MLB: Barry Bonds Is a First Ballot Hall of Famer

Since the Barry Bonds trial began, we have heard damning testimonies from ex-players, mistresses and business partners about the home run king's alleged use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs. In the eyes of many, a guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion. 

Because I am a Bonds fan and also a supporter of the American judicial system, I will wait until all the evidence has been presented to make my decision. Guilty or innocent, the one thing I am certain of is Bonds deserves to be a first ballot hall of famer.

Bonds has the all-time record for total home runs (762), home runs in a season (73), walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). He won the MVP award a record seven times (although it should have been nine) and eight Gold Gloves. He is one of four players to ever hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season, and he is the only player in major league history to ever hit 500 home runs and steal 500 bases for a career.

With numbers like that, you don't ask whether he is a first ballot hall of famer; you ask whether he's the greatest baseball player of all time.

The skeptics will tell you that his accomplishments on the field are a direct result of his involvement with BALCO and performance enhancing drugs, and that the numbers are skewed and can't be trusted. The truth is, maybe the alleged substances Bonds took helped a little, but they weren't illegal at the time (according to MLB guidelines).

The numbers Bonds put up are so gaudy that even if you subtracted 20 percent of his total numbers (which is WAY too high) and attributed them to PEDs, he's still a first ballot hall of famer. This is a player—steroid or no steroid—opposing pitchers wouldn't throw a strike to.

In 2001, Bonds played a four-game series against the Houston Astros and saw exactly five pitches in the strike zone in over 20 at-bats. Five. I don't condone everything Bonds has done in his career, and I won't sit here and defend his callous, abrasive, smug, arrogant attitude over the years, but is he a first ballot hall of famer? Without question. Anyone who says different either has a personal, moral issue to settle or doesn't know baseball.