Few people in baseball know Barry Bonds as well as Dusty Baker, who is the manager of the Houston Astros.
But for a good portion of Bonds’ career in San Francisco, Baker was his boss. In fact, Bonds was a Giant for Baker’s entire managerial career in the Bay Area, and Baker’s playing career ended the year that Bonds broke into the Majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
So, naturally, Baker has some opinions on the worthiness of Bonds when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which held its most recent induction ceremony on Sunday.
The Hall inducted seven players, including former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who reportedly tested positive for steroids in 2003.
Bonds wasn’t inducted. He’s been on the ballot for 10 years. Under normal circumstances, Bonds would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Bonds does hold the all-time record for most career home runs (762) and single-season home runs (73).
But Baker knows Bonds’ circumstances aren’t normal, and he made it clear he’s not in favor of Bonds’ exclusion.
“Same way Jeff Kent didn’t get in,” Baker said. “Same way Pete Rose doesn’t get in. Same way Roger Clemens doesn’t get in. The voters like guys of high character, guys with no marks or any suspicions about their reputation — or maybe it’s how you treated the media.”
Bonds’ career ended under a cloud of suspicion that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his time in San Francisco and was implicated in the BALCO scandal. While Bonds never tested positive for steroids or any other PED, he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice as a result of the federal government’s investigation of BALCO.
Bonds was eventually found guilty on one count of obstruction of justice and received 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service. That conviction was overturned in 2015.
Kent never tested positive for PEDs, but he played in Bonds’ era and to some Hall voters that taints his numbers. Clemens was connected to a scandal related to PEDs and tried for obstruction of Congress, while Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling on baseball.
“There was none better than Barry," Baker added. "When you talk about the best of that era, people always want you admit this or that. Well, Mark McGwire admitted and he’s not in. He should be in, too.”
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