Barry Bonds Should Retire

With a newly revised indictment this morning to Baseball's Home Run King, and with no team willing to have him on their roster, it is about time for Barry Bonds to retire into history. My personal opinion is that he should also be stripped of all awards he has accumulated with his use of performance enhancing drugs.

Some would say I am jumping the gun on Bonds, since he hasn't been convicted. Maybe so, but there has been too many people disputing his claim of innocence. His perjury indictments shows his reluctance to accept that he did wrong and to fess up to his misdeeds.

In other endeavors, You would never allow someone to retain an award that was fraudently obtained. I just don't see the difference in sports. No matter what you call it, steroid (or growth hormones) is a dishonest way to obtain a physical advantage against others. Some say that it was standard practice, with nearly all players taking them.

But no matter what rationalization a person might claim, the use (or misuse) of these drugs goes to the core of competitive sports. We admire and annoit successful athletes for their abilities far above the common folk. Now if those abilities were not achieved as much for their athletic pursuit, but from a synthetic drug enhancement of their physiology, it is difficult to accept their achievements as being valid.

We would not accept a politician who 'rigged' the votes in an election. So how can we accept Bonds as the greatest player in history when much of his performance was 'rigged'.

Well anyways, that is my opinion. If Major League Baseball and its 'achievement records' are to maintain their integrity, Bonds must be expunged from the list. It is a moral imperative!

Comments

[Chuck Welch]

Then you need to remove all of Gaylord Perry's records (self-admitted cheater), pretty much everything done by almost everybody in the 50's and 60's (upper laced coffee).

Removing the records won't work. What you should do is merely split baseball records int eras, and let Bonds hold the HR record for the Steroid Era.

[Bubba Bog]

You got a point when it comes to all the 'cheaters' that have garnered awards over the years. Maybe what you say, dividing the eras is not a bad idea. My position is that he shouldn't be the annoited Home-Run King of all time. I have much more respect for Aaron and Ruth than Bonds. Of course the pundits can contend forever about the fields were easier in Ruth's time, and Aaron didn't face the quality pitchers there are now. But their achievements should stand over and above Bonds achievement.