Why Barry Bonds Deserves Your Respect

You've probably already made up your mind on what you think of Barry Bonds. And that's perfectly fine, the man has been around the game for 21 years and if you haven't made up your mind yet, this little entry isn't going to make a difference. But whether you hate him or not, I'm going to tell you why you have to respect him as one of the greatest players of all-time. This argument isn't as simple as the number of home runs someone has hit. This is about what Bonds has done relative to the juiced-ball/steroid generation, and why he deserves your respect.

First, a quantitative look at how Bonds' home run numbers have compared to the rest of the steroid generation. Here are Barry Bonds' home run totals from 1993-1998 (projected to 162 games for the lockout in 1994-1995), the last six years before he allegedly began using steroids:
1993-1998: 46, 52, 37, 42, 40, 37, average: 46 homers/year
The six subsequent years:
1999-2004: 34, 49, 73, 46, 45, 45, average: 49 homers/year
Likewise, the league average per player (assuming every home run is hit by a starter) over that period:
1993-1998: 17, 20, 19, 21, 19, 20, average: 19 homers/year
1999-2004: 22, 21, 21, 20, 20, 21, average: 21 homers/year

Therefore, on average from 1993-1998, Bonds averaged 2.204 times more than the average player in home runs. And from 1999-2004? 2.300 times more than the average player in home runs. What does this 4% relative increase mean? It means that he averaged 2 more home runs a year over a 6 year span, a grand total of 12 home runs. What does this mean? It means that, given our understanding that a significant portion of the baseball community was on steroids, that Bonds' increase in power was almost directly correlated to the overall trend in baseball as a whole - thus indicating that he had no unfair advantage.

The objective of this argument isn't to say that Barry Bonds didn't use steroids. In all likelihood, he most likely did - after all, how does a hitter improve his production after age 35? There aren't any natural reasons for this. But while writers like ESPN's Patrick Hruby and his gang of scientists can do all the fancy physics to prove that Bonds actually has 616 home runs (a number which is completely baloney, and should be marked with, what else?... *), the fact of the matter is that baseball evolves. It has seen the Dead Ball era, where pitchers like Cy Young carved out their niche, and the more recent Juiced Ball era, where guys like Bret Boone could magically turn into 35+ home run hitters (and coincidentally hit just 7, two seasons after).

The argument that Bonds' home run total deserves an asterisk is completely ludicrous. Does Babe Ruth have an asterisk for not facing Black/Latino/Asian pitching? No. The Bambino accomplished his marvelous achievements within the realm of his current day baseball - when only white players were allowed to play. He shouldn't be punished for this - and Barry shouldn't be punished when reports indicate a significant portion of ballplayers used steroids a few years ago.

The fact of the matter is that players from Rafael Palmeiro to Alex Sanchez to Juan Rincon have actually failed drug tests. Now, from this specific threesome we have a Hall of Fame, 500 HR slugger; a speedy outfielder who has a grand total of 6 home runs in 5 seasons; and a young reliever who has been overpowering at times, yet inconsistent at others. This is just a small sampling - the list goes on, and the overwhelming verdict is that a lot of baseball players have used steroids, yet no one has magically accomplished as much as Bonds has. It's all relative, right? If the pitcher's using steroids, and the hitter is using steroids, then who really has the advantage? Just ask Marvin Benard and Bobby Estalella... steroids did nothing for them.

You see, there are two reasons as to why this entire topic is even an issue in the first place.
1) We like absolute numbers, i.e. 714
2) The public hates Barry Bonds

Addressing the first topic, one would be fool to directly compare Bonds' 714 to Ruth's 714, and yet that is what many people do. It's pretty obvious that what Ruth did was amazing, given the era he played in. Bonds' feat, though impressive in its own right, is however, diminished by the methodology of how he obtained his 714. If he did use steroids, his total home runs would go up dramatically, even if his production relative to the rest of the league remained relatively similar to what it had before he allegedly began.

714 is a lot of home runs. I don't care what era you're in - that's a lot of long balls. No current steroid user, and only a few players have a legitimate shot at hitting that number. Unfortunately, we enjoy ranking our accomplishments, and seeing where they compare with one another. And because Barry's era is different from Babe's and Hank's, we see a whole lot of complaints.

