Who is the all time HR leader? On 107.5 they were going around about how Bonds’ records are illegitimate and should not count... Leaving Aaron as the Hr champ.
Personally I view it as a pretty complex argument. I see the logic in devaluing his achievements because of steroid use, but there are caveats to that for me-
1- steroids were rampant in the game at the time, even pitchers used them often... Does that not level the field a bit?
2- The MLB did not even start testing for these substances until well after he had established himself as the best player in the game in his “new body”... Technically they were against the rules but so is too much pine tar, corked bats, pitchers using vaseline and stuff like that... and we all know those things are typically laughed off and looked at as “part of the game”, people just being competitive and trying to get an edge... Especially when it comes to pitchers cheating! If vaseline and such implements were treated as seriously in retrospect as steroids have been- would ANY pitchers be in the hall of fame at this point?
3- He was a HOF player before he got all juiced up! This is the least relevant of the caveats regarding the Hr king debate as we all know that while he was a great player before, he was never on track to break that record until after he blew up!
In the end, personally I think he should be in the HOF and I personally feel his stats do/should be looked at as legitimate but I get why people hate the guy.
Personally I view it as a pretty complex argument. I see the logic in devaluing his achievements because of steroid use, but there are caveats to that for me-
1- steroids were rampant in the game at the time, even pitchers used them often... Does that not level the field a bit?
2- The MLB did not even start testing for these substances until well after he had established himself as the best player in the game in his “new body”... Technically they were against the rules but so is too much pine tar, corked bats, pitchers using vaseline and stuff like that... and we all know those things are typically laughed off and looked at as “part of the game”, people just being competitive and trying to get an edge... Especially when it comes to pitchers cheating! If vaseline and such implements were treated as seriously in retrospect as steroids have been- would ANY pitchers be in the hall of fame at this point?
3- He was a HOF player before he got all juiced up! This is the least relevant of the caveats regarding the Hr king debate as we all know that while he was a great player before, he was never on track to break that record until after he blew up!
In the end, personally I think he should be in the HOF and I personally feel his stats do/should be looked at as legitimate but I get why people hate the guy.