Enshrine or Decline: Barry Bonds' case for the Hall of Fame | Outside the Lines 

• Bonds with steroids: HOF • Bonds w/o steroids: HOF • Can you tell the whole story of the MLB without Barry Bonds? No.

Anyone who played in that era (85-2005) must be under suspicion. The fact that they put Big Papi in, who tested positive, and leave others out, is a disgrace. If Bud Selig is enshrined, why shouldn't everyone else be?

It’s funny how they have proof of other cheaters in the HOF but that’s not enough to let bonds in. Hilarious

This is why these nerds who never even whiffed playing collegiate sports should not have the power to determine any of this.

7:34: "I've never voted for Barry Bonds and he's the greatest baseball player I've ever seen" lmao

They are straight up wrong about the race. Bonds is in the same boat as Clemens, who is white. Schiling, who is also white. This isn’t a race issue, it’s stubbornness by the entire writers committee.

Regardless of where you stand, Bonds was never officially caught cheating. Look, I’m not blind, I saw how much he physically changed later his career like everyone else. But MLB never actually proved Bonds did anything illegal because obviously it would have been bad for business. You can’t have it both ways.

HOF committees be like “he had 37 MVP’s, won 80 titles and broke every record, but we didn’t choose him because ..he was a big meanie 😢 and he called me ugly in a press conference”

Barry Bonds is the only 500/500 man ever! The only player with 7 MVP awards! 2x MVP runner up! 8x gold glove winner! The most intentional walks ever! Twice as many as the next guy. Bonds was a God, like Ruth...but way better than Ruth! Bonds had two seasons with 200 walks lol and both of those seasons hit .362 and .370. Not to mention his home runs reign of all time and in a single season! Best WAR ever for a position player! Most walks all time! he would easily have 3300 hits if not for all those walks! 14x all star! 3rd most runs scored ever! 6th most rbi's ever! Would have easily had 2400 rbis if not for all those wlaks. 2nd most times on base ever! All that power, but also more than 500 stolen bases! 78.4% stolen base percentage for a power hitter!

Barry Bonds all-time rankings: 762 Home Runs - #1 2558 BB - #1 688 IBB - #1 1440 Extra Base Hits - #2 5972 Total Bases - #2 1996 RBI - #3 2227 Runs - #3 .444 OBP - #3 1.051 OPS - #4 .607 SLG - #7 601 Doubles - #14 514 SB - #29 2935 Hits - #32 8 Gold Gloves 7 MVP’s He's the 🐐and it's not even close.

Barry Bonds is the best baseball player to have ever lived. The fact that he's not in the hall of fame is why I don't watch MLB baseball anymore.

The Hall of Fame is incomplete without Barry Bonds. The Hall of Fame voting should include Hall of Famers, players and fans. Leaving this up to the media alone is a flaw, as we see here.

I think it's a joke that Jeff Bagwell is a hall of famer when his best friend Ken Caminiti who played with him and was his training partner was admittedly a steroid user and Bagwell was suspected as well. Plus Bagwell was never the one of the best players in his era

Barry Bonds was 5x better than Big Papi and 50x better with the Glove. Big Papi juiced as well as Bonds. Along with thousands of other players. MLB knew it was happening and let it slide. Then they changed and decided to punish the greatest players of a generation. Barry Bonds is far and away the best baseball player of the last 40 years and it isn’t close. AA players, College players, Single A, KBO Players all have taken Steroids. When you assume everyone is on them what are you supposed to do. This is all on Bud Selig and he should have been barred from the HOF before any player ever was. MLB commissioners doing what they do best destroying the game.

He's the GOAT. Put him in the hall already.

They somehow weeded race into this discussion when Ortiz was literally voted in first ballot. I think bonds should be in but it’s ridiculous to play the race card. McGwire isn’t in. Neither is Canseco.

Two points: 1) Bonds was a 40/40 player before any accusations ever came his way. 2) Bonds never failed a drug test.

