Personally, I say just let all the armchair has beens, never weres and never will bes both in the media and on this thread take their potshots. Those of us fortunate enough to have watched Bonds over the last 20 + years (including high school) know that whether you like him or not, whether he used illegal substances in the last several years or not, we've been watching something special. If he was crazy enough to use things that would slightly enhance his performance and possibly hurt him later, he's really only hurt himself. The enhancers don't explain the quick wrists, the pitch selection and the awesome swing. They may have helped him swing a bit harder, and hit the ball a bit farther, but they didn't make him a star. He was already a star before any charges were made, and there was any accusation of steroid use.
All the know it alls who think they should control whether he goes into the hall of fame, or has an asterick in the record books are free to make their comments and spew their statistics, but in the end, Barry is still one of the greatest ballplayers of all time. Get over it!
You, sir, are merely trying to make excuses for him, much like parents do for children who do wrong. Barry doesn't deserve his record if he sets it, period!
There's no need to actually print the asterick [sic] in the record books. His career is forever tainted. There's nothing he or anybody else can do about it.
And that's just as it should be.
I think Drysdale or Gibson would have buzzed him and knocked him on his pincushion ass a few times.
True, although he's always been a self-centered racist. The point is, he had NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER of topping Babe Ruth until his head literally swelled and he started cheating in 1998. His homerun record is a fraud, and we all know it.
They do after he was clearly on the downside of his career, which was apparent in the '98 and '99 season. Barroid has used a bunch of chemical crap to fight what gets all of the great ones eventually; age. Bat speed and legs go fast among athletes once the hit 35 - 40 (depending on conditioning).
They may have helped him swing a bit harder, and hit the ball a bit farther, but they didn't make him a star. He was already a star before any charges were made, and there was any accusation of steroid use.
And that is the sad thing -- he was a lock for the HoF had his career followed times natural course and fizzled out sometime in the 2000-2002 season. Now, he is facing the real possibility that the wonderful 5 tool player he was for most of a 15 year career will be nullified by the other-wordly, artificial prolonging and yes, enhancing of his time in what should have been the sunset of his MLB career.
Having said that, it is probably good that he was not so obviously juiced playing back in the 60's or 70's. The game I grew up watching was very much self-regulated--had Barroid been playing in that era, putting up the numbers he did in 2001-2004, he probably would have gotten his walks alright, but he would have hit dirt four times for each walk. And probably gotten drilled badly many times during the season by guys like Catfish Hunter, Bob Gibson, Don Sutton, and Nolan Ryan.
I would'nt mind seeing some "self-regulation" come back to MLB, but that would mean getting rid of the DH, of course.