Doug Glanville: Why I’m glad Barry Bonds wasn’t elected to the Hall of Fame

I don’t see why this distinction cannot be made who took PEDs and also had a record-setting impact. If we want to recognize PED users in the Hall, we can build them an exhibit, or even their own wing. We should acknowledge all of our history, both glorious and ugly. Like I am, with my paper, they can be in the Hall—as a fixture and as a recognition of their accomplishments. But I don’t see why they need a plaque.

What we celebrate—what we enshrine—should have a different set of criteria. We cannot treat induction into the Hall as simply an act of historical graduation—automatic entry into the Hall because the numbers are in record books—especially when the inductees did not stand on the shoulders of their predecessors so much as trample them into the ground with glee.

This is how society too often frames history: The winners tell the stories and end up on the pedestal. But how they get there matters, and if we put PEDs on a pedestal, it is one built with bricks etched with the names of many players left in their wake who also have compelling stories to tell.

Every record that Bonds broke was against another player. Bonds faced pitchers, just as Roger Clemens faced hitters. And the fact that so many baseball players—myself included—had to consistently try to beat out people who had a constant advantage is not something I can brush off simply because their final numbers made our eyes pop out of our heads.

Examining Barry Bonds’ slam-dunk Hall of Fame resume before he was linked to steroids

Simply for the purposes of entertainment, we’re imagining that Bonds was done playing after the 1998 season. Here’s the case we have:

In 13 seasons, he hit .290/.411/.556. That’s good for a 164 OPS+, which would be 14th all-time, ahead of players like Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, Frank Thomas, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson and we can probably stop now. Sure, most players have a decline phase that takes them backward in these rate stats and at age 33, Bonds hadn’t done so, but it shows where he was.

In those 13 seasons, he led his league in runs once, home runs once, RBI once, walks five times, on-base percentage four times, slugging three times, OPS five times, OPS+ four times, total bases once and position-player WAR seven times. Oh, and he was feared. He led in intentional walks seven years.

He won three MVPs (1990, 1992, 1993) and finished second once. He had seven top-five finishes in MVP voting. The three MVPs would be tied for the most ever with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Musial and Foxx.

He also had, again, in 13 seasons, eight Gold Gloves and seven Silver Sluggers. The eight Gold Gloves are a record for left fielders and he won them within these 13 seasons.

Sporting News: The 50 Greatest Seasons in Sports History

With this ranking, we looked through The Sporting News’ long history — we were founded in 1886 — to find the greatest individual seasons in sports history. They might sometimes lack the drama of the moments, but they showcase the level of dominance needed to succeed over the grind of a season.

1. Shohei Ohtani, 2021
Numbers (as a hitter): 46 homers, 100 RBI, 26 SB, 158 OPS+, 4.9 bWAR
Numbers (as a pitcher): 3.18 ERA, 23 GS, 130 1/3 IP, 98 H, 156 K, 4.1 bWAR

The greatest father-son duos in MLB history

1. Bobby Bonds (57.9) and Barry Bonds (162.7)

No player in MLB history has racked up more WAR as a position player than the younger Bonds, a seven-time MVP Award winner who owns the single-season and career home run records and pretty much rewrote baseball in the early 2000s. Only allegations of performance-enhancing drug use have kept him waiting for Cooperstown’s call. And while Barry overshadows his father, Bobby shouldn’t be underrated. The two Bondses are the only two players in history to combine for at least 300 career home runs with at least 400 steals, as well as the only two to go 20-20 in 10 different seasons.

Not as great: Assessing Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens without the PED factor

According to OPS+, which measures a player’s ability to get on base and hit for power and normalizes for the effect of various parks, Bonds was unquestionably one of the game’s great players during the first half of his career, when he had seven consecutive seasons of 170 or higher.

But after he started PEDs, he became otherworldly, particularly once he connected with BALCO. In those four seasons, his OPS+ was 259, 268, 231 and 263—giving him three of the five highest seasons ever, surpassed only by Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson. Bonds is No. 4 on the all-time career list, with a 182 average OPS+.

But according to ZiPS, those cartoonish four seasons would have been replaced with 156, 144, 115 and 95; and his career OPS+ would have settled at 153, placing him tied for 30th.