Barry Bonds and the Hall of Fame: The Final Word

Barry Bonds Deserves to Be in the Hall of Fame. Duh.

First, let's get all the trivial nonsense out of the way. 

• Yes, I'm certain Barry Bonds did steroids.
• Yes, I'm certain players throughout the MLB were doing just as much steroids.
• Yes, Barry Bonds was an a-hole to the media and probably to some teammates, too.
• Yes, Barry Bonds was the greatest player I ever saw play the game, and I watched his entire career.
• You don't have to like Barry Bonds to want him in the Hall of Fame - I'm a life-long Dodger fan.

Okay, there's probably more to add to that bulleted list, but I'll get to that some other time. Here's why Barry Bonds irrefutably deserves to be in the Hall of Fame:

The 500 HR/500 Stolen Base Club

Here's the list of the guys in that club:
​1. Barry Bonds
Nobody else

The 400 HR/400 Stolen Base Club

Here's the list of the guys in that club:
1. Barry Bonds
Still Nobody else

What's more is that Barry Bonds achieved the 400 home run/400 stolen base mark in 1998, before he ever did steroids.

From 1986-1998, Barry Bonds hit .290 with 411 home runs and 445 stolen bases. He also walked more times than he struck out over that span. In fact, from the age of 24 on, for the rest of his career, he never struck out more than he walked. Not once - for 18 consecutive seasons. Some of you novice baseball fans may not realize the significance of that, but you baseball coaches out there - and even you so-called baseball purists out there who still insist that Bonds shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame - understand what a feat that is. 

Why Does Bonds Hate the Media (and Vice-Versa)?

I'm going to keep this simple since I'm not a psychologist. And if you're a baseball fan who remembers the 1998 season, you remember one thing: Sosa vs. McGwire. You don't even remember that Bonds became the first player in history to join the 400/400 club. Check that: Bonds founded it.

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled all season long in 1998 to see who would break Roger Maris' all-time, single-season home run record first. Wherever they went, the media followed like love-sick schoolkids... like lost puppy dogs... like rats through the street being led by the pied piper. Don't get me wrong, I was intrigued by the race to 62, too. I am a baseball fan and historian after all. 

Meanwhile, in that very same season, Barry Bonds, at the age of 33, became the first player in the history of baseball to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases in a career. Seriously - no one had ever done that, ever, in the entire history of baseball.

Knowing what he accomplished, he may not have been looking for gushing accolades from the media, but perhaps a little recognition would have been appropriate. However, when he didn't get it because the knuckleheads in the sports media were busy tripping over each other to get to Sosa and McGwire, Barry Bonds realized that home runs were the name of the game. "Fine, you want home runs? I'll give you home runs." (Of course, that's not an actual quote, but I'm paraphrasing why Bonds went on to do what he did)

The career-long body of work that Barry Bonds compiled by the end of the 1998 season at the age of 33 was absolutely ridiculous.

• 411 HR
• 445 SB
• .290 Batting Average
• .411 On-Base Percentage
• .556 Slugging Percentage
• 1,357 Walks vs. just 1,050 Strikeouts
• 3 MVP Awards
• 8 Gold Glove Awards
• 7 Silver Slugger Awards ​
• 8 All-Star appearances
• 9 seasons of 30+ stolen bases (including one 50+ season and two 40+ seasons)
• Led the league in On-Base Percentage 4 times and Slugging Percentage 3 times

There's even more than that, but you get the idea.

I won't bore you with the stats comparison to other guys who have recently been added to the MLB Hall of Fame who allegedly did steroids. Come on, we all know they did it, but they're in the Hall of Fame because they toed the right side of the line with the media and that's really it.

Compare Barry Bonds stats to anyone from his era and no one even comes close. In fact, the only stats you need to look at are Walks and Intentional Walks. Remember, the "Walks" statistic doesn't take into account the times that opposing pitchers simply pitched around Bonds, trying to get him to chase something in the dirt or up high, which he never did.

And that's not hyperbole - he never did. 

And... I'm not even talking about the INSANE amount of walks and intentional walks he drew after 1998. 

You may not know this, but Barry Bonds led the league in intentional walks for 7 consecutive seasons, from 1992 - 1998 - before his own, personal steroid era.

No batter has ever garnered that much fear and respect from opposing teams and pitchers to the point where they wouldn't throw him anything he might be able to hit. 

To put this into perspective, David Ortiz (who allegedly tested positive for steroids at one point - and I'm still fine with him being in the Hall of Fame) was intentionally walked a total of 209 times in his entire, Hall of Fame career. Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 249 times from 2002-2004, alone. And if we're sticking to the pre-1999 theme like we did, above, Barry Bonds was intentionally walked 289 times from 86-98, before he did steroids. Still better than David Ortiz, and Bonds did it in 13 seasons, whereas Ortiz took 20 seasons to get to 209.

Draw Your Own, Unbiased Conclusion...

Just go and look at Barry Bonds' statistics for yourself. Just look at the pre-1999 stuff if you want, but remember: if you do that, you're making the playing field biased against him, because we all know that there are players in the MLB Hall of Fame who did steroids at the same time Bonds did 'em, and their numbers aren't even close to Bonds'.