Joel Achenbach looks at Barry Bonds from another direction:
No one has ever done what Barry Bonds did at the plate. Even in a league rife with steroids he has stood out as leaps and bounds better than everyone else. That’s why he has to go into the Hall even if people think that he’s a steroid cheater. We judge athletes against their competition. Even steroids don’t let your average superstar win seven, count ’em, seven MVP awards. If steroids make such a big difference than how come Jose Canseco never reached 500 home runs for his career? Canseco never managed to hit 50 home runs in a season, much less the 73 that Bonds hit to set that all-time record. Bonds has inspired more fear in pitchers than Canseco, McGwire and Sosa combined. He became, in his late 30s, so dangerous at the plate that he deformed the basic principles of pitching. Last year he walked 232 times, which is absurd, and by far the all-time record, but what’s stunning is that, of those, 120 were “intentional” walks, meaning the pitcher didn’t even pretend to want to pitch to him. Pitchers basically gave up.
Even if we believe that Bonds took steroids and that by doing so betrayed the game, the fact of the matter is that Bonds has been at the center of the steroid controversy not because he abused them in any special way. It’s because he’s a lot better than everyone else.
“He has to go into the Hall even if people think that he’s a steroid cheater.”
Huh? Cheating is cheating. And not just once or twice, but if it’s true, he cheated season after season, every game, every at bat.
“We judge athletes against their competition.”
Really? When it comes to the HOF? Let’s ask Pete Rose…
Speaking of the competition, I think the forgotten player in the steroid hoopla is Ken Griffey Jr. In the early-mid nineties he was the superstar among superstars. Headed for some all-time records. Then, overnight, he got leap frogged by players with huge craniums. He got injured again and again. I wonder how that would have been different if he was working out with Bonds and McGwire. I wonder how Griffey feels about being judged by his competition.
(Then again .. I could care less about steroids in baseball. I saw Bonds hit #698 last year. It was cool. He also walked three times, I think. If we could just got some juice in these pitchers.)