The Baseball Hall of Fame had its 2023 induction ceremony on Sunday, and the two newest members are Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen. Both players deserve to be enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, but will the MLB’s all-time home run leader be in their shoes soon? Barry Bonds recently appeared on the Hollywood Swingin‘ podcast with Stephen Bishop and Jerry Hairston Jr. and said he should be in the Hall of Fame.
“People have to understand something is that the fact is that I was vindicated,” Bonds said, per Fox News. “I went to the court. I was in federal court, and I won my case. One hundred percent. Where is the vindication of me in my own sport? That’s what bothers me.”
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Bonds has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs and admitted to using BALCO “cream” but the 59-year-old says he has never taken steroids or has failed a drug test while playing. Bonds went on to say the writers are pushing him despite not being any proof of him taking any steroids or committing a crime.
“Major League Baseball, and let’s get this clearly and straight, hasn’t had a rule, and has rules, whether they were broken or not broken, there were rules, some rules,” he said. “My era, there was no rules. They changed the rules in 2003 or 2004, whenever the rules started to change, there was rules. There’s some people that were convicted of those rules during the case of those rules.
“Well, Major League Baseball said if you did X, you were suspended for X. … His numbers still are the same based on what he has accomplished that does not prevent him from the other part of getting into the Hall of Fame. It has nothing to do with it. … Major League Baseball already punished you for those stints. Why is the Hall of Fame punishing me? It doesn’t make sense. It makes zero sense that you’re being double-punished for something that you’ve already been punished for. I belong with my teammates in that Hall of Fame. One hundred percent.”
Bonds played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986-1992 and the San Francisco Giants from 1993-2007. He’s the all-time leader in home runs with 762 and also has 2,935 career hits, a batting average of .298 and drove in 1,996 runs. Bonds was selected to the All-Star team 14 times and won the NL MVP award seven times. 2022 was Bonds’ final year on the Hall of Fame Ballot, and he earned 66 percent of the vote from writers. A player needs 75 percent of the vote to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