They really declined Bonds for 10 years but accepted Big Papi, who also abuse roids, in his first year smh

I started watching baseball in the spring of 2020 during corona, I’m from Britain. I was bored so I went on YT and there was a recommendation to watch the final game of the 97’ World Series, I sat there not knowing what was going but I was instantly hooked, I myself love cricket which is also a sport played with a bat and ball. Anyway I started researching, learning the ins and outs of the sport, who are the best players of all time, already knowing Babe Ruth a household name around the planet. Soon after I stumbled onto Barry Bonds name and then I saw his highlights on YT and his career achievements. This guy is the greatest player to slug post World War 2 no doubt about it, his numbers before the PEDs were HoF worthy, in an era where everyone was cheating he still tore them up. PEDs don’t enhance you’re hand eye coordination or your ability to pick a pitch, everyone who doesn’t want him in the HoF are jealous that Barry Bonds was still producing unreal numbers at a time when at least 90% of players, including pitchers, were on the juice. If they believe the PEDs enhanced his game so much , why haven’t his contemporaries got similar numbers as him, one reason they simply weren’t as good as him. Barry Bonds the GOAT. They can keep the Cooperstown Plaque, Barry Bonds is the illest player to walk on deck.

managers should be caught up in that mess too not just players

They are mad because bonds shattered almost every record and he hated the media. That's simply it! Pudge got in and he was named in Cansecos book!! You know Bagwell, piazza, griffy Jr (yes I said it) used them before. Enough is enough... Bonds belongs in the hall of fame! Period!

I have the same disdain for Bonds as I did for Roger Clemens. I am aware athletes cheat, and some of those who cheated are in the Hall of Fame. But there is a difference between the player who occasionally cheated for whatever motive, and the elite player, who didn't need to cheat, but did so on a regular basis. I really blame former Commissioner Selig for not cracking down sooner. It created a gray area that led us into this mess.

The greatest living baseball player today. The most feared baseball player of all time. No player has had a higher OBP than Barry did in 2007 (his last season) he was not on any substance in 2007

Bonds was already a HOF player. The PEDs just made him better. Hope the veterans committee gets him in.

It’s insane that some of these people will dismiss an entire generation of players because they don’t like steroids… you can dismiss it but everyone was doing it… being willing to wipe out an entire generation of players is asinine.

Steroids didn’t make him a great player. It is an asterisk in his career but it should not have prevented him from getting in. Tragedy really.

Barry Bonds should've been in the baseball HOF years ago tbh with you

Was waiting on this one !!

Achieving the 500 HR milestone used to mean automatic entry into the Hall of Fame. Every single player before the steroid era ballplayers were in. In fact, only 6 players who have hit 500 or more home runs are not in the hall of fame - Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa. All six suspected and accused of using banned substances. Most would agree that Barry Bonds was the best all around player of the six. However, how do you extrapolate what a player would or would not have accomplished? How can you determine how much steroids padded each player’s numbers? Many want to jump right out there and completely disregard Sosa’s 609 home runs, although only 9 players have reached that. We laugh at the mention of Gary Sheffield and hall of fame being in the same sentence. We scoff at the fact that Manny Ramirez has 7 more home runs than the great Mike Schmidt. Fact is, I don’t know many folks that see Gary Sheffield as a hall of famer, even though he hit 509 home runs. So, yeah let’s get rid of him. But how can you punish Sheffield without punishing Ramirez or Palmeiro for doing the exact same thing? And then how can you punish those three without punishing, Big Mac, Sosa, and yes even the great Barry Bonds. Either they get punished or they don’t. Either they lose votes because they used banned substances or they don’t. You can’t cherry pick who you are going to punish when they all did the same thing. Above everything, I don’t feel bad for Barry Bonds and I will tell you why. He let his ego get in the way of his trip to Cooperstown. Bonds was jealous of lesser talented players getting more accolades then him. So, like many, he broke the rules. But Barry you jughead! If you had just laid off the steroids, you would have had enough merit in your numbers without the juice to make the hall of fame. Most likely you would have wound up with somewhere between 600 and 700 home runs and still would have been the only player with 500 stolen bases and 500 home runs. Still 2500+ hits, 1500+ RBIs, etc. Point being, HOF numbers if only you didn’t let your head size triple. So no, I can’t feel sorry for a guy who was stupid. The all time Home Run leaders list is littered with fakes and phonies and frankly it is a disgrace to guys like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.

Still the greatest ever!!!! PERIOD!!!!

I don't care what anybody says Barry Bonds was one of the greatest!!!

