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In the coming weeks, one of the most impactful and controversial classes for the Hall of Fame will have judgment passed on them—at least for their first year of eligibility. One of those on the list is all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, whose career, despite being acquitted of any wrongdoing in a court of law, will forever be tied to the steroid era.

Bonds is certainly a huge part of the San Francisco Giants history and although not being part of the teams’ two recent (and only) World Series titles, his name and his actions still set off widespread debate amongst Bay Area faithful.

Should he get in, should he not.

An election to the Hall would also benefit the Giants’ brand, who could use that justification for even more business gains in an area where baseball is really rivaled only by the success of the 49ers in popularity. Will the Giants take a stand in the “should he or shouldn’t he go to the Hall” debate?

Team CEO Larry Baer talked about the possibility of Bonds getting into the Hall of Fame, as well as the benefits of the decline of the steroid era on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves” this weekend.

“We don’t have a vote; it’s the baseball writers who will make that call,” Baer said on the show. “You have to look at the accomplishments he had over the length of his career and then establish the criteria from the era which he played in. When that is set then we can make a fair judgment.”

Baer did go on to say that he thought MLB has done great work bringing the steroid era to an end and that the policies work, even though they did cost the team their star outfielder Melky Cabrera for the better part of the last two months of their surprising run to the 2012 title.

Will we see Barry Bonds Way adjacent to McCovey Cove any time soon? Apparently, the team will take a wait and see attitude with their star crossed home run king, and will let the writers make the decision for them in the coming months.

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They say that baseball is a young man’s game.

The constant running, training and wear-and-tear placed on a man’s body can be grueling. Over the years, it can cause even the healthiest of men to break down. 

Every so often, there are those players that defy that logic. Some may call it luck, while others consider it good genes; at the end of the day, however, it all boils down to the love of the game.

To take a look at MLB History, there have been numerous players who have managed to stay in the game through their late 30s. At that point, the numbers drop off.

The purpose of this list is to look at those players to managed to play at a high, or fairly high, level after reaching the age of 40.

More so, if they were a position player, they must have put in over 100 games of work. If they’re a pitcher, they must have 100 innings pitched under their belt.

With those caveats in mind, here is a look at the 20 greatest “old guys” in MLB history.

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Five years ago on Aug. 7, Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 for his career, taking over baseball’s all-time home run record from Hank Aaron. 

That 2007 season also turned out to Bonds’ final one in the major leagues. With five years passed since he stopped playing (he never officially retired, but acknowledged his career was over two years later), he’s also eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Though Bonds being a part of the 2013 class of Hall of Fame inductees seems like a no-brainer based on his spectacular numbers, the controversy surrounding Bonds throughout his career is not going to make it that simple. 

Obviously, Bonds’ alleged PED use hangs over his achievements like a dark cloud of suspicion and doubt. Hall of Fame voters have already held such allegations against eligible players, regardless of actual evidence. Just ask Jeff Bagwell. 

Some will obviously feel that Bonds’ achievements are forever tainted by suspicions of PED use, especially his involvement with the BALCO scandal. During grand jury testimony in 2003, Bonds said that he used “the cream” and “the clear,” but didn’t know those substances were steroids because his trainer told him otherwise. 

A No-Doubt Hall of Famer

In some people’s eyes, Bonds is a cheater—one who cynically took PEDs to make sure he achieved all the records that matter in baseball—and shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. 

But look at the man’s Baseball-Reference page. In particular, look at all the numbers that are in bold type, meaning he led the majors in that particular category. It’s not just his home run numbers that are in bold.

At various points throughout his career, Bonds led the league in batting, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. He even led the league in runs scored, total bases and games played. In perhaps the greatest indication of how feared and respected he was as a hitter, Bonds led the league in intentional walks in 12 of his 22 seasons. 

He won seven National League Most Valuable Player awards. Three of those came while he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, long before there was ever any suspicion that Bonds was taking something extra to give himself a boost on the field. 

Even if you look at Bonds’ career before 1998, when he reportedly began using steroids, according to the book Game of Shadows, he was a Hall of Fame baseball player. He had six consecutive seasons with 30-plus homers, hitting 40 or more three times. Bonds hit over .300 in four of those seasons and surpassed 100 RBI in five of them. 

Perhaps it’s unfair to just assume that many, many players were taking steroids from the mid-90s through the 2000s. But the numbers say that it wasn’t just a few players who were looking for an edge. So how can voters just single out a handful of players and penalize them?

If Bonds was taking steroids—and the changes in his body in addition to the surge in his statistics strongly indicate so—while many of his major league peers were doing it, he was still better than just about anyone in the sport. 

Taking Out a Grudge

However, PED allegations won’t be the only large obstacle between Bonds and Cooperstown. He also has to account for his relationship with the media. The writers that Bonds had a contentious relationship with throughout his career control his Hall of Fame induction with their vote.

Those who were mistreated and inconvenienced by Bonds’ surly attitude and unwillingness to talk might take this opportunity to exact a measure of passive-aggressive revenge by keeping him out of the Hall of Fame—even if it’s just for one year, in what’s become a silly stratification of the inductees.

