Barry Bonds was arguably one of the best baseball players of all time. He had a career batting average of .298, on base plus slugging percentage of .444, a slugging percentage of .607, an on base percentage of 1.051, and hit a career total of 762 home runs. These monster stats are tainted, however, by allegations that he used steroids.  Even if he did, does he deserve to be in the national Baseball Hall of Fame? I think yes.  Let me tell you why. 

Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have all been kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame because they were some of the many players during the steroid era. There’s very strong reasoning why Sammy Sosa and McGwire shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. According to ESPN, Sosa and Mark McGwire both started taking steroids at around the beginning of their careers. Barry Bonds differs from this because he started taking them in 1997, so he was steroid free for ten years. 

If we take out Bond’s years of steroid use and add up all of his stats from those ten years he would still be HOF caliber with a career BA .293, 318 homers, .410 OBP, a slugging percentage of 0.618, and an OPS of 1.028., a total of 1,750 hits, 417 stolen bases, and 1,094 RBIs. These numbers are more than enough for a golden plaque in Cooperstown. 

According to the MLB,  Bonds has also made 14 All Star appearances, won eight Golden Gloves, and was MVP of the National League seven times, which is four more than any other baseball player in history. 

Another reason why Bonds deserves to be inducted is because there are other Hall of Fame players that were involved in steroid use that arguably to fall short compared to Bonds. For example, first ballot Hall of Famer David Ortiz in 2003 tested positive for performance enhancing substances. There were rumors in 1999 of PED use around catcher Iván Rodriguez, and former 1st baseman Jefferey Bagwell was caught using steroids in 1994.  Both of them are in the Hall of Fame.  So why is Bonds the exception?