This might be an extremely controversial post, because people have strong opinion regarding steroid use. Let’s be real first off. Barry Bonds used steroids. You don’t look like a stick one year and come back looking like the freaking hulk. It’s not possible without PEDs.

Now should Barry be enshrined in the Hall? In 2003, the Mitchell Report was leaked seeing how many players had used steroids, and 103 MLB players were leaked. It is not far-fetched to assume that a majority of the MLB was juicing in the early 2000s, around when Bonds started to juice. Now a majority of the pitchers Bonds faced were juicing up as well, like Roger Clemens. Now why should Bonds be punished for using the same tactics as others?

I love using this analogy. If everyone gets a calculator on a math test, is it bad to use the calculator as well?

Now let’s look at it from a different standpoint.

Barry Bonds was a hall of famer before steroids.

In the 90s, Bonds was quite easily the most dominant player, well above the level of Ken Griffey Jr. I mean, his stats were absurd. Winning 3 MVPs and a crap ton of Gold Gloves is good and all, but he also dominated the basepaths, becoming a member of the 400-400 club. Basically, he was like Mike Trout on steroids. Before steroids.

His value that was not impacted by steroids was insane.

This has been covered already, but I really just want to emphasize this. Steroids help a person hit bombs, and it helps them run a bit faster. But before steroids, Bonds stole over 40 based a year regularly. I mean, the man was like Billy Hamilton except he could actually hit the dang ball. And if we’re talking about defense, then please just stop talking. Bonds was obviously the greatest outfield defender of the 90s, winning 8 Gold Gloves. That’s just insane.

He’s arguably the greatest hitter of all time.

Now I don’t personally believe this. I mean, the dominance Babe Ruth showed in the dead ball era, putting up video game type numbers, was monstrous. And Ted Williams was easily the greatest pure hitter of all time, in terms of swing and contact. Ruth and Williams are head and shoulders above Bonds in wRC+. But being the home run king has to count for something, and the OBP he posted in the middle to end of his career was not rivaled by anyone besides Ted and Babe.

Let’s cut to the chase…

Bonds was a hall of famer long before he turned in to a Hulk. I mean I get it, Bonds is an asshole and cheated, but to be fair I feel like the BBWA writers just hold grudges. Look, baseball isn’t some squeaky clean game where everyone just blows bubbles and trains hard. Even players from the 50s used whatever the hell they could to get an edge, and it has always happened in sports and always will. So let Barry Bonds in to the Hall of Fame. The dude is one of the top 3 hitters of all time, and is in contention for the greatest all around player of all time with Willie Mays. It’s becoming more and more of a crime the longer this man is left out of Cooperstown.