| Brandon Contes. 7th August, 2007 - 1:41 pm
 With Barry Bonds standing just one homerun short of becoming the All-Time king, the question stands of how he should be remembered in history.
With answers ranging from the best player in the history of baseball to their ultimate villain, the debate rages on of what people will think of when they hear the name Barry Bonds long after he retires from America's Pastime.
This is arguably the greatest record in all of sports, how can we have Barry Bonds as the champion when there is little doubt that he cheated? Whether or not he actually failed a Major League Baseball drug test is completely irrelevant because he admitted to a Grand Jury that he did take steroids, and no one can argue the evidence against him.
How can a man who was coming off an injury plagued season in 1999 where he batted .262 and was turning 36 years old looking like he was beginning to start the decline of a hall of fame career still not have played his best baseball?
Before the year 2000 Bonds? had a batting average over .320 just once, in 1993. Following the year 2000 Bonds went on to bat .328 .370 .341 and .362 respectively. Before his 36th birthday he had three seasons where he had 40 homers, never hitting more than 46.
It's just not logical for a baseball player to go from being an all-around great player, to an inhumanly great player after he turned 36 years old.
But the argument that still remains is how us fans should remember him and talk to our children and grand-children about him. Bonds would have been a first ballot Hall of Famer had he never taken steroids and just kept his career the way it was before the 2000 season. His numbers were outstanding as he hit for power, hit for average, stole bases, and played great defense.
He was arguably the best player in baseball at the time. However, Bonds cheated, and for that, his legacy and records will be and should be tarnished forever.
Major League Baseball will never take the homeruns away from Bonds, and he will always be ahead of Aaron, Ruth, and Mays on the all-time homerun list, but through word of mouth it will never be forgotten that Bonds cheated to get all the homeruns he has.
There's no doubt that Bonds was a great and talented ball player who accomplished great feats before the steroids. But, there is also no doubt that Bonds would not have set the records he did without the steroids. So when Bonds comes to your team's city you can cheer him for what he accomplished, and boo him for how he accomplished it.
In the end it doesn't really matter, as long as we all remember and respect those who were true to the game: Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Griffey, Robinson, and everyone else who tried to keep the purity and integrity of baseball.
Like Bonds said in 2001, "The balls I used to line off the wall are lining out [of the park]. I can't tell you why. Call God. Ask Him."
But now we don't have to call God, because we know exactly why those balls went out of the park. |