What's funny is that several days ago, ESPN.com had a poll in which they asked the following question:
""If Albert Pujols hits 62 home runs this season, who would you consider the single-season record holder?"
Choices: A) Albert Pujols, B) Barry Bonds, C) Roger Maris, D) Mark McGwire
The winner? You guessed it. Albert Pujols. Now let me get this straight, 62 > 73? Apparently our country is stupider than I thought. So not only does 616 = 714, but 62 >73. Jesus Christ. These are obviously the same people that thought Roger Maris' 61 < Babe Ruth's 60 because Maris played 8 more games. Since, we the people, enjoy absolute numbers, and are throwing a hissy fit about Bonds' 714 not equalling the Babe's 714, maybe we should realize that 62 is ALWAYS less than 73.

The second topic is much more interesting and I'm going to do my best to provide a realistic Giants-biased opinion. First, Brian Murphy's column (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=murphy/060525) does a much better job than I can do, but there are a few things that I'd like to say. First, the entirety of the public's hatred of Barry Bonds is personal. Let's not mince words - Bonds can be an asshole to reporters. He can be a diva, lounging in his reclining chair, filming his "Bonds on Bonds" show, and he pretty much says whatever he wants just to get a rise out of people. That said, he's a heckuva ballplayer, and you cannot convince me otherwise that if he tried to suck up to everyone like A-Rod instead of being a sourpuss like, well... Bonds, that the public would be much more receptive to the entire steroids issue instead of beating him to death as the scapegoat. You might not like him as a person, but let me remind you who else the sport of baseball has dealt with, their offenses, and let's see if Mr. Bonds isn't so bad after all.

For example, there are The Black Sox - fixed a World Series, cheated, bet on games, c'mon... it doesn't get ANY worse than this. Or maybe, Pete Rose - bet on baseball... as a player and manager. And since the real issue here is everyone's issue with Bonds' arrogant personality, do we need to remind you that the Babe showboated with his point to center field, his womanizing and his overall, brash slovenly self? Or that Ty Cobb, everyone's favorite old school player, not only played down and dirty but was also a racist towards Blacks? Or, for current day players, David Wells' bashing Bonds for possibly using steroids when Wells had the audacity to say he pitched a perfect game... drunk. No, you see, compared to these guys, Barry Bonds' arrogance is relatively harmless.

The real reason why everyone hates Barry (outside of the Bay) is because our society is fueled by this ESPN-driven frenzy to capture the top story. His arrogance wouldn't be such a big deal, if the media didn't MAKE such a big deal out of it in the first place. Of course he's going to be annoyed; ESPN's irritating Pedro Gomez is paid to follow him around. Now he may be fickle in opinion (what with the "retirement/no retirement," "I wanna take down the Babe/the Babe is an idol of mine" duality), but honestly he's pretty much doing it just because he can. If you're going to rip him and chronicle every little move he makes, he might as well make fun of you while you're at it. Pretty nasty little cycle.

But in the end, who cares? If you forget his act, and look at the man himself, you'll see that he produces like no one has ever before. Forget 737, or however many home runs he ends up with. Think 500-500. No one else has 400-400. Think 7 MVPs, 8 Gold Gloves, 12 Silver Sluggers... the list goes on. This man is immortal - numbers-wise. He's shattered OBP% and SLG% marks, taken the OPS to a different stratosphere.

And most of all, he's helped his team. You don't really know what Barry Bonds brings to the table until he plays for your team. In 2004, the Bonds-led Giants were a cool 7th in the majors in runs scored, and 6th in OPS. The next year, with relatively the same cast talent wise, yet an injured Bonds? 27th in OPS, 29th in runs. Have you ever seen one man make such a difference? I don't think so.

Numbers are all well and great, but maybe it's the anecdotes that will stick with you best? Like my last live Bonds memory, when the Rockies' Tim Harikkala decided to pitch to Bonds and promptly served a walk-off opposite field 2-run shot in the bottom of the 9th. Or maybe the 120 rubber chickens to represent the record-shattering 120 intentional walks he accumulated in 2004. Or the best of all, when Buck Showalter intentionally walked him with the bases loaded in the 9th inning up by 2 runs. That's respect.

This is what we see in Barry Bonds: we see a Bay Area native, playing where he wants to be for the team he wants to play for. We see managers, players, coaches, broadcasters pay their gratitudes to one of the greatest ever. We see his magic, his dedication to winning. We see and hear boos from across the country, blinded by jealousy and ignorance to the extent that we feel sorry that these poor souls can't appreciate what we witness nightly. We see him change a game, influence every decision on the other side of the field. We see that our fate rests in his hands. We see that when everyone else hates on him, from Jim Rome to Russ Springer, he talks about how sweet it is to come home and play for us. We respect #25. You should too. Showalter and Harikkala can agree on that.