The best of the best are “first ballot” Hall of Famers, gaining entry when first eligible, while the other less best get in later on after they wait their turn in line. 

Where will Bonds fall on that scale? His numbers are absolutely, undoubtedly first-ballot worthy. But it’s entirely possible that voters will use their ballots to make a statement—both against his alleged steroid use and treatment of the media—and make him wait. 

Judging by remarks Bonds made to MLB.com’s Barry Bloom, he expects that to happen. And some of that defiance and anger that so many associate with Bonds comes to the surface as he considers the possibility that he could be withheld from his rightful honor.

“I don’t worry about it because I don’t want to be negative about the way other people think it should be run,” Bonds said when asked how he felt about being eligible for the Hall of Fame. “That’s their opinion, and I’m not going to be negative. I know I’m going to be gone one day. If you want to keep me out, that’s your business.”

But for someone who says he doesn’t worry about such matters, Bonds then went on a rather incoherent rant when asked how voters might approach players of his era who have steroid allegations attached to them.

“You have to vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on,” Bonds said to Bloom. “If you vote on your assumptions or what you believe or what you think might have been going on there, that’s your problem. You’re at fault. It has nothing to do with what your opinion is. Period.

“If that’s the case, you better go way, way back and start thinking about your opinions. If that’s how you feel life should be run, I would say then you run your Hall of Fame the way you want to run your Hall of Fame. That’s what I think. That’s my personal opinion. If you want to do the Hall of Fame the way the Hall of Fame is supposed to be done, then you make the right decision on that. If you don’t, that’s on you. To stamp something on your assumptions, it doesn’t work for me.”

Voters Should Do the Right Thing

OK, let’s cut through phrases like “how you feel life should be run” and focus on “the way baseball needs to be voted on.”

I’m going to presume Bonds means that the best players should be voted into the Hall of Fame. And he’s absolutely right about that. 

Bonds is also right that suspicions or grudges shouldn’t have a bearing on someone’s Hall of Fame worthiness. A player either is a Hall of Famer or he isn’t. None of this “first ballot” stuff should matter, especially for players who were clearly the best at their position and among their peers. 

That’s not to say that voters shouldn’t be allowed to take their time. Look over the evidence more clearly and come to a conclusion in certain cases, as happened with Bert Blyleven. Sometimes, the numbers just don’t jump out and make the verdict wholly apparent.

But the verdict is entirely obvious with Bonds. Even if he’s displaying his signature arrogance when he says there’s not a doubt in his mind that he’s a Hall of Famer, Bonds is right. 

The idea that he created a character, a persona to make himself a villain against the media is laughable. Bonds should just admit that he needed to be adversarial to give himself the edge he needed, and talking to the media—even if it really was part of his job—on a regular basis interfered with that. 

In his interview with Bloom, Bonds admits that he “could’ve given the media a little more” later in his career. The cynical view is that Bonds is only saying this now because he knows the media controls his fate and he’s kissing up a bit. But that also speaks to the concern Bonds has that his Hall of Fame candidacy could actually be affected by his behavior.

The man is worried. That’s enough. Hall of Fame voters don’t need to make an additional statement. Bonds is already sweating over his induction. Isn’t that sufficient punishment if he actually deserves any sort of penalty? 

Hall of Fame voters should show they’re better than bitter scribes taking out a grudge. Here’s hoping that they realize they’re not bigger than the game and give Bonds the honor his career deserves.

Follow @iancass on Twitter

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Almost every boy can think back to a time when he was young and played catch with his father in the yard or at the local baseball field. For many children, this helped spark an interest in baseball.

Some children were lucky enough to have their first catch with fathers who were also Major League Baseball players. Learning from someone who had a major league pedigree certainly helped these youngsters develop into good baseball players.

There were a number who would go on to follow in their father’s footsteps and reach the big leagues. Amongst the long list of father-son combinations to play in the major leagues, a few stand out a bit more than others.

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One St. Louis Cardinal is rapidly making his way toward a rather exclusive club this season. Carlos Beltran is within hitting distance, no pun intended, of the 300-300-2000 club.

This status is reserved for players who have hit 300 home runs, stolen 300 bases and amassed 2,000 hits over their career. Lots of talk has floated about Beltran hitting 300-300, but the 2,000 hasn’t gotten much attention.

As of Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Beltran has 320 home runs, 299 stolen bases and 1,977 hits. Barring a major injury, he will make the club in 2012 without breaking a sweat.

Following are the few players who have made the club, including a few near-misses.

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William Rhoden of the New York Times presented some interesting ideas about Barry Bonds in a column a little more than one year ago.

Rhoden posits that America, despite having a president whose father was black, is not comfortable with powerful, prominent black men that do not conform. Bonds, the greatest player of his era, plays by his own rules, which forced the media to resentfully follow those rules.

Lawyer Allen Ruby told the jury at Bonds’ federal trial that one reason Bonds was being tried was because he was Barry Bonds.

