Miami, Barry Bonds and the Path to Forgiveness

Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king has been on the Hall of Fame ballot for a few seasons now but has yet to reach Cooperstown. Why? Steroids. The use and the suspicion, although Bonds has never failed a drug test and all his court cases are closed without being officially charged and sentenced for anything. That’s just the era many of us have grown up in and will have to expect. I have asked, begged almost, for forgiveness for all steroid users pre-testing and I will continue to do so until my final breath simply because it’s the right thing to do. Forgiveness, it’s the path that Bonds is now looking to take.

How does one who played and made his name in the steroid era with the best numbers in the history of the game (in many categories) begin to achieve forgiveness? Well one way is to get a job in the game and Bonds is looking to do just that. News broke this week that Barry Bonds is in discussion with the Miami Marlins to be their hitting coach. The greatest slugger of all-time could be coaching one of the greatest sluggers, Giancarlo Stanton, of current times. Wow.

Remember when Mark McGwire was once vilified for his supposed use of steroids? Well McGwire admitted to using steroids before becoming the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. McGwire is not in the Hall of Fame but is not the “monster” that many baseball fans and Hall of Fame voters once thought he was. It’s a journey and it’s a long path to forgiveness but you have to start somewhere. This is where it begins for Barry Lamar Bonds.

Good luck.