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.