GORDON WHITE: Bonds: Does the Slugger Belong in Hall of Fame?
May 12, 2007
Within a few days or at least a few weeks, Barry Bonds should surpass Hank Aaron's major league career record of 755 home runs. Then Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, the San Francisco Giants and all of Major League Baseball must decide just how to celebrate the occasion, if they celebrate it at all.
Caught up in a myriad of legal matters that include accusations that he used performance-enhancing steroids, a Federal grand jury investigation of possible perjury, a critical look into his tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and unpleasant allegations by a former paramour, Bonds is not your poster boy for the virtues of MLB -- home run record or no home run record.
Bonds' public image is of a man beset by the possibilities of having to answer criminal charges some time in the not too distant future despite being a man with singularly exceptional skills and strengths that have carried him beyond the heights achieved by two of the game's greatest heroes of the 20th century -- Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.
The Giants' left-handed slugger, who makes a habit of depositing baseballs in McCovey Cove beyond the right-field seats at AT&T Park in San Francisco, has not helped his cause with his sullen personality that turns folks off.
Bonds has, as they say in 'B' movies, "clammed up" for years.
Therefore, will baseball be open and willing to celebrate with and for him?
This is just one more mess that organized baseball has created for itself. If Selig and his crowd of owners had not kept their heads in the sand and instead had recognized drug problems among athletes much earlier there might not be these difficulties.
A Federal investigation of BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, and its possible illegal sale and distribution of steroids and other drugs led to the difficulties Bonds finds himself in at this time in his long and often heroic career.
Because of Bonds' athletic achievements, this season should be a time of historic proportions for MLB, as was 1974 when Aaron broke Ruth's career home run record of 714.
Instead MLB finds itself in a quandary. Does MLB praise Bonds or overlook Bonds?
Finally getting the message, Selig last year established a MLB drug investigative staff headed by former Senator George Mitchell. This group, assigned the task to look into steroid and other performance-enhancing drug use by Major League Baseball players, has no subpoena power that could force witnesses to testify. As a result, lawyers have advised numerous players to steer clear of Mitchell right now. Reports within the past week say some players, claiming privacy rights, have refused Mitchell access to their medical records. There is no word on just how Bonds is reacting to the Mitchell inquiry.
Since there is such a cloud of suspicion over Bonds and other MLB players, should the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America elect any of these men to the Baseball Hall of Fame when they become eligible? Do these writers vote into the Hall such players as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and others accused of using steroids when they hit hundreds of home runs in recent seasons?
Of course, Bonds, who will turn 44 in July, can be expected to play in the major leagues for another year or two, particularly if he is traded to an American League team to be a designated hitter. After all, Hank Aaron hit 733 home runs for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and then hit his final 22 home runs in 1975 as a designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American League.
A player becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame five years after retiring from MLB. Thus, it may be no earlier than 2012 and probably about 2014 before Bonds appears on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. One might assume that Bonds' legal problems will be decided one way or another by then, although they have been dragging on now for a number of years. Yet the noose appears to be getting tighter and tighter. It may not be long before either MLB or Federal authorities, or both, move against Bonds and other players.
But if I was still a voting member of the BWAA as I was prior to my retirement from The New York Times, I would vote to put Bonds in the Hall of Fame if his name was on the ballot today.
Despite what has been written about Bonds, including what I wrote here, one thing stands out above all others and it screams to be heard in this troubling time in our nation's history.
Barry Bonds has not been found guilty of any crime and he has not admitted to any crime.
Among the many attributes that make the United States the greatest nation in the world is the fact that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Someone may accuse Bonds of using steroids, accuse him of perjury, accuse him of cheating on taxes, etc. Take him to court and prove it and then I will say he does not deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Barry Bonds, who became only the second person to break Ruth's record of 714 career home runs and is about to break Aaron's 755 homer mark and also set the single-season mark of 73 home runs in 2001, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame -- unless found guilty of some crime or violation of MLB drug policies.
Although suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, Sosa has denied it and so far has not been found guilty of such acts. After years with the Chicago Cubs when he hit most of his home runs, Sosa is now primarily a designated hitter for the American League Texas Rangers, the team with which he began his major league career. Sosa is about to become the fifth man in major league history to hit 600 home runs or more in a career.
I would vote Sosa into the Hall of Fame today if he was eligible and for the same reasons I would vote Bonds in today -- he has Hall of Fame credentials and is innocent until proven guilty.
Palmeiro and McGwire, on the other hand, have been caught using performance-enhancing drugs. McGwire admits to using a drug that was, at the time, permitted by MLB. Any artificial muscle builder is, to me, reason to reject a player for the Hall of Fame. McGwire also refused to answer questions about his past drug use during Congressional hearings into baseball and drugs in March of 2005.
Palmeiro, who used steroids, is not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame since he last played for Baltimore in 2005. McGwire was eligible for the first time last year and was soundly rejected for Hall of Fame membership by the BWAA. Neither of these men is worthy of the Hall.
How about Pete Rose getting into the Hall of Fame? Rose admitted to violating organized baseball's long-standing, No. 1 No-No. He gambled on major league baseball games while a player and a manager, including bets involving his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. For that transgression, MLB and the BWAA ruled he should be kept out of the Hall of Fame.
Rose was declared "permanently ineligible" for MLB in 1989. As such, he is barred from the Hall of Fame eligibility until such time as MLB lifts the ineligible ruling. I am opposed to ever lifting the ban on Rose.
Bonds may be cantankerous, even nasty. That is not a crime. Ty Cobb was one of the nastiest persons and worst racists to ever play MLB. Yet he was one of the half dozen best baseball players the game ever knew. Cobb is in the Hall of Fame where he belongs despite rumors that he gambled on baseball games. Nobody ever proved that against the Georgia Peach.
Major League Baseball also has a big problem it must face eventually. If a player sets records and then is found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs, do his records stand or get thrown out?
I believe a player who uses steroids or other drugs to increase his physical abilities creates false records that should be thrown out. Track and field records are thrown out worldwide if they are found to have been set by an athlete using performance-enhancing drugs. However, Rose's records, that include 4,256 hits in a career, should stand. His gambling had nothing to do with how he got those hits.
Despite all this fuss and bother, Bonds' career home run mark may not last too long, anyway. Sometime this season, Alex Rodriguez, who will be 32 in July, will go over 500 home runs for his career. That puts the Yankees' A-Rod, playing his 12th MLB season, way ahead of where Bonds, Aaron and Ruth were at 32. And don't forget Albert Pujols of the Cardinals who is 27 and has more than 250 home runs in five major league seasons.
Could someone reach 800 home runs in a career without steroids? Probably.
