Barry Bonds vs. the Hall! By Hank Indictor

Barry Bonds has been trending plenty lately, and for good reasons. Not only did he recently celebrate his 59th birthday, but a new documentary about the polarizing legend is in the works. The creators who brought you the "Last Dance" series are making it, and I can't wait. It may shed some new light on the legend, and more will understand his true greatness (even if I'll be the first to admit he had flawed characteristics during his playing days). 

In addition, Barry Bonds recently appeared on the "Hollywood Swingin'" podcast and had this to say, "People have to understand something is that the fact is that I was vindicated," Bonds said. "I went to the court, I was in federal court, I won my case. 100 percent. Where is the vindication of me in my own sport? That's what bothers me." Bonds refers to being on trial for his usage of PEDs. I can't say that I disagree with him. 

Let's be honest here performance-enhancing drugs have been in baseball since about as far back as the '50s, and many of the games greats were popping amphetamines to try to either gain an edge or maintain the energy to keep up with baseball's grueling schedule. 

But when looking at the era when Bonds played, it's a known fact that when he was juicing, the same was true about at least 75-80% of the league. Let's not act like there wasn't a level playing field here. Barry Bonds should be in the Hall!!

Everyone who knows baseball knows that Barry Bonds is not only the all-time Home Run King (762) but also has the most home runs in a single season with 73. In addition, he is the all-time walks leader with 2,558 in his career. However, 688 of those walks were of the intentional variety (including one infamous moment on May 28th, 1998, when he was walked intentionally with the bases loaded!). 

In other words, he hit all those home runs despite only sometimes knowing if or when he would get pitched to! The Tampa Bay Rays as a team have only been issued 665 walks in their entire existence!! An already impressive stat line (.298 BA, 2,935 Hits, 1,996 RBIs, and the 762 home mentioned above runs) might've been even more so had more pitchers been brave enough to pitch to him. 

However, this is only one small part of the story. The whole career of Bonds is fascinating and can be summed up in a few stages. Stage 1 came from 1986-1992 when he began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The first half consisted of years where despite many signs of greatness, Bonds dealt with a ton of criticism due to sky-high expectations that stemmed from his stardom at Arizona State and following in the footsteps of his father, Bobby Bonds, and Godfather Willie Mays. And it's not like he was horrible during those years, as he averaged around 25 home runs, but the RBI total was only in the 50s because, in those years, he often batted in the leadoff role. Still, though, he had an early emergence as a stolen base threat, and by this point, he helped make the Pirates relevant after years of losing.

Despite reaching superstar status in 1990 (winning the first of his seven MVPs, eight Gold Gloves, and reaching the 30-30 club for the first of 5 times), he was never really popular in Pittsburgh, and that was partially due to his hostile treatment towards the fans, press and a good amount of his teammates. That said, some of this was also due to reasons out of his control because he didn't quite fit the "Blue Collar" image that Pittsburgh fans prefer, and when you factor race into it, can we entirely blame him? 

Bonds also developed a chip on his shoulder in Pittsburgh because management refused to offer Bonds a lucrative contract despite already paying Andy Van Slyke, who may have had the intangibles but didn't quite have the talent of his disgruntled teammate. But what also didn't endear him in the Steel City was his struggles in the postseason to contribute, leading to 3 consecutive NLCS eliminations; Each one being more painful than the previous (his failure to throw out a hobbled Sid Bream in the infamous Game 7 in '92 against the Braves also didn't help matters.) 

Regardless of how he carried himself, Bonds was still the best player on those teams as he emerged as a threat both at bat and on the bases. In addition, by the time he won his first MVP (a year in which he hit 33 homers, batted .301, and drove in 114 RBIs), it immediately put him in the conversation among the best players in baseball. Barry Bonds deserves a ton of credit for bringing a struggling franchise back to relevance, and perhaps it's no coincidence that after the brutal loss to the Braves in Game 7 of the '92 NLCS, coinciding with his departure, the Pirates wouldn't finish above .500 for two decades. 

So now we get to Stage 2, which I'm going to say is the first half of his years in San Francisco from 1993 until about, oh, let's say, 2000ish. I mentioned that Bonds was unhappy with his salary at the time (which, if we're honest, is understandable). But when the Giants gave him a six-year $43 million contract, it immediately made him the highest player in baseball. But the real question you can ask is, was he underpaid? 

Keep in mind until Bonds' first year, the Giants were a team in shambles as they not only finished last one year prior but were one foot on their way to Tampa before the Peter Magowan consortium stepped in at the last minute to save the franchise. Bonds not only helped to change the franchise's direction, but in his first year, he batted .336 with 46 homers and 123 RBIs, and an incredible slash line of .458/.677/1.136! 

It was his 3rd MVP season in 4 years, leading the Giants to 103 wins. However, despite this, it started a lot of frustration in the first half of his tenure as the Giants finished 1 Game out of first place behind the Braves (remember, this was the last year before the Wild Card started, which meant no playoffs). And just one year later, the Giants were 3.5 games out in a weak NL West despite being 55-60 at the time of the strike that wiped out the remainder of the season. 

It's not out of the question that a team with Barry Bonds, coupled with a historic season from Matt Williams, could've made up that deficit and had a monster turnaround in September. Therefore an interesting what-if scenario here could be this: would Bonds have experienced his first taste of postseason success sooner if not for the Braves and the Strike? 