Bonds attitude has been compared to Bessie Smith’s legendary blues classic, “’Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do.” The following from the work easily applies to Bonds:

“If I should get beat up by my poppa / That don’t mean you should call no copper / Cause it ain’t nobody’s business if we do”

It is significant, according to Ruby, that prosecutors were enraged with Bonds when he testified before the grand jury in 2003.

“He was not intimidated,” Ruby said.  “A lot of the venom in the government’s pursuit here was because he wasn’t intimidated. He was not subservient. He was Barry.”

Bonds is a fiercely independent American who will not ever be limited by society’s beliefs about how a champion must act.

Namon Lewis, head of the Sable Group in the Bay area which advises black athletes, believes that blacks in general didn’t like Bonds when he played.
 
“They considered him aloof, wasn’t involved in black issues and thought he was in a special category,” he told Rhoden, but he added that the persecution of Bonds has united the black community.

“Blacks don’t necessarily love Bonds, but they will fight to the death to protect him. The attitude is that the government is trying to cut him down to size. They don’t want Bonds to be the prominent figure in baseball history.”

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Disgusting.

Disgraceful.

Disturbing.

Disappointing.

I’m talking about the MLB network, specifically, the countdown they’ve been airing about the 40 greatest individual seasons since 1940.

Four of those seasons belonged to Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. Bonds was ranked #1 for his 2004 season.

Well, MLB network, I’m not sure how to tell you this but, um, uh, er, well, those guys cheated.

Steroids? Human Growth Hormone? Performance enhancing drugs? Any of that sound familiar MLB network?

Apparently not.

There was no mention in the countdown that Clemens’, Sosa’s, McGwire’s and Bonds’ seasons may have been tainted.

No hint that any of their accomplishments were anything less than legitimate.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why MLB network would include those players in a countdown like this. Maybe they were taking an “innocent until proven guilty” attitude.

But I think these guys have pretty much been proven guilty.

At the very least, McGwire should have been excluded, he has admitted using performance enhancing drugs.

By treating Clemens’, Sosa’s, McGwire’s and Bonds’ accomplishments as legitimate, MLB network is being disrespectful to the players who played by the rules.

Even worse, it sends the wrong message to kids.

It says to children, “If you cheat, we’ll not only look the other way, we’ll glorify your illegitimate achievements.”

Disgusting.

Disgraceful.

Disturbing.

Disappointing.

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After reading the TMZ story of a paternal court judge telling former NFL star Terrell Owens that his career was over I couldn’t help but think of former MLB star Barry Bonds and the similarities in the circumstances surrounding his exile from pro baseball. 

Much like Bonds in his final season Owens was an extremely productive player. In 2010 he played to the tune of: 72 receptions, 983 yards and nine touchdowns.  Also like Bonds, Owens has been blockaded out of the league, by what any reasonable person would deduce is a sad display of collusion. 

In an age when offense is so valued across sports, and stars that can sell tickets are as prized a commodity as a championship ring, it’s simply hard to believe that guys like Bonds and Owens could not find work after their respective final season of 2007 and 2010. 

 Both men are polarizing stars with influence that stretches well beyond the barriers of sport.  Both men were still highly productive players at the time of their exodus and perhaps most importantly both men sell tickets. 

Everything on the surface would point to Bonds and Owens being very employable men in their line of work. 

However, both men have been locked out and labeled as modern day lepers by an increasingly volatile media whose sole mission often times seems to be to build stars up only to tear them down. 

But still the media’s agenda driven coverage does not in and of itself explain the collusion that any reasonable person can realize has gone on in the cases of Bonds and Owens.  It goes much deeper than that. 

Because of the increasingly cooperative nature of professional sports and major media, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the angles which the media has used over the years to paint Bonds as a villain and Owens as a team cancer were at least, in part, orders from league powers.

As these guys get older teams are less and less willing to pay them what there performance and standing in the sport would still command.  The solution?  Have the league’s media partners cover Bonds’ and Owens’ off field issues hard enough, intense enough and long enough to allow the league to hide its collusion behind the lie of Bonds and Owens being team cancers, distractions and whatever other labels are applied. 

The truth of the matter is, Owens had not been a real team cancer in over five years, since his time with the Philadelphia Eagles.  Bonds meanwhile, while always a grouch to the media and a polarizing figure in the locker room, was still well respected for his ability within the baseball world by countless players and managers. 

 Because they fail to appeal to the media apparatus, Owens’ and Bonds’ careers were cut short due not to inability to perform or help a team win, but rather to owners/team executives who are spellbound by the negative coverage of these two men to see the obvious; they can help you win. 

To Bud Selig the name Barry Bonds is synonymous with cheating. To Roger Goodell the name Terrell Owens induces a massive headache.  To me the names conjure up a different adjective…

Collusion.  

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Former San Francisco Giants slugger Bonds got another free pass last week when he was sentenced to what basically amounts to a slap on the wrist for his conviction in an obstruction of justice charge against him stemming from the 2003 grand jury investigation of BALCO.