By Jeremy Castro, Sports Assignment Editor
On Jan. 24, 2018, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the four newest inductees to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman are all worthy to be eternally honored in the Hall of Fame. However, the writers have, once again, kept out arguably the best baseball player of all time: Barry Bonds.
Now before you start ripping your issue of The Bona Venture, just entertain this idea for at least the next 764 words of why Barry Bonds should be in the Hall.
If you hold statistics and accolades highly, Bonds should have been in the Hall on his first try. Admittedly, picking and choosing the statistics that bolster one’s argument seems (and probably is) arbitrary, however, in the case of Bonds, there are some stats that are just plain ridiculous.
Bonds, of course, is the all-time leader in home runs (762) in Major League Baseball. The title of the “home run king,” as impressive as it is, seems to cast a shadow over whoever has it. Hank Aaron is almost viewed as just the “previous home run king” rather than a player who played 23 years, has the most runs-batted-in (2,297), the most total bases (6,856), and might be one of the most important figures in American history; a black man with the all-time home run leader in “America’s pastime” during an era of extreme racial tension. Bonds may not be a civil rights trailblazer, but he was a damn good baseball player.
This shadow also casts over Bonds, as people seem to forget that he was way more than just a home run hitter. According to Baseball Reference, Bonds has the most walks (2,558) in MLB history. Bonds also has the most intentional walks ever (688). For context, if you add together the next two players on the list for intentional walks, Albert Pujols (307) and Hank Aaron (293), they still come 88 intentional walks short of Bonds.
Bonds won seven Most Valuable Player Awards, three in Pittsburgh and four more in San Francisco, was an eight-time Gold Glover in eight straight years from 1990-1998, an aspect of his game that is highly overlooked, and also is the only member of the 400 home run/400 stolen base club and the only member of the 500 home run/500 stolen base club.
Of course, for some of you, these stats and accomplishments do not mean much, if anything, especially from Bonds’ later years, when it is widely believed that Bonds benefited from using steroids, specifically between 1999-2007. However, this leads into my next point that Bonds was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids.
According to CBS Sports, if you take away his stats from the years where he was expected of juicing, 1999-2007 as previously mentioned, Bonds would have ended his career with 411 homeruns, 1,216 RBI’s, 445 stolen bases, 1,364 runs scored and a .966 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage), all of which would have been on top of his three MVP’s and eight Gold Gloves. For others in the steroid-era, you can argue – and I am inclined to agree – that some players’ success were solely the result of steroid use and would have not done what they did without them (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa…) This is not the case with Bonds, as he had a Hall-of-Fame caliber career well before any suspicion of steroid use.
This still might not be enough to convince some, as they might say he cheated, and whether or not he was a Hall of Famer before cheating, cheaters do not have the privilege of being inducted into Cooperstown. This is fine, and I understand it to an extent. However, if cheaters should not be allowed in the Hall of Fame at all, then we have to change the entire baseball Hall of Fame. Whether it was spitballs, scuffing balls, stealing signs, corked bats or fixing games, cheating is already represented in Cooperstown; Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry admitted to using the spitball well after it was banned. If you feel that cheaters should be kept out of the Hall, then you should look beyond the steroid era.
Bonds was the most feared hitter of his era, an era where some of the best hitters of all time and some of the best pitchers battled it out. As said previously, Bonds has the most intentional walks of all time. That is not just a number, it was unprecedented fear. On May 28, 1998, Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter intentionally walked Bonds with the bases loaded; if that is not the ultimate sign of respect, I don’t know what is.
In his later years, Bonds was the top must-watch baseball player ever, as any next pitch could end up flying through the San Francisco sky, eventually splashing into McCovey Cove. I understand the taboo around the Steroid Era of baseball, but Bonds was already great before taking steroids, and then he became the best when all was said and done.
