Devil's Advocate: How Barry Bonds Can Cement His Legacy

With the second half of an already entertaining baseball season underway, it would be hard to argue that the next few months mean more to any one player than Barry Lamar Bonds.

But not for the reason you think.
 

Oh sure, 756 will be one of the most important feats in all of sports.

But Bonds Breaking the home run record is a forgone conclusion.

Barry's legacy is still a matter for debate.

As it stands, most baseball fans outside of San Francisco think Bonds is a muscle-bound jerk pumped full of steroids. Many seem to forget the 176 home runs, three Gold Gloves, and two NL MVPs he tallied while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates before joining the Giants in 1993.

And therein lies the problem.

Whenever Bonds decides to hang up his cleats, his numbers on the field will almost certainly be the most scrutinized in sports history.

For those who believe that Bonds knowingly took performance enhancing drugs, what years do they strike from his record? Do they subtract all his home runs from those years...or just a percentage? What formula do they apply to come up with that percentage?

Since Major League Baseball didn't institute steroids testing until last season, there's no way for those critics to know when (or if) Bonds started using.

You see the dilemma here.

The steroid issue has already done considerable damage to possible Cooperstown inductees. Mark McGwire, the "Man Who Saved Baseball," saw his popularity plummet faster then the President's after he refused to talk to Congress. The same goes for Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for a banned substance after telling Congress he'd never used steroids.

That's why this season and any future seasons are so important to Bonds' legacy: With a testing policy finally in place, we can at least look at some of his stats objectively.

The better the numbers, the less validity the naysayers have in their arguments against Bonds.

That Barry led the Majors in walks with 91 and had hit 17 dingers at the All-Star break is amazing no matter how you look at it. Add the fact that he's doing it all at the age of 42...and that he gets no help on one of the worst teams in the majors...and I wouldn't be surprised if Barry gets a few votes for MVP.

More importantly, if Bonds can keep up the production, he'll secure a title for himself that I believe he covets as much as Home Run King:

Hall-of-Famer.