoning behind and the arguments in favor of his exclusion. So, if I haven’t bored you by now, stick with me a little longer as we get to the fun stuff.
The Case For Barry Bonds
Long before Bonds joined the San Francisco Giants and chased the immortal HR records that catapulted him into baseball immortality, he was a phenomenal 5-tool player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Beginning his career in 1986, Bonds played seven seasons in Pittsburgh and was among the primary reasons the Pirates played in the NLCS three years straight from 1990-92, winning the NL East in each of those seasons. During his tenure, Bonds won 2 National League MVPs for the Pirates (’90, ’92), was named to the All-Star team twice while collecting three-straight Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. The point being, Bonds was a badass and one of the game’s best players long before the steroid scandal.
Upon joining the Giants in 1993 he collected his 3rd NL MVP while leading MLB in HRs (46), slugging percentage (.677), OPS (1.136), total bases (365), and intentional walks while leading the NL in runs-batted-in (123). The strike season in 1994 abruptly ended the season but Bonds still hit 37-HRs in 112 games, was voted to the All-Star team, and earned another Gold Glove and Silver Slugger (his fourth of each). He had excellent numbers ’95-’98 that were comparable to his MVP season in ’93 and he was an All-Star in each of those four seasons, collecting three more Gold Gloves and two more Silver Sluggers. His ’98 campaign saw him bat .303 with 37-HRs and 122-RBIs and he could have easily been NL MVP again if not for Sosa and McGwire going toe-to-toe in the HR race.
By the time 1999 rolled around, Bonds was (and still is) the only member of the 400-HR/400-steals club, and the wear and tear of playing at a ridiculous level for 14 professional seasons had begun to catch up to him. However, even while being out for two months, he still hit 34-HRs and had 83-RBIs in only 102 games. Many athletes have changed their regimen in order to recover from or address injury problems and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s ultimately what led to Bonds’ association with BALCO.
Working with personal trainer Greg Anderson from BALCO, who was later indicted in 2003 for supplying anabolic steroids to athletes, the Giants’ slugger returned in 2000 with a noticeably bulkier frame. It raised a lot of suspicion at the time, but most people just looked the other way. Bonds hit 49-HR, had 106-RBIs, led the NL in walks, and led MLB in total bases, finishing 2nd in the MVP race and winning another Silver Slugger. However, noticeably missing was the customary Gold Gloves and the massive drop-off in stolen bases for the typically spry base-runner. After all, when gaining a ton of muscle you have to sacrifice mobility.
The 2001 season saw Bonds break the single-season HR record, hitting 73, while also leading MLB in walks, OBP, SLG (.863 single-season record), OPS, and winning another NL MVP. He would go on to win three more consecutive NL MVPs from ’02-’04 averaging 45-HRs, 100-RBIs, and batting .357 over a 140-game-per-season average. He led the MLB in batting in ’02 with an average of .370 while also setting single-season records in walks and intentional walks across that span. His record of 232 walks in the ’04 season is 34 more than the 2nd-place mark of 198, also held by Bonds. More than half of those walks in ’04 were intentional (120) which is also the single-season record and is nearly double that of Bonds’ previous record of 68 in ’02. He also set the single-season record for OBP at .609 during the ’04 season. In short, “juiced” Barry was nearly unbeatable at the plate and it was incredible to behold how he bent the game to his will.
He missed almost the entirety of the 2005 season due to a knee injury and coincidentally as the BALCO trial was in full swing, but still hit well in his 14-games. In 2006, at the age of 41, Bonds returned to action and still posted respectable numbers although they were significantly down from the height of his powers. A big part of his return post-2005 was to chase the all-time HR record and on the evening of August 7th, 2007 Bonds hit his 756th career home run to break Hank Aaron’s record of 755. With nothing left to chase and the Giants finishing last in the NL West, Bonds retired at the end of ’07 with 28-HRs to finish with 762 on his career.
Besides being the all-time leader in HRs, Bonds also is the all-time leader in walks with 2,558 (368 more than Rickey Henderson in 2nd place), and intentional walks with 688 (more than twice as many as Albert Pujols in 2nd place with 315). By 1999, he was the only member of the 400HR/400SB club and by the end of his career, he is also the only member of the 500HR/500SB club. He is 38th in hits, 6th in RBIs, 34th in steals, and his .298 career batting average is good for 241st. While his steroid years certainly inflated some numbers for five seasons, Bonds was already HOF caliber before that.
If you were to just take his career averages from ’86-’99 and extrapolate them over the length of his career, he still could have finished with 704-HRs (3rd), 2,046-RBIs (still good for 6th), 700+ stolen bases (11th), 2,224-BBs (still 1st), and 462-IBBs (again, still 1st). And that’s on a 143-game average. Even if he stopped playing after the injuries in 1999, he still already had 3 NL MVPs, 8 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Sluggers, and 8 All-Star selections. Those accolades are more than enough to put him into the Hall of Fame.
He was definitely not the only player who was doping either. In 2003, David Wells claimed that as many as 40% of players were “juiced” and, in 2005, Jose Canseco’s book Juiced said that up to 80% of players were using steroids. Bonds wasn’t some rare exception, he was doing what most of the players were doing at the time. I am not trying to excuse his behavior, just contextualize it. In a game where you are constantly evaluated on performance and you’re surrounded by other players who are trying to get that competitive edge, the decision becomes more understandable. More human. It is easy to point the “holier-than-thou” finger from behind a desk and wax poetic about how things should be, but there’s a reason why writers cover athletes and not vice versa. Remember to keep that in mind.
Bonds never admitted to knowingly taking steroids but in 2003, as part of the BALCO investigation, he did admit to unknowingly using “the cream” and “the clear” which he claimed to be nutritional supplements. In 2005 the defendants in the BALCO trial cut deals that didn’t require them to divulge client lists. Officials in the investigation said both BALCO and MLB testing records from ’01-’06 show that Bonds did far more than he admitted to, including “injectable anabolic steroids” and “human growth hormone”. Bonds was indicted in 2007 on perjury and obstruction charges in relation to that investigation and later convicted on obstruction of justice charges. However, he appealed the conviction in 2013 and lost but it was heard again in 2015 and overturned.
So where does that leave us? That’s a tough question to answer and, clearly, one that the BBWAA doesn’t unanimously agree on. Bonds will still have a chance to get into the Hall of Fame through the veterans’ committee vote in December of 2022 and potentially again in 2024 if I understand the rules correctly. He is inarguably one of the best baseball players of all time, if not the best. The steroid use is certainly a stain on his legacy, but it’s also important to remember his legacy was well-intact before steroids came into play. If you removed his entire “juiced” era from his career, he’s still easily a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The steroids did not make Bonds great, they just enhanced his greatness to mythological heights. You can’t tell the history of baseball without Barry Bonds and it’s a disservice to the game to try and exclude him from the conversation, regardless of how you may feel about him and his decision-making.
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