For all baseball fans around the world they know the name Barry Bonds. They know how great of a player he was when he was playing whether it was his time with the Pirates or his time with the Giants, he is known as one of if not the greatest player to ever play the game by many fans and players. So the question is why should this even be a question? By looking at this from the surface it is no doubt that he should be but when you dive into what he did both on and off the field the question becomes much harder to answer. 

Stats 

The first argument is stats. You look at his stats from when he played and they just scream out at you as wow! The guy could play ball better than anybody. His 22 years in the league is an accomplishment that not many people have accomplished in their baseball careers. The fact that in this 22 years he only had a batting average below .250 twice both times coming in the first few years of his career and never having an on base percentage below .320 in his entire career both of those are remarkable in a career that lasted as long as it did. 

Now everyone knows about his home runs. The guy has hit more than anyone else has in the entire history of baseball. He’s hit more than Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Alex Rodriguez. Not only has he hit more total home runs in a career then anyone else but also more home runs in a single season then anyone else has. His 73 home runs in a single season still holds up to this day as the most ever in a single season. 

His career batting average is .298 which is very good and he had over 2900 hits in how whole career. The most impressive stat I found was that his On Base Percentage was .444 for his whole career meaning that he went on base over 40% of the time throughout his whole career. He also leads all of MLB history in total walks for a career. His OPS for his career is 1.051 which is just insane for any player to have over a 1.000 OPS for a season. It is a very good season for that player Barry’s career OPS is over that mark. He is the only member of the 500/500 club meaning that he is the only player in history to hit at least 500 home runs as well as steal a base at least 500 times in his career. 

Now these are just his counting stats and just looking at those any person in their right mind would say that is one of the best players ever he should be in the hall of fame and this is without mentioning his accolades. He has twice as many MVPs in his career as the person with the second most. Barry got an astonishing 7 MVPs in his career with no one else ever eclipsing three MVPs in their career. He was also a 12 time silver slugger, a 14 time all star, had 2 batting titles, and 8 gold gloves all in his 22 year career. 

Outside the stats

What Barry Bonds did for the game of baseball cannot be understated the man was one of the reasons for why baseball became so popular in the late 90s to the early 2000s. Barry as well as players like Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa brought baseball back to being one of the most popular sports in America. Many people are quoted as saying that this era of baseball brought baseball back to popularity, those three specifically being the faces of the MLB during this era. Those three players were just hitting baseballs further than anyone ever has and people loved to watch. Not only were they hitting baseballs far but they were hitting more home runs then anyone they hit so many that they were all chasing each other for who would hit the most. When Sammy and Mark were hitting home runs like crazy, everyone was running to their newspapers to see if one of them hit another one. And when Barry hit 73 in a year everyone was watching his games just to see if he would get one more closer to the record and he eventually broke. So if Barry did all this for the game of baseball as well as have amazing, why isn’t he in the hall of fame? 

Steroids 

One of the answers to this question is steroids. Barry Bonds, as good as he was, also took steroids. He was a part of the steroid era of baseball while yes brought popularity back to baseball also brought down the integrity of the sport as all of the best players during that era were all caught for taking steroids during that time. While it is very likely that he didn’t start taking steroids until his years in San Francisco his best years were with the Giants and were also when he was hitting his most home runs. So many people have put an asterisk over his home run records of most in a career and most in a single season. 

Not only did he take steroids in the second half of his career but he has also lied about taking them to this day. But just one look at him from before he took the steroids to after he took the steroids can show a clear indication that he took the steroids. We also have much evidence from the BALCO trials where Bonds’ personal trainer admitted to distributing steroids and also served jail time for the distribution of steroids to multiple people one of those he allegedly distributed to was Barry Bonds. There were also many documents showing that Barry had used steroids; these documents displayed a list of steroids that Bonds had used as well as a calendar documenting his steroid use and the cycle that he was on. While Bonds to this denies these claims still to this day the evidence from these documents as well as the many people that have testified saying that he was one of the many people on steroids in baseball. The other big piece that a lot of people like to use as a claim for why he is actually guilty is how uncooperative he was during the whole investigation. His unwillingness to take a test is a show of guilt. All the evidence does point to him taking steroids but this is not the only reason for why he isn’t in the hall of fame. 

The Media

Oh man the media that dreaded word those dreadful people that can say whatever they want about someone they do not like. The media and Barry Bonds have an infamous hateful relationship towards one another. Barry with or without steroids was the best player in one of the most popular sports in the country and the media with any great player wants to talk to these players. It gives them popularity to talk to one of the most famous sports figures in the country. But Barry refused to talk to the media on multiple occasions and this rubbed the media the wrong way. And so the media does what the media does when when players don’t respect them they only portray the negative about him such as him being arrogant, dismissive, and selfish not only towards them but also to other teammates. 

It was because of this relationship that the steroid allegations came out in the first place. Any chance the media had at portraying Bonds in a negative light they were going to launch at it. Word started going around that Bonds might be on steroids and the media picked it up and ran with it making it one of the most trending things in all of sports at the time. This relationship also made it tough for Barry to get into the hall because those are the same people that vote for who should be in the hall of fame and who shouldn’t be. And like how these people would run negative stories because of his reluctance to talk they also will hold that against him when whether or not to vote for. 

Conclusion/my opinion

Barry Bonds left behind a very complicated and confusing legacy for any casual and hardcore baseball fan to follow. On the one hand he is one of the single greatest talents to ever play the game and brought many fans to the game that are still watching to this day. On the other hand it is overshadowed by the things he did outside of baseball that help translate to the playing field. Ignoring everything outside of baseball including the media and the trials and anything else just looking at baseball in my opinion Barry Bonds does not belong in the hall of fame. As great as he was I believe that one thing will always stain his legacy and that is could have the records he has could he have played as long without the steroids. And if that has to be a question that comes with the case for a hall of famer then they shouldn’t be in it you cannot take things outside the rules and get away with it.