Crack is only legal in the Blue Jays front office.
I'm not sure it's being illegal in life has anything to do with baseball. Speeding's illegal. And that's not cheating. No one is going to keep you out of the Hall of Fame for not respecting US law. Unless it's murder or rape. But drug use? Even if he did cocaine or heroine, it's irrelevant to whether he's a cheater in baseball or not.
Admittedly, steroids impact baseball performance whereas speeding doesn't. But baseball has no grounds to suspend Bonds or alter the records during the years in which steroids wasn't banned.
Fans of course have the right to boo him and not respect his records. And HOF voters have the right to diminish his accomplishments given that they know he was using steroids.
I think Bonds is still impressive since he just proved he was the best of the steroid users. Bonds should release a song in the tradition of McLusky's "To Hell with Good Intentions"
My roided-up swings are better than your roided-up swings
I've got more home runs
than a home run derby
Sing it.
My standing there doing nothin' is better than your standing there doin' nothin'
I got more forced walks
than a drunk driver pulled over by the highway
Sing it.
My cheating is better than Enron's cheating
Cause while they're on trial or sitting behind bars
I'm still swinging at baseballs.
Sing it.
My steroid use is better than your steroid use
I take more drugs than a touring funk band
Sing it.
At any rate, I'm not a Bonds supporter. I think what he did is really disappointing. But it's just lazy to put all or even most of the blame on Bonds. Baseball's leadership should be catching more of the outrage than Bonds is. Yeah, Bonds sullied the record book, and it's fine for him to get ripped over it for the rest of his days. But if hadn't done it, someone else would have. In other words, no matter who breaks the record, Fehr, Selig and a whole lot of other guys that didn't break any records deserve the bulk of the blame.
Should he be in the HOF? I'm not sure. Given that there are glorified cheaters already in the HOF and tons of other cheaters from this era that will probably go, it doesn't seem fair to target Bonds just because a) people hate him and b) he was better than all the other steroid users.
I think it'll take a few years before it's clearer how history should look at Bonds, McGwire, Palmeiro and others.
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