Barry Bonds: Polarizing the game

Barry Bonds is the most polarizing player in the game of baseball since Pete Rose and his gambling controversy. Most fans of the game believe that Bonds neither deserves his records nor does he deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame. My opinion on him and this issue is that Bonds not only deserves his records but also a spot in the Hall of Fame as a first ballot inductee.

Barry Bonds has had his reputation placed on a stake and burned. Some consider it racism, but whatever the actual reason, he does not deserve having his name dragged across the mud. Barry Bonds accomplished a great deal with or without the help of steroids. Nothing gives the public the right to insult him and tear his name apart.

In my opinion, the Major Leagues is now on a new level of competition. Those who do not take steroids are falling behind. So many of the game's best are already juiced and to say that all of Barry's records are irrelevant because of this fact is not fair. The only fair way of clearing the record books of Barry's accomplishments is to toss out all of the records of the new "steroid era." If you say Barry's records are tainted, you must then include that all of the records from this era are tainted. Barry's seven MVPs are in my estimation no different, now, than any of Clemens's Cy Young awards.

The most educated of the game's followers will take these numbers and at the same time consider the era in which these records were accrued. Asterisks will not taint his record, they will taint the game forever. To those casual fans, who believe a star is needed next to all of the juiced, do not understand the game. There is no fair way to compare records from era to era. Even if they never took steroids, this era is an offensive era. Barry Bonds would not have accomplished the offensive feats he has in a more pitcher friendly time. This era should and will go down as the steroid era. A true fan can take these numbers and his knowledge of the time and accurately compare them to records and accomplishments from times like the deadball era or the post-war era.

I do not consider Bonds to be the greatest offensive player of all-time. I found it difficult to label any player in such away. Instead, however, I consider Bonds the greatest offensive player of his generation from the mid '80s to the mid '00s.

Those sports writers who vote on the Hall of Fame eligibility of each player should not take into account anything but accomplishments, records and numbers. Seven MVPs and all the new homerun records speak for themselves. His induction would only be fair to him and his fans. If such outside considerations were taken into account by many of the voters, I feel they are too biased to fulfill their duty. Voters should take information as it is and take what matters into account. Numbers and accomplishments bring players into the Hall of Fame. Numbers and accomplishments should be all that keep a player out of the Hall of Fame.