For the rest of the decade, Bonds continued to post numbers at or near the 30-30 club in a season (including becoming the first NL player to have a 40-40 season in 1996) and remaining arguably the best player in baseball. At this point, besides being a true five-tool player, his keen batting eye made him very difficult to strike out. 

However, much like Mike Trout today and, to a lesser extent, his counterpart in Ken Griffey Jr., Bonds took a lot of heat for the lack of postseason success (the Giants' only appearance during the decade was a sweep against the Marlins in the '97 NLDS) and strong teams around him. By 1998 it was clear that Bonds was a Hall of Famer as he became the first player in Major League history to have 400 home runs and 400 steals. To further emphasize how insane this is, he was one of only four players to be a part of the 300-300 club; who are 2 of the others, you might ask? Well, they just so happened to be Willie Mays and…..BOBBY BONDS! (people tend to forget his father had a great career!). 

Ah, remember this was 1998, and Bonds' accomplishments were a mere afterthought. After all, this was the year of the great home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa! As thrilling as this race was then, anyone who paid attention knew that PEDs were fueling the home run pace. It's understandable why Bonds was infuriated and jealous of the attention they were receiving, and he knew he was capable of hitting home runs at their pace. 

Fast forward to 2001. I call this the 3rd and final stage of Bonds' career. How dominant was he from 2001-2004? I'm going to list these numbers right here.

2001: 73 HR, 137 RBIs, 129 Runs, 177 BB, .328 AVG, .515 OBP, .863 SLG, 1.379 OPS 

2002: 46 HR, 110 RBIs, 117 Runs, 198 BB, .370 AVG, .582 OBP, .799 SLG, 1.381 OPS 

2003: 45 HR, 90 RBIs, 111 Runs, 148 BB, .341 AVG, .529 OBP, .749 SLG, 1.278 OPS 

2004: 45 HR, 101 RBIs, 129 Runs, 232 BB, .362 AVG, .609 OBP, .812 SLG, 1.422 OPS

Nobody in Major League history has had that amount of offensive dominance for four years. Say what you want about the stuff he was using, but for him to be able to do all that is the result of having years of expertise on great pitches to hit and incredible Hand-Eye Coordination. It was also during this time that Barry finally experienced his first taste of postseason success, and he hit ten home runs in the 2002 postseason and came within a game of being the first Giants team to win the World Series since the move to California! 

And as I said earlier, this guy did all this despite not knowing when he would get pitched too. And as implied in the Home Run Race, this was a level playing field. Bonds just so happened to be going up against plenty of other less talented juicers than he was. Side note I would highly recommend going to YouTube and watching the epic at-bat he had against Eric Gagne (also a roid user) in 2004; If you don't, I'd say you're doing yourself a disservice. 

Even as Bonds started getting hurt and aged, he remained a productive hitter. After breaking Hank Aaron's all-time home run record, Bonds had no choice but to call it quits, as nobody wanted to carry the baggage that would come with a polarizing legend. 

In fact, before, during, and after those four years, Bonds established himself as even more of a villain than he already was. He continued to alienate himself from many of his teammates (even getting into a shoving match with Jeff Kent). He lashed out at the media, especially as the steroid accusations got louder and louder. Ultimately, for all the controversy in his career, Barry Bonds is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of Major League Baseball.

And now is the time that we address the elephant in the room—the Hall of Fame. Despite the numbers making him an obvious shoo-in, many arguments exist against Barry Bonds. For one thing, he had some off-the-field issues that I'm not going to be diving too deep into, big enough that if you were to take the steroids out of the equation, it's understandable to see why people wouldn't want him to begin with. Not to mention even tho there wasn't a specific MLB rule that prohibited him from taking what he took, he did end up having to go to court because the drugs were illegal, but ultimately he got off scot-free. 

That said, I will talk about why he absolutely should be in. I pointed out the numbers he put up before 2001-2004, and you could argue that either he or Ken Griffey Jr was the best player in baseball during the 90s. Want some more fun facts? Barry Bonds is in a first-place tie for most seasons with at least 20 home runs and stolen bases; who is he tied with? None other than his father, Bobby! (Seriously, his father deserves a separate blog). 

The Giants haven't had a 30+ home run season since Bonds in '04 (hard to believe, considering they had that 2010-14 dynasty). He's also the last player to have a season with at least 400 total bases! There's more that hasn't already been said, but let's be honest, I don't care all that much about the use of PEDs. Do I condone everything he did? Not necessarily, but this guy is arguably baseball's GOAT, and if I'm being honest, not seeing his plaque in Cooperstown is an absolute disgrace. 

Cheaters have been in baseball for as long as time. Look at the character of a lot of guys who are in the Hall of Fame. Are we talking about a Hall of Fame and Museum or cathedral? Or, better yet, a glorified popularity contest! Because let's face it: beyond the fact that Bonds isn't in (for, in my opinion, not so much cheating but breaking a record that's been considered sacred), there are plenty of guys with great character who aren't in, but for some reason aren't given that extra boost by the voters. Seriously somebody MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!!!! At the end of the day, if you want to fix the Hall, the first step is to put in Barry Bonds! What on Earth are we waiting for?!?!