You may have noticed that many sportswriters who have a Hall of Fame ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame drink a little more since the PED candidates entered the ballot. The PED question is now utterly unavoidable with the wave of eligible candidates, as the sport’s biggest stars of the last two decades are now eligible for Hall of Fame enshrinement.
It is not that our baseball list has not been controversial in the past. We already made significant revisions when we initially created a “1a” and a “1b” to account for the fact that both Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson are ineligible for the Hall due to gambling (though this was reversed in 2025). A thought crossed our mind to create a list of eligible players who were caught (or suspected) of using PEDs, but there is one fact that cannot be ignored: these players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, and it is widely suspected that PED users have already entered Cooperstown.
Let’s get to the man at the top of this list: Barry Bonds
It has often been said that Barry Bonds would have been a Hall of Famer before the period during which it is believed that he started taking Performance Enhancing Drugs. With excellent career numbers (both traditional and sabermetric) and three National League MVP Awards under his belt, the Cooperstown resume was already there. What has been speculated is that Bonds grew frustrated at the attention that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire received during their famous chase of Roger Maris’ single-season Home Run record, and that had he done the same things (PED) that they did, he could have surpassed their levels. Whether or not that history is correct, Bonds’ already impressive numbers reached stratospheric levels, and he completely dominated the Steroid Era.
We don’t have to tell you all the statistics. A first look shows seven MVPs, the career Homer Run and Walks marks, and the top five career tallies in Runs, RBIs, WAR, and OPS, without going into great depth. We also don’t have to tell you that Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro (others tainted by PEDs) have colossally failed to earn the writer’s support for the Hall, and there is no evidence that they will change their minds. However, Barry Bonds was a better player than those two superstars, and if any player from that era deserves to be in, it is Barry Bonds. Let’s also not forget that many of the writers who voted for Bonds to win the MVPs in his later years strongly believed he was juicing. They voted for him anyway.
We would have no problem voting for Bonds for the Hall of Fame if we were ever granted a ballot, as evidenced by his selection at the top of our list. We would, however, understand if you wouldn’t. As it stands now, we doubt he will see a plaque with his name on it.
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