Barry Bond's records deleated?

Question

If Barry Bonds is convicted of lying to the grand jury and goes to jail,should all this records be cut from baseball history books?
Should all his displays at the Hall of Fame be taken down?

Answer 1

Barry Bonds is the greatest power hitter of all time. They should test the politicians and the grand jury for drugs and give them a lie detector test. The politicians should be worried about the economy not entertainment. But back to the questions Bonds records should stand 1st ballot hall of Famer.

Answer 2

Barry Bonds appears to be the 'Teflon Bon' in baseball. He is an egotistical, boldfaced LIAR. We as baseball fans, not anti-Bond fans need to recognize the importance of records. Babe Ruth achieved more home runs in less time and games then Hank Aaron, so at what point do we take records away? However when Barry is found guilty of lying to baseball, himself and the grand jury the ban from the Hall should happen as well as the removal of his records. Just as Marion Jones did, she lied and now has to deal with the consequences. Barry must have the same done to him, removal of any record he currently holds, and any display regarding him needs to be altered at the HOF. In no way shape or form should anyone construe I am a Bonds supporter, as I am NOT, but let the legal system have their say, just as what is happening to Michael Vick. If you play, you must be willing to pay.

Answer 3

Here's the issue with your question.

Bonds lying to the grand jury is a criminal matter, not a baseball one. You can't punish someone in a sport for something they do out in public. (if you did, you would practically need to scrap the entire NFL)

The Hall of Fame, including displays involving Bonds is not supposed to be a tribute to the player as much as it's supposed to be a tribute to the game.

With the exception of Ruth, whos play and ability changed the game, no one player has made a drastic impact to alter the game. The game would have gone on without Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Ted Williams, Mike Schmidt, everyone.

Taking such a drastic and unprecedented step as to erase all contributions of a single player is paramount to saying that Bonds was bigger than the game. We'd be in denial if we did that.

Even if the 'record' didn't have an asterisk, two things are foremost in my mind.
1) I know the difference and certainly will pass that info on whenever the topic of the career or single season record is discussed.
2) I can truly look beyond the single dimensional # like 762 or 755 and look to the effort required to accomish the task.

Home runs are easier to hit. Therefore, it took less of an accomplishment for Bonds to get to 762 than it did Aaron to get to 755. I am ok with that.

Why do players do the steroids. To perform better for a stronger marketing position,. ie money.
Instead of a suspension, I would rather a steroid test (which now must be increased to include blood tests and have them unannounced), suspend a players right to negotiate a contract longer than one year, more than league minimum and it can't have ANY performance bonuses.

So, you do and get caught using steroids, you have, for the rest of your career, minimum baseball wage, one year at a time, no benefit for winning anything.

I believe that will truly deter people.

Answer 4

You just can't simply delete his records, without it affecting something else. It would be too complicated to figure out the adjusted ERA's, if you erase the records, then what happens if pitchers were taking steroids, do u add the hits the players they got out, then you have to figure out if the hits would change the outcome of the games, it would be a mess.

They should do four things:

1) Put an asterisk next to each player's names & stats, that took steroids.

2) Have the original record stand, as the record to beat. Example Hank Aaron's record will still be the all time HR record of 755, but with an asterisk that the record was broken by Bonds using steroids or whatever record was broken by whomever.

3) Ban them for life from entering the HOF.

4) They forfeit the remainder of whatever their current contract is, and ban them from ever playing in MLB again.

Answer 5

What does lying to a grand jury have to do with Bonds' baseball records? If he lied about taking steroids, he lied about taking steroids, but he still accomplished what he did on the field. You can't just pretend he didn't get all those walks and hit all those home runs and have a remarkable lifetime OBA. Life doesn't work that way.

People already have very strong opinions about Bonds. Heck, just look at how many people on here already say they don't consider him the home run king. His legacy is heavily tainted and removing records or taking a bat of his from the Hall of Fame won't tarnish it more.

Answer 6

There is neither precedent, nor a meaningful point, to such an action.

Data is a poor choice for political agenda-fulfilling tool.

The Hall and its Museum are a separate entity from MLB with a charter to detail and document the history of baseball. Bonds is undeniably a part of baseball history, and to pretend otherwise would be a disservice to the public and more politlcal agenda-fulfilling. Besides, they'd need to toss out the many Rose and few Jackson artifacts first, yes?

Oh, hey, when is the 1919 World Series going to be stricken from the record?

Answer 7

I think a lot of HOF voters are hoping he gets convicted, so that baseball would have an excuse to ban him from entry. I'm sure many voters are worried about not voting for him if nothing is ever proven. Many may even be worried about not voting for him even if it is proven, since he was on track for a HOF career before his amazing transformation. So if MLB takes it out of their hands, they'd be relieved. If it happens, his records would probably be given an asterisk, and not considered the "real" record. Hopefully the investigation baseball is conducting will name names, and not just of current players, so that Aaron and Maris will go back to being recognized as the record holders.

Answer 8

His records should have an * by them. You could delete them and it doesn't mean you'd have to adjust everyone else's records too or reverse games he had the winning run in. Saying you "HAVE" to is just dumb... no one HAS to do anything. Taking Barry's #'s away would make a great point to the world, and all games and other stats would stand. However an asterisk is more likely to occur. His Hall of Fame chances are 0% now though. He has no right to be in the Hall until Shoeless Joe, Ron Santo, Bert Blylevin, Jose Canseco, Pete Rose, and Tommy John go in and they pull Kirby Puckett out. Until then no HOF for Bonds.

Edit: I think Pedrooch's lifetime ban is a little harsh. A lot has to do with WHEN they took steriods. It was legal for a very long time. A ban for not even breaking the rules is absurd. Asterisks should be put on their records and the old records should stand. Maris is the single season holder and Aaron is the career holder (providing we find Mark and Barry guilty from future events)

We can talk all we want to about it now, but I say lets see how the court case goes against Bonds and let's see who is named in the Mitchell report. There will be PLENTY of time to talk about this when we have 1000% more facts.

Answer 9

They won't delete his records, but he will be banned from baseball like Pete Rose. Pete Rose is still the total hits leader, and is listed as such in the Hall. Bonds will be listed similarly.

Answer 10

dude.................I went to the hall of fame recently. I hate all the politic crap around barry. He is one of the greatest hitters to ever pick up a bat. Hey Mark mcgwire used rhoids and he didn't even hit 600 HRs. Its the form of the hitters that matter, not the strength