Im lovin this series 👏 ESPN 🎉

Bonds is not just a hall of famer, he is one of the best ever

This may be a hot take idc: any writer that publicly comes out and says they are not going to vote for guys that use steroids should have their vote taken away. There’s no morality in sports. Some of the worst people were some of the best athletes ever. I agree with what Dusty Baker said

From 1986 to 1999 Barry Bonds was a first-ballot hall-of-famer. You was a career 288 hitter, 445 home runs, 460 stolen bases 8 gold gloves, 8 Allstar appearances three-time MVP in 1990, 1992 and 1993. A 40-40 man. I must say he never won a batting title throughout this era of his career. That's the guy I want going into the Hall of Fame

LET THAT MAN INN, 💪🏾✊🏾

Earth is imperfect, the MLB hall of fame is a testimony of imperfection of character and cathedral in our world. They should look at his 88-92 seasons. Integrity and sportsmanship, it’s the most perfect ballot ever.

Never tested positive & you still have to hit the ball. He need to be in the hof

The fact that he's a 7x MVP award winner (most by any player), being to only player to be in the 400 stolen bases and homeruns club, and hit for 762 homeruns including 73 in 2001 and was not inducted into the Hall of Fame is just beyond me. Just goes to show that the Baseball Hall of Fame is a high school popularity contest.

Bonds best baseball player I ever saw..no one will ever dominate the game like he did

Bonds proved his point, and because of that he has been black listed by the Baseball Hall of Fame writers. He said that it’s ridiculous that Sosa and McGuire who both were using steroids would be in that position if someone like himself was on steroids too, and if he was using steroids he would destroy the record book, and he did, so why again are they shunning him, because he made MLB look bad!

Barry Bond is more deserving of being in the Hall of Fame than any other baseball player that has ever existed. It is shameful that he hasn't ever been inducted. It's why I no longer watch Major League Baseball or support it in any way, shape, or form. Oops. I already commented on this video. LOL.

Tainted Glory, well put.

Barry Bonds = GOAT Belongs in the HOF

You can’t let David Ortiz in the hall without letting Barry Bonds in. Period.

So they let Ortiz in but not Bonds!?!?...I've officially lost the little respect that I had for baseball..

Excellent video!

The writer”s have diminished the MVP and the CY Young Awards forever by not voting Bonds and Clemens in “meaning”the awards no longer have any real weight! SMH 🤦‍♂️

Rose and bonds should be in the hall, and we should protest going there until they’re in

Barry Bonds is the greatest player in the history of the sport.

Let him And Pete Rose in! Nuff said!

The "character clause" was not written to be a criterion for *excluding* a player, but for *including* a player whose stats would not otherwise justify letting him in. Baseball writers have changed the purpose of the character clause because it gives them a fig leaf to cover their petty vindictiveness.

The Hall of Fame is not just a place to honor greatness in the sport (and despite the PEDs Bonds WAS great); it is also the de facto national history museum for baseball. This being the case, I think they are going to have to compromise and build a separate wing onto the place to discuss the PED era and the accomplishments (valid or otherwise) of those players. Bonds breaks my heart because I've always felt that more than any of those other guys he would have accomplished great things and earned his way in without the drugs. Now he'll just have to accept the permanent asterisk by his name. If we are talking about UNJUSTLY keeping people out of the hall, then I think before any of these PED guys go into even a special wing, it's way past time to give Pete Rose his due already.

I'm irrate. I can't believe the writers.... BONDS DESERVES IN.

If you have won 7 MVPs, you are a Hall of Famer PERIOD

I'm 34 and Barry Bonds is the best I've ever seen hands down. I get the whole steroid deal but considering that it was rampant throughout the entire league (pitchers included) he still deserves his recognition. The players that have the stats and accolades deserve a HOF spot regardless. Put asterisks next to their records but don't remove them from baseball altogether. You're punishing an entire generation of players and fans. TBH it's a big reason the MLB has lost some of its fan base. Like it or not the MLB was at its best and most exciting in the late 90's early 2000's

Top 20 all -time hitters.... Definitely deserves in

Bonds should be in the HOF. I don't care what the writers say. Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame.

Unlike the NFL, where steroid usage can "enhance" strength/speed (e.g., "juiced" Von Miller in SB50), it does nothing for hand/eye coordination. Put Bonds in.

The HOF is either going to regain its significance or become a huge joke at 6pm today.

Decline; writers did the right thing with both Clemens and Bonds

Crazy how the sports writers voted him MVP all those times yet won't vote for him to get into the Hall of Fame.

Look, it's simple. If there are anyone in the HALL that has used anything illegal to enhance performance then yes, he shouldn't suffer

Give Barry what he deserves, one of the greatest hitters ever and he still can’t get a seat at a table he belongs at smh get it together baseball ⚾️

I would've inducted Lofton, Kent, Damon, Mcriff, Sheffield all before Bonds Clemens but those guys were HOF already clean then blew up their numbers when everyone had to at the time

Cheaters cheat, Cheaters lose. Not a hard theory to grasp for most people.

