Pirates' Barry Bonds decision should push Baseball Hall of Fame to change course

Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader, is being inducted into the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame during an Aug. 24 ceremony alongside manager Jim Leyland and catcher Manny Sanguillen.

Bonds spent the first seven seasons of his MLB career with the Pirates, who selected him with the No. 6 pick in the 1985 MLB Draft.

Bonds finished his 22-year MLB career having totaled an OPS above 1.000 in 15 seasons, a slugging percentage above .600 in 12 seasons, and claiming two batting titles (2002 and 2004). He was an eight-time Gold Glove winner, 12-time Silver Slugger, and 14-time All-Star.

Of course, Bonds' induction into the Pirates Hall of Fame has intensified a decades-old debate about his conspicuous absence from Cooperstown. Bonds has continually been denied entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame due to allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. After 10 years on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot, he fell off in 2022. He also wasn't voted in by the Hall of Fame's Contemporary Era Committee.

Pirates' Barry Bonds decision should push Baseball Hall of Fame to change course

It's widely believed that Bonds' alleged steroid use began during the 1999 season, at which point he was a member of the San Francisco Giants.

During his time with the Pirates (1986-92), Bonds was a two-time All-Star who led all of Major League Baseball with 109 runs scored in 1992. He logged 25-plus home runs and 100-plus RBI in each of his last three seasons with the Pirates, and he also led MLB in on-base percentage and slugging percentage two times. Despite just playing seven years in Pittsburgh, Bonds ranks fifth in Pirates franchise history in home runs (176), seventh in slugging percentage (.503), and ninth in OPS (.883).

If his Pirates tenure was really the "pre-steroid" portion of Bonds' career, it could be (and has been) argued that he has earned Baseball Hall of Fame consideration with the numbers he put up those seven seasons alone. Pittsburgh's move to induct him into their franchise Hall of Fame should serve as a reminder of that.

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