Does Barry Bonds deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?

Answer 1

Nope. And none of the other dopers should either. All records set by them should be removed and the old ones reinstated.

Answer 2

Sigh....

Yes, he deserves to be in the Hall. If Bonds retired 5 years ago he would've been a shoo-in, no questions asked by anyone. Yes, he most likely has done steroids, but the fact is that it has never been proven. And it seems to me a bedrock principle in this country is "innocent until proven guilty". Do I think he's innocent? No. But really, that's besides the point. I am neither judge nor jury.

Additionally, as people above have stated, there was no enforceable policy in place regarding steroid use during the time people accuse him of taking them. Punishing someone now under today's rules for something they did before the rules went into effect is illegal and would be tossed out of court (where it would undoubtedly end up) faster than you can say "Balco".

I just want him to retire and limp off into the sunset. This whole issue has become tiresome.

Answer 3

This answer is coming from someone, who has been a Barry Bonds fan since he was skinny, and with the Pirates. I believe that the stats that Barry Bonds put up before he so obviously started taking steroids, WERE good enough to get him into the hall, he still would have been the only baseball player in history to be a member of the 500/500 club. and he possibly who have had 600, not 700 homeruns.

However his steroid use makes it extremely difficult to say yes to him being in the hall. Because we all know that as fans we don't always remember what a player did early in his career, but later, and that's when he began juicing. Also I firmly believe that if players such as Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire are inducted into the hall of fame, That there would be no merit in excluding Barry from the hall, as none of these players have been indicted (to this point) on steroid use. Bonds is a little different than Jose Canseco, who admits that he started juicing when he was in the minor leagues, and tells of Mark McGwire's steroid use as early as his sophmore campaign in the big leagues. Jose's not the most credable source but his story is backed up if you just look at the before and after pictures of McGwire and the timeline of Canseco's story, I believe that steroids has caused Bond's his spot in the Hall of Fame. Also if these juiced up players of the 90's are inducted, don't you think Pete Rose should be let in also?????????

Answer 4

Based solely on his statistics Bonds ought to be a shoe in for the HOF. However, with or without the real concrete evidence, his quite obvious
use of performance enhancing drugs (synthetic steroids), IMHO, he should not be voted into the HOF. Many prior players made it to the HOF legitimately (no drugs) so consequently his numbers attained from about '94-'03 are or were enhanced by the steroids use. Sure he is and was a terrific overall player, but it does reflect unfavorable\y on Bonds for using steroids regardless of if they were banned or even detected Bottom line is that this guy CHEATED and should have to now live with the consequences!

Answer 5

There is no question that barry bonds deserves to be in the hall of Fame!!

1. He has never tested positive for steroids.
2. How many of the pitchers that Bonds faced were juiced up/ no one knows (more pitchers have tested positive than any other position)
3. Numbers alone!!

Answer 6

He *IS* the final all-around participant of all time, and that i defy everyone to call me somebody greater effective. no longer purely is Barry the abode-run king, yet he hits for conventional, has astonishing self-discipline (he does not strike out like Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson), has good velocity and baserunning intelligence (514 bases with 80% fulfillment fee), oh yeah, and a gold-glove high quality fielder! Awards: 14 All-Stars, 7 MVPs (+2 2d place, +4 greater ideal 10s), 8 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Slugger Stats: .298 AVG, .444 OBP, .607 SLG, 762 HRs, 1996 RBIs, 2227 R, 2935 H, 1440 XBH, 6012Bs, 5976 entire Bases, 514 SBs, 2558/688 BBs/IBBs. profession ideal 10s: HRs (a million), BBs/IBBs (a million), XBH (2), Runs (3), RBI (4), OBP (4), entire Bases (4), SLG% (6) human beings opt for to point to Barry Bonds as though he have been the poster newborn for PEDs... however the fact of it incredibly is that PEDs have been a league huge phenomenon. Pitchers, hitters, stars, place-gamers, fringe MLBers. Barry nevertheless controlled to dominate his era. you would be unable to purely take steroids and become a HoF high quality participant, ask Hal Morris or Jason Grimsley. you besides would can't punish a participant for doing what replaced into authorised to be the final, seeing it incredibly is the character of being an athlete. as a count of actuality that baseball authorised the abuse of steroids until 2004. in case you sense that PEDs in activities is misguided, then your concern is Bud Selig, no longer Barry Bonds.

Answer 7

Ask commissioner Bud Selig and MLBPA duckhead Donald Fehr and the fact that major league players have been juicing up for years and the Major League Baseball Players Association did nothing about it until recently but block every attempt to get any kind of substance testing is deplorable and despicable and hey these guys, according to baseball policy, did nothing wrong.

No matter how u slice it; Barry Balco Bonds will break the honorable Hank Aaron's homerun record and his enormous melon head will somehow be shrunken to fit on a Hall-of-Fame plaque!

Answer 8

Yes, and I'll tell you why...

Major League Baseball did NOTHING to prevent the use of steroids and HGH. No testing. No punishment. NOTHING for the vast majority of Barry's career.

If something is not against the rules, it cannot be cheating to do it.

I agree that Barry Bonds is a lowlife and that steroid use has destroyed the integrity of the game, and that his stats have been inflated due to steroid use. I have no doubt in my mind, but this is the fault of Bud Selig and Major League Baseball to allow these things to take place, not Barry. As I said before, if there isn't a rule against it, by definition, it cannot be cheating.

Bottom line is that pointing the finger at the players before the steroid policy went into place takes the focus off of the real problem in Major League Baseball. Bonds is the scapegoat, while Selig continues to get paid for his mismanagement.

Baseball has been a flawed sport in it's history, but the records set cannot be changed. It's too late. The damage has already been done. To change the records set by Bonds and to re-instate the old records would open up a whole new can of worms, such as teams being questioned if they were REALLY the World Series in any given year.

I would DEFINATELY include a line on his plaque indicating that he has been accused of steroid use, however.

Answer 9

Of course. Are we going to go back and figure out every single player that has ever used steroids and yank them from the Hall of Fame? Baseball turned their heads to the issue of steroids and all performance enhancing chemicals. I guarantee that steroid use in baseball has been going on for decades. It is only now that baseball has decided to do something about it.

Answer 10

No he doesn't. He doesn't even deserve to be playing right now. He is a cheater and honestly his records should be striken from the MLB record books. The unfortunate part is the commishoner doesn't care about the history of baseball or even the present state of the game. As long as it brings in the money Selig will do it. He will keep Bonds around because he is a cash cow.

i.e. Reinstating Pete Rose would not give baseball any money while Bonds keeps dinging them out of the park unfortunatly puts people in the seats.

Answer 11

No way in hell. Hall of Famers are just that because they played hard and earned their numbers. Barry Bonds juiced hard and acted like a jerk to everyone who came into contact with him. He doesn't even deserve to play, let alone be given the most prestigious honor in all of baseball.