I would love to see the writers who didn't vote for Barry that voted for Papi. Let them be known. Especially the ones who said never to PED users.

He was a Hall of Famer before the steroid talk

The baseball hall of fame isn’t complete without great players like bonds and Clemens. I don’t understand how a person with a positive result gets in but players who did not produce a positive test are crucified…..and don’t get me started on a commissioner at the time who knew there was an issue and turned a blind eye…honestly the process of getting elected sucks you got guys who voted just for the players from the teams they cover people who voted for bs players….it makes be wanna say screw the hall it’s not factually true anymore

Couldn't we just punish him in the record books? Put an asterisk beside each of his records and his career numbers. He wouldn't have reached those numbers without steroids, anyone with sense knows that. But if you're old enough to remember, his first eye-popping number wasn't his home run records, but actually it was being the first player to reach 400 home runs and 400 stolen bases. I think he is STILL the only player to do that (except it's actually over 500 stolen bases now). And he did that clean. That's a Hall of Fame player, no question.

For 22yrs. Bonds dominated, also he told reporters time & again I got nothing too say to you, that being said he he'll never win a personality contest but he got the resume for the H.O.F..

@2:16 "At some point that entire ballot was gonna be all players who played in the steroid era. And then I always asked myself 'What are you gonna do with that when the time comes?' because I'm not voting for steroids guys." Well, sounds like you answered your own question there genius.

Most kids in this generation don't even know who barry bonds is because they done basically wiped him out of baseball history. Us older folks know who he was but the generation after us is lost.... WHO IS BARRY BONDS??? They never heard of him

tons of cheaters in there already, get it over with and let him in, was it ok? no.... but many players were doing it, the Vets know whats up

Barry would have been a 500/500 man even without a well-balanced breakfast. An extra helping of eggs doesn’t help someone’s plate discipline or ability to hit a baseball. Barry deserves to be in the Hall. That’s not to say every good player from the steroid era deserves to be in-far from it-but Barry does.

How do we know that Ortiz didn't juice during his time in the Majors... 🤨

Many forget he was a 3 time mvp and 6 time golden glove PRIOR to his time in San Francisco!!!!!!

Bonds wasn't liked by the media, opposing teams' fans. But he was the best player and was often the bigger story than the teams he played on. That is why he never won a world series.

Barry Bonds, Sosa and Clemens should be in the HOF, but haters are gonna hate.

A hall of fame without Pete Rose is incomplete

I love how writers say bonds isn't a hof player when they couldn't hit one pitch in the mlb

I mean honestly the best players should be in the hall of fame. MJ is the goat of basketball and Barry bonds was more dominant in his sport than MJ. You can’t have your best player not in the hall of fame

LET MY MANS IN. HE DESERVES IT

Not even a giants fan or a bonds fan but this guy deserves HOF

If Barry Bonds can’t get in for steroids, at least don’t punish Reggie Stocker too! Let Reggie in, they were all clean dingers! I almost forgot about John Dowd, HOF’r as well!

His case is that he’s basically the best baseball player of all time

What a tragedy. Forever locked out of the Hall of Fame, and we now all now know it should be called the Hall of Hypocrisy.

Literally thought that dude Howard Bryant was Ryan Howard 😂

The goat 🐐

Agreed Bonds by far regardless is the most talented player ever !!!

Barry Bonds, Pete Rose and Roger Clemons all belong in the Hall of Fame.. say whatever you want.. I bet everyone in every era did something to enhance performance.. prove me wrong…

There are no words to describe my contempt for people like Howard Bryant.

Him and pete needed to be in a decade ago.

All these writers clutching their pearls, it’s disgraceful that Bonds isn’t in while people like Piazza are. Selig too

From what I can tell Barry didnt have a bad character he just didnt play along with the sports writers games that they play and just wanted to be left alone . That is not a reason to keep him out of the HOF. The different sports HOFs are just making themselves irrelevant now with their nonsense SMH

This man is the GOAT!

ASU boy Berry Bonds is one of the greatest of all time not even close very sad!

Barry bonds > anyone in the hall of fame is what ill tell my kids and maybe grandkids.

The baseball HOF is a mockery without Barry Bonds in it.

It's like these writers are convincing themselves to not do the right thing, which is vote for Barry Bonds to be in the Hall of Fame.