Gems without a ring: Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds is one of the most intriguing stories in baseball history. To this day, fans are divided on whether he should be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
On one end, Bonds is the only player to have over 500 home runs and over 500 steals in baseball history. He also finished his career with 14 All-Star Game appearances, seven National League MVPs, eight Golden Glove Awards, 12 Silver Slugger Awards, three National League Hank Aaron Awards and two National League Batting Championships. Bonds was also the National League’s home run leader twice, and still holds the records for most career home runs, with 762, and most home runs in a single season, with 73.
Love him or hate him, it is undeniable that Bonds’ career statistics are prolific. However, many refer to him as “The Asterisk ,” and for good reason: The former star of the San Francisco Giants was using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.
Toward the end of his time in Major League Baseball, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found Bonds guilty of using steroids in both “cream” and “clear” forms. The scandal tainted what could have been viewed as one of the greatest careers in baseball history.
Bonds carried the Giants to relevance from 1993 to 2007, a stretch that included three division titles for the team. Although he never tasted the glory of a World Series championship in his career, he did make a World Series appearance in 2002, where Troy Glaus and the Anaheim Angels defeated Bonds and the Giants in a hard-fought seven-game series.
Bonds retired on September 26, 2007, and the San Francisco Giants looked like they were headed for darker days. And yet, three years after Bonds’ last game, the Giants won their first World Series since 1954. This put a positive stamp on a cast of misfits that included Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey.
Although “The Asterisk” never led the Giants to championship glory, he most certainly should be credited for keeping the team in San Francisco.
In 1992, then-owner Bob Lurie agreed to sell the Giants to a Florida group that planned to move the franchise to Tampa Bay. But after protest efforts from local fans and the decisive signing of Barry Bonds for the 1993 baseball season, the Giants stayed in San Francisco.
If Bonds had not left the Pittsburgh Pirates to play for San Francisco when he did, the Giants would have continued to be in the basement of the National League. Poor performance would have encouraged the front office to go ahead with the Tampa move.
Bonds is in Giants folklore as one of the all-time greats. His number, 25, was retired by the team, and he is included on the Giants Wall of Fame.
In spite of all his accolades, baseball fans outside of San Francisco do not look at Bonds as fondly.
Bonds’ critics credit all of those achievements to his use of performance-enhancing drugs. But does that warrant his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame? There truly is no right or wrong answer.
It should be noted that many other outstanding players used performance-enhancing drugs during their careers, including Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco and Alex Rodriguez. Not one of these men has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, though Rodriguez will not be eligible until 2021.
Barry Bonds, love him or hate him, is truly among the gems without a ring.
Photo Courtesy of Dean Coppola
