Barry Bonds, Baseball, and Steroids: Is the Age of Innocence for Baseball Finally Over?

Paul Finkelman

But in one way the season was different.

This was the year that Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s lifetime home run record. Combined with his 73 home runs in 2001, this makes Bonds the greatest home run hitter in history. He is now the Babe Ruth-Hank Aaron of all time.

But is he? Of course not! His record will be tainted by the smell of corruption, the hint of steroids. Even without proof, everyone in America is certain that he used steroids. During his career his hat size increased, and he grew a full inch in his mid-30s. That is not normal. Those body changes seem proof enough that he was juicing – taking steroids, growth hormones, or something to make him bigger, stronger, and presumably better.

How should baseball, and America, deal with this?

Baseball purists would drum Bonds out of the game, and the record book, on the grounds that he “cheated” by using steroids. They would at least put an asterisk after his records and his name. I have talked to a few baseball writers – the people who vote on the Hall of Fame – who have told me they would never vote to put Bonds in the Hall, just as they voted against Mark McGuire, who career record, without the taint of steroids, would have made him a first round shoe-in last year.

But, assuming Bonds was “juiced” – on steroids or some other substance (an assumption I share with most Americans who don’t live in San Francisco) how exactly did he “cheat?”

The use of such substances was not banned by baseball when he started taking them. They may have been illegal, but that is surely not the test of who gets into the Hall of Fame. We all “know” that Babe Ruth drank lots of beer during prohibition but no one ever thought that should stop his election to the Hall. And surely there are players in the Hall or on their way who smoked pot. No one is suggesting we remove or asterisk the records of the great pitcher Dock Ellis, who threw a no hitter while on LSD in 1970.

So the problem with Bonds can’t be that he used an “illegal substance.” It must be something else. The problem is, I think, that people think Bonds “cheated” by juicing and thereby enhancing his body and making him a better player. Bonds and other suspected or admitted steroid users claim they thought they were just taking vitamins.

So the question is, how exactly is it cheating to use science and medicine to enhance you skills and improve your body? Steroids made him stronger and perhaps better able to hit home runs. But, as he points out, all the strength in the world does not enhance your timing or your ability to actually hit the ball.

Steroids may have made him more physically fit, at least in the short run. But does that really taint his record? Does arthroscopic surgery taint the records of modern pitchers? What would Sandy Koufax’s record look like if he had been able to see get “Tommy John Surgery” on his elbow? Can we compare a modern pitcher, who wins games but never completes them, with the iron men of Walter Johnson’s era who pitched till they dropped without modern medicine to repair their arms or relief pitchers to save their arms?

Others say he is a bad role model. True enough. Next to Michael Vick it is hard to envision a less likeable sports hero. But is Bonds worse than the mean spirited, racist, and deeply vicious Ty Cobb? The drunken womanizer Mickey Mantle? The racist Dixie Walker who refused to play with Jackie Robinson? Or the Sultan of Overindulgence, Babe Ruth? Ruth ate to excess, chased women with a “Ruthian” appetite, and guzzled beer during prohibition, when it was illegal to do so. Ironically, Bonds may have used steroids before they were banned by baseball or even before they were illegal.

Consider the relief pitcher for the Yankees, Ryne Duren. In the 1950s and 1960s he scared batters half-to-death with a screaming fastball while wearing coke-bottle glasses. Everyone in baseball knew he drank way too much, especially before he pitched. Who in their right mind could dig his heels in and wait for the drunken, apparently half-blind speedster to throw at his head? Duren used a controlled substance – good old fashioned booze – to intimidate batters. Doc Ellis always pitched stoned on something. He recently said in a Sports Illustrated interview (July 2, 2007) that “the scariest time [in his career] was in 1973 when I tried to pitch completely sober.” He couldn’t get the ball over the plate as he warmed up, so “I ran to the dougout, got some greenies [amphetamines] and hot coffee, and a few minutes later I knew how to pitch again.” Indeed, baseball insiders I have talked to say that the great “drug” issue of the major leagues has been “greenies” and “reds” – speed – that enabled players to make it through the long summer seasons.

Bonds took steroids to be a better player and extend his career. Is this any different than the men and women use plastic surgery, botox, hair dye, and other ploys to appear more youthful so they can hold-on to jobs or win promotions? Is Bonds really much different than the Hollywood idols with their face lifts, tummy tucks, or implants?

Before we run Bonds out of baseball, we should at least ask why Major League Baseball ignored the issue of steroids for so long, just as it ignored the massive use of “reds” and “greenies.” The business of baseball is about entertainment. Owners love Bonds. He fills the stadiums. He packs in the fans. He provides the thrills. If MLB really got serious about steroids there would be fewer home runs, shorter careers, and perhaps diminished fan interest in the records.

In the end, I would favor a very strict enforcement of the bans on steroids and similar drugs because they harm players, and force players into a race to the bottom – those who do not use steroids will lose out to those who do. This is why the players’ Union should have been fighting for very strict bans – to protect the members. But, the Union has fought against strict enforcement and been complicitous in harming players and the game. And MLB – led (sort of) by a gutless commissioner – has done virtually nothing to stop the practice.

So, if management and labor have turned a blind eye – and the fans have flocked to see the alleged cheaters knock the ball out of the park – can we really blame it all on Barry Bonds? I can’t say I much like Barry Bonds, or even respect him. But, I doubt he is any worse a human being that the racist misanthrope Ty Cobb. The recent (and wonderful) biography of Joe DiMaggio (Richard Ben Cramer, Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life) paints a very ugly picture of an arrogant, stingy, greedy, and thoroughly obnoxious human being. Had people really known him he would not have been the pride of any Yankee fan. The Babe and The Mick were more charming, and more fun, and surely nicer guys, but were they any better role models?

Barry Bonds is hardly the most likeable guy in sports, but he is not the worst sinner either. He may not be an American hero – instead, he may just be a regular American trying to get ahead with whatever tools he can find, sadly risking his health for a few more bucks, while his employer and his union tacitly encourage him to do so, and the public pays to watch it. The real reason we fear or loath Barry Bonds is because we may all be a little too much like him.