Barry Bonds Still Not a Hall of Famer, But Getting Closer

On Wednesday, the newest class for baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York was announced, and for the fifth straight year, Barry Bonds‘ name was not listed among those legends.

In his 10th year on the ballot, Montreal Expos’ legend Tim Raines is going into the Hall. Jeff Bagwell cleared the threshold in his seventh year of eligibility. Ivan Rodriguez, one of the best to ever don the gear behind the plate, is in during his first year. Barry Bonds, however, is still waiting to hear his name called.

The Hall is not completely devoid of Bonds. Numerous items from Bonds’ illustrious career have been sprinkled throughout the exhibits for years. A bat from his rookie season in 1986. Cleats from when he became the first member of baseball’s 400-home run/400-stolen base club in 1998. The bat and ball from his 2,000th career hit in 1999. The helmet he wore when he hit his 755th home run to tie Hank Aaron. The ball that broke Aaron’s home run record just three days after it was tied. All of these items, among many others, have been displayed in the hallowed halls.

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But a plaque honoring the man that made these items so famous remains absent. Bonds does, however, continue to inch closer to finally being elected. For the third straight year, his percentage of votes rose, getting nearer to that magical 75 percent needed for induction. This year saw his biggest jump in votes.

After earning 44.3 percent of the votes needed in 2016 (a 7.5 percent increase from 2015), Bonds earned 53.8 percent this season, a 9.5 percent jump. He was polling at 70 percent or higher during the early stages of voting, but fell as more ballots came in.

A lot of Bonds’ success in this year’s balloting can be attributed to Bud Selig, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball who was elected to the Hall of Fame in December of 2016 by the Today’s Game Era Committee. Selig, also the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, was the commissioner during the “Steroid Era”, and seemingly turned a blind eye to what was going on at the time.

Overall, that time period helped baseball in terms of popularity after a big decrease following the strike of 1994. That strike became the worst work stoppage in major American sports history in terms of money lost, costing MLB nearly 1,000 games and making them the first major pro sports league to lose an entire postseason. One of the men leading that resurgence was Bonds.

Selig’s induction caused more than one voter to change their stance on Bonds, as well as another player with the stench of steroids, Roger Clemens. Peter Botte of the New York Daily News voted for the pair for the first time this year, as did Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Slusser, an Oakland A’s beat writer, tweeted in December that “[s]enseless to keep steroid guys out when the enablers are in Hall of Fame”, adding that she will “now will hold my nose and vote for players I believe cheated”. Slusser was also voted Baseball Writers Association of America president in 2012, making her the first woman to serve that role.

It seems just a matter of time before Bonds, and Clemens as well, are voted in. Steroids or not, Bonds is one of the best all-around players that has ever touched a field. He was a 14-time All-Star, seven-time NL MVP, eight-time Gold Glove winner in left field, and is the lone member of baseball’s 500-home run/500-stolen base club. He is one of only four players in baseball history to steal 40 bags and hit 40 home runs in the same season.

And it seems like voters are softening their stance on steroids as is. Bagwell and Rodriguez have been followed by clouds of rumors, as to whether they did it clean or not, for years, but both are in. That didn’t stop them from getting in this year.

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If the percentages continue to jump as they have done over the past few years, Bonds will have his name called in due time. Until then, only his cleats and bats will be present in the Hall.