Love me, or hate me (especially after my Eagles tirade), but the best hitter in the history of baseball needs to make baseball’s greatest fraternity — Barry Bonds.

For the people that don’t know, Bonds set a world record of 762 career home runs. You would think that this would have classified him already as a Hall of Famer, right? Not quite. Bonds admitted to using steroids which is a substance to put in your body that, in a nutshell, helps your muscles grow faster than the normal pace. Some people think it’s unfair because it’s not natural.

Bonds started taking this drug around the late 90s but wasn’t caught for it. In 2001, he hit a record of 73 home runs in a single season. Wow. It wasn’t until about two years later when Major League Baseball started to investigate. Yes, steroids were on the banned substance list, but the league didn’t start testing until ‘03.

Throughout his incredible 22-year career, Bonds won Rookie of the Year, seven MVPs, 14 All-Star appearances, eight Gold Gloves, and two batting titles. I don’t know about you, but these are some pretty remarkable accolades. Before he started juicing, which again was said to be around the late 90s to early 2000s, he had already won the MVP award three times. It wasn’t out of the question that Bonds had the potential to already make Cooperstown.

Bonds needs to make the Hall of Fame not only because he dropped 762 bombs, but how much of an impact he made on the baseball world. I remember vividly once when I was about 6 or 7 years old my dad would call me over to his computer where he would live stream some of Bonds’ plate appearances so I can witness history with him. He sold-out crowds. He was in the spotlight of it all. Everyone wanted his jersey and everyone mocked his batting stance. His right elbow pad? People wanted to wear that during their own baseball games. People didn’t want to be like Mike, people wanted to be like Barry. The dude hit cockshots out of stadiums. Who the fuck does that consistently? Pitchers were scared of him. In fact, Bonds set a record for the most walks with 2,558. He’d get walked with bases loaded. No one wanted to pitch even remotely close to him. Why? Because he was the best hitter of all time. Only the best of the best players belong in the Hall of Fame and Bonds is one of them. He was such a machine that he hit a home run with a broken-bat!

In 2001 the MLB generated roughly $3.7 billion. What else happened in 2001? Bonds’ record-breaking 73 home run season. Up until 2003 (when the league started investigating) the league loved the steroid era. Because who doesn’t love making bank, right? The league swept the entire problem under the rug until it started to become an issue. Before this window starting from 1995, the league only generated $1.4 billion. Not only did the revenue increase but so did attendance — by a whopping 44%, according to rantsports.com. Viewership for the 2001 World Series was up at 24 million viewers. The 2019 World Series had 10 less million people watching. Baseball is a dying sport and we have to recognize the one that brought it back to life.

One thing that many people didn’t know about was before testing even started, steroids weren’t actually illegal. They were on the banned substance list, yes, but there was never a written rule about it. The commissioner before he left in 1992, Fay Vincent, sent a message to all the teams in the league that steroid use was against the rules. But, again there was no official rule change. The commissioner admitted that the message was intended to be a “moral statement” rather than a “legal one”. Since no one was getting in trouble, more players started using it which is why Bonds did too. They eventually implemented a policy at the start of the 2005 season.



So, before you go ahead and say “oh, well he cheated” or “he had no integrity” and all that, just think about the impact he made on the baseball community. The greatest players deserve recognition for everything they have accomplished and hit 762 home runs is a pretty big accomplishment to me, with or without doping. The steroid era back then was so popular that about 80% of Major Leaguers were juicing, Jose Canseco (another steroid user) admitted in a 60 Minutes interview. The steroid era was the greatest era in all of sports, but that conversation is for another time. Basically, back then steroids weren’t a problem. Players were dropping 500-foot bombs, the stadiums were filled, the league was making money. Everyone was happy. People loved Barry, too. So please, for the sake of this dying sport, put Barry Bonds in the damn Hall of Fame, already.