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Barry Bonds: What would you do?

Nov 16th, 2007 by Bill Burt

This is going to be an interesting topic of discussion the next few days, weeks, months and even years: What do we do about Barry Bonds’ records?
If he is guilty, which I assume he is, I strongly believe there has to be an asterisk next to his name and the record set separate from the Hank Aaron and Co.
I also would investigate Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, to verify if their records would be moved to another category from the “Steroids Era.”
That would mean Aaron and Roger Maris would again own the most sacred stats in baseball, home runs for a career (755) and season (61).
I believe others should be questioned, like Roger Clemens, with a bible under their left hand, too. Bonds, while the poster boy, should not be alone in scrutiny.
Basically, I’m saying we should turn this into a full-blown investigation. Let’s find out how massive (or not) the problem of steroids (or HGH) really was.
This is the right time, while the game is still hot, to exorcise these demons. Trust me, Bonds will not go down without taking people with him. My guess is “race” will be a thrown into the equation.
Let’s beat his whining to the punch and be proactive here.
What do you think? Am I being a little too naive or too harsh?

Posted in Red Sox | View Comments

  • http://jddrewrelieffund.blogspot.com Colin

    There’s one thing that makes it tricky to start using asterisks and the like: Bonds would have hit a ton of homers throughout his career even if he didn’t take steroids. How many of his homers can you attribute to his steroid use, and how many can you say he would have hit anyway? Clearly he would not have broken Aaron’s record, and he likely would not have broken McGwire’s single-season mark either. But he’d still be high up there on the all-time list. How far I guess is something the records keepers will have to figure out.

    The other issue is, other than positive tests, there’s no way to prove who did or did not use steroids. MLB will be able to identify some of the cheats, but the reality is that many more will get away with it. As much as everyone takes it as fact that McGwire was on the juice, for example, you can’t just go and strip him of his mark without proof.

  • http://blogs.eagletribune.com/sports/ Bill Burt

    Colin
    There are many tangents we could go with this. To simplify it I say baseball should investigate this even further. After a summation is made on the abuse of “illegal” performance enhancing drugs, then the record book is taken out and salvaged.
    I’m not saying change wins and losses, championships and what not, I’m saying records that should be preserved. There should be a category of some sort of this era. I don’t want to make it sound like an easy chore, because it isn’t. But Bonds should not be the home run king. The drugs he took added at least 150 homers to his charts, in my account.
    Just my opinion.

  • jim

    Hi Bill,

    There is no doubt that a bounty was put on Bonds…as there should be. He is a big ticket item…the home run king. If he lied under oath he will pay and if he did steriods they should take it away. Then Mcguire, Sosa, Palmeiro etc. need to be next.
    Jim -in L.A.

  • Mike

    I think that Barry Bonds deserves to be in the hall of fame and keep his record without an asterisk. It seems like a number of people in his era were doing steroids. He was facing pitchers who also had the advantage of steroids.

    Also it still takes skill to hit a homerun. If you give me some steroids and put me in the batters box t face some major league pitchers I am not just going to hit a homerun.

  • Freddie

    Bill

    If Bond lied to a grande jury, He has committed a crime and should pay the consequences. I do think if he is found to have used steriods, no doubt in my mind that any record he holds is tainted. I also think that any awards should be taken away, first one that comes to mind is the home run record, but it should not stop there. All his MVP awards should be stripped away also. Cheating is cheating.
    I do think it is time MLB needs to put the steriod issues to rest, and develope a Zero tollerance towards any future usage. Lifetime bans for those that are caught would be a pretty good place to start. You “use” you lose. It’s that simple. I find it interesting that betting by players on games like Pete Rose did does not seem to be a problem. Could that be because MLB baseball has a zero tolerence towards it? I would personally say yes to that.

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