Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player Mike Krukow has ever seen. Despite that, Bonds hasn’t gotten close to receiving the 75 percent vote required for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The reasons for this are well documented, as Bonds was heavily rumored to have taken performance enhancing drugs during the second-half of his career, despite never being convicted or suspended for doing so. Bonds, a seven-time MVP, received just 53.8 percent of the Hall of Fame vote last year, his fifth of eligibility.
Despite that, Krukow believes that it is hypocritical that Bonds is being kept out of the Hall, and that he is being scapegoated because of his dealings with the media.
“It breaks my heart, because here was a guy who was as good as there was,” Krukow said. “You could argue Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Joe Dimaggio, whoever, Bonds is in that argument. That’s how good he was.”
It should be noted that Bonds won the MVP three times (1990, 1992, 1993), made seven All-Star teams, won six Silver Sluggers and six Gold Gloves before he was ever suspected of using performance enhancing drugs, making an extremely strong case that he should be in the Hall even if he took steroids during the second half of his career.
“I think it’s hypocritical because I do think there are guys that are in the Hall of Fame now that are PED users. I’m not going to mention any names but I have suspicions, so I do think there’s a double standard. Plus I think that Bonds took the bullet for a whole generation, and I think a lot of that had to do with his unpopularity with the writers. I think they had an opportunity to get even for all the times they had to stand there and wait for him, and he didn’t give them a whole lot, he was rude to them. I mean you can’t argue that he wasn’t rude to the press. He was arrogant and I think in a lot of ways the voting members hold that against him.
“So I do think he took a bullet for a whole generation…I just hope at some point in time, in my lifetime, I’m able to see the doors open and allow Bonds to come in.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Krukow’s comments on Bonds, skip to 7:20.
