The San Francisco Giants announced this week that they will be retiring the No. 25 this summer in honor of Barry Bonds. Bonds, who has one of the most complicated careers in baseball history, is still being kept out of Cooperstown by his peers.
Bonds finished eighth in the Hall of Fame voting this year, bringing in a 56.4 percent, just three percent higher than 2017. With that small of a change, it does not look like he will be getting in any time soon. His stats and accolades are there, but the hall still eludes him.
Does the Giants’ acceptance help his case?
The announcement that the Giants stand with Bonds comes over a decade after he ended his career. With the accomplishments Bonds had, you would think that San Francisco would not hesitate to honor him. However, the amount of time it took to reach this point symbolizes just how iffy they were on the whole thing.
The fact that the Giants will spend a day this summer honoring Bonds’ career does mean something. It means that there are parts of the baseball community that accept the situation and still feel that he deserves to be honored, and they are right. Barry Bonds absolutely deserves his day because even before he became a juiced up version of himself, he was still playing at Hall of Fame standards.
The question at hand though is whether or not the Giants changed anything by planning to retire his No. 25. The answer is yes.
San Francisco has accepted Bonds for who he is and all the luggage and flak that comes along with supporting the all-time home run king. Yes, there are reasons to keep him away from the hall. However, they are not good enough to warrant some of the other players getting in over him.
Should the steroids matter anymore?
Many players have been thrown in with lots of guys that were users during the steroid era. Even Edgar Martinez may be feeling some of the repercussions of the steroid era as he has falling just short of reaching the hall, despite never being accused of taking performance enhancing drugs.
Many baseball fans are quick to call steroid users cheaters and disgraces to the game. Yes, many performance enhancing drugs are banned by baseball. Many of these give guys more energy, drive and an extra kick to go even harder in the gym.
All the lifting and working out is absolutely going to make it easier for players to get stronger and hit the ball a lot further away. It may not be fair to players who do not have the same access to these drugs or do not want to break the rules. However, do these drugs really warrant keeping some of the best players ever out of the hall?
Many people who are already in the Hall of Fame have had sketchy pasts. There are all sorts of cheating, immoral racists in the hall as it is today. Cap Anson is largely responsible for segregating baseball, as he would not step on the same field as an African-American player.
Of course everybody lived in different times and by different standards. But why should the writers ignore that, but focus on the performance enhancing drugs?
Steroids rejuvenated baseball
This is going to be an unpopular statement, but steroids helped bring baseball back.
After the 1994 strike, baseball was suffering some of its worst support in history. Before the strike, there was no doubt baseball was still towards the top in popularity in the United States. However, the strike did not help their cause as many players were deemed greedy for wanting to boost their already enormous paychecks.
Steroids, while they may have been unethical, brought a new sort of excitement to the game. Guys were hitting balls out of the park like never before, and it filled the stadiums back up again. The home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, along with Bonds’ chase to catch Hank Aaron, brought in all sorts of viewership.
The steroid era in baseball may be looked back on as controversial, but it did provide a necessary boost for the game.
This all comes back to whether or not the Giants have done something to help Bonds this week. Well, of course it is nice that he will be getting a day to be remembered. It will also serve as a signal that some of baseball is willing to let bygones be bygones though.
Featured image from CBS News
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