Barry Bonds, A Tale of Two Hall of Fame Careers

 

There is little argument to be made that Barry Bonds, son of Bobby Bonds and Godson of Willie Mays, is one of the most dominant baseball players to ever play. Starting out in Pittsburgh with the Pirates and later with the San Francisco Giants, Bonds ended his storied career with 7 total MVPs, 3 more than the next on the list, 12 Silver Sluggers, and 8 Gold Gloves. No one has more MVP awards to their name; no one has hit more home runs, and no player has accumulated a higher WAR in the modern baseball era. 

    

Bonds is one man, but his career can be separated into two distinct categories: the non-steroid one and the steroid one. From the years 1986 to 1998, before the use of PED's, Bonds had already won 3 MVP awards and was one of the most dominant athletes in the sport. The average Hall of Famer has around 66 career WAR, and Bonds during this time had one over 110. He was great with the bat and the glove, and he knew it. Known for his attitude and cockiness, Bonds was never known to be kind to the media and would walk around with a chip on his shoulder, something that certainly didn't help his case for the Hall of Fame. In another timeline, one in which Bonds had stopped playing after 12 seasons, the case for his induction would be much stronger.

Barry would go on to put up numbers that kids do when they create a player in a video game. Breaking records, winning awards, feeling great about himself. The home run king was living on cloud 9, before it all came crashing down. The steroid era in MLB was not an exclusive problem for Bonds. A shockingly large number of stars in the league were being outed for having used steroids, and Bonds was unfortunately at the center of it. Other people who had taken PED's during this time could justify it by wanting to get that big guaranteed contract, but Bonds did it to be the most dominant athlete the sport had ever seen. In a league where a large number of players were using steroids, Bonds was another level above the rest, and it showed with his stats, with your eyes when you watch, and if you still didn't believe both of those, he'd tell you himself.

The numbers don't lie, but a tarnished career is still a tarnished career. The story of baseball can not be told without Barry Bonds, but according to the Baseball Writers Association of America, he will never be celebrated in the way that many would argue he deserves. Instead, Barry Bonds joins the list of infamy, along with fellow baseball player and great pitcher Roger Clemens, and notable stars of other major sports whose legacies are altered, like Lance Armstrong, and the countless Olympic athletes who were either banned from competition or had their awards taken away.

How should modern baseball fans view Bonds' legacy? That question is still debated today, even though it's been over 25 years.