If you haven’t heard of this Barry Bonds Debate it basically centers around the steroid era in baseball. Roughly taking place from the late 80’s to the late 2000’s. PED (Performance Enhancement Drugs) have been found in baseball as recently as 2021, the Marlins pitcher Paul Campbell received an 80-game suspension in that case. Barry Bonds is said to have used steroids from 2001-06. Including anabolic steroids which is the one injected. Bonds is also be tied to using other “clear” and “cream” colored looking liquid that were used in tandem to take and cover up steroid use.
Bonds’ Legal Trouble
Barry Bonds had his troubles with the law with his involvement in BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative). In front of grand jury in December of 2003 Barry Bonds gave his testimony in which he admitted to using the “clear'” and “cream” liquids given to him by his trainer Greg Anderson. The “clear” substance Bonds took was found out to be tetrahydrogestrinone which is a steroid that was undetectable by MLB steroid testing at that time. Bonds told the grand jury it was told to him that the mixture was Flax seed oil and rubbing balm for arthritis.
Bonds would be indicted November 15, 2007 on four counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for his statements given to the grand jury in 2003. Bonds was only found guilty on the obstruction of justice charge which later would be appealed in court and overturned in 2015.
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Barry Bonds, along with other players such as; Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire would become the poster children for this steroid use era in baseball. MLB saw this scandal as a black eye to the sport and for that these players have been kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is where our debate starts. Should a known steroid user be selected to the Hall of Fame?
The voters of the Hall of Fame are made up of veteran sports writers. Their answer was a “No” with the snub of Barry Bonds and his steroid using peers in this years casting. David Ortiz was the only individual to get selected for the Hall of Fame. Ortiz himself appeared on a New York Times list in 2003 that showed positive steroid tests with no repercussions.
My best guess to why Bonds was left off is keeping the “integrity of the Hall” pure. That same Integrity argument was used to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame because he was gambling on Cincinnati Reds game during his career. Its the same Integrity argument that was used to hand out the suspensions for the 2017 Houston Astros scandal. The Integrity argument is rooted in the idea that ethics are apart of every sport.
Henry Aaron stated in 2009 “There is no place in the Hall of Fame for people who cheat.” The ethical axiom here being that cheating is ethically and morally wrong because it does not create an even playing field for all athletes. I agree with this whole heartily but baseball has never been an even playing field.
African-Americans weren’t in the sport until Jackie Robison broke the color barrier in 1947. I should mention Moses Fleetwood Walker was a black man who played in 1884 but isn’t considered in breaking the color barrier in baseball. A women hasn’t played major league Baseball, thats not fair.
If your argument is “but everyone plays on the same dimensions and under the same rules” The pitching mound was moved back in 1893. Minor leagues rules are routinely used to test out some rule changes. Most recently the electronic strike zone. The strike zone changes every single night and sometimes even from inning to inning. That’s Not Fair.
Just look at the difference in the Los Angles Dodgers pay roll and the Baltimore Orioles payroll. Orioles in 2021 was roughly 26 million as opposed to the Dodgers roughly at 286 million. I understand Los Angles Dodgers are in a much bigger marketplace than the Baltimore Orioles but Mookie Betts made 26 million in 2021.
The Baltimore Orioles basically cannot afford those top player contracts because of their geological location. That says to me, because a certain organization or individual is geographically located in a certain area they can only have 25% of freedom rather than this other organization, located in a more lucrative place to have 100% freedom. How is that a fair playing field?
In-between those chalk lines, whether he was playing fair or not, what he did was remarkable. If you counted all 762 home runs Barry Bonds hit as outs he still would have had a OBP of .384. David Ortiz’s lifetime OBP was .380.
The Baseball Hall of Fame is filled with the greatest players who ever played the game. Each of those greats had a baseball history in their own way. I would have liked to see baseball step up and wear the black eye with pride and tell the story of how it happened, because at the end of the day Barry Bonds was the greatest home run hitter of all time. Yes he used Steroids and yes that is cheating, but there is more integrity in telling the true story of that era in baseball rather then sweeping the Guilty under the rug of baseball history.
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