How About Some Love for Barry Bonds?

I will admit it, I am a fan of Barry Bonds.  Yes I have heard all the stories about what a jerk he is and I am sure most, if not all of them are true.  I realize that most likely he something outside the rules but, not that this makes it okay, I contend that well over half the players in baseball during the steroid era were juicing to some degree.  You have your Cansecos and McGwires who went all out and your Andy Pettittes who used to get over an injury. 

Tomorrow is the day the Hall of Fame inductees will be announced and it usually an exciting a day for me every year.  I am still looking forward to it but I know there will be disappointment because there is no way Barry Bonds will be making it in.  Yes I am a huge fan of the Giants and Barry was their best player for a long stretch of time so I realize my views are biased. However, look at his stats.  He is the all time leader in HRs and BB.  He hit .298 over his career.  He was 65 hits short of 3000 and would have gotten to that milestone if he wasn't frozen out of the game.  His last season he hit .276 wiht 28 HRs and an OBP of .480 (which happened to lead the league).  The man could still play.

As for awards, he won the MVP 7 times (plus he was robbed of one by Terry Pendleton in 1991 while with the Pirates), won 12 Silver Slugger Awards and 8 Gold Gloves.  He was a 14 time All Star.  Outside of the PED issue Bonds is a first ballot HOFer that would challenge Tom Seaver for the highest percentage ever.

I know I will not change anyone's mind, that isn't the purpose of this post.  I am sure that if anyone even cares enough to read this post and comment, I will get blasted - that's okay.  I merely thought I would celebrate Barry Bonds while the rest of the baseball world villainizes him.  You at least have to give me credit for staying loyal to my team and its players :-)

I have picked up quite a few Bonds cards and inserts over the past several months so I thought would be the right time to share a few of them.  First up is a larger than normal card (just like Barry's head!):

These come from a Stadium Club Finest release.  The card on the right is the normal sized card and I believe the Jumbo card was a box topper.  I enjoy the shininess of the card and the coloring is spot on for a Giant.

Here are a couple more.  The one on the left from Fleer Authentix is a cool foldout card that looks like a ticket.  Barry is showcased with his celebratory point to the heavens after yet another HR.  The cards on the right is a little hard to see but it is a wood grained cards titled Team Timber. This Team Timber card is pretty cool although it actually curls as if it were a piece of wood.  The left and right edges curl outward - the exact opposite of a typical Topps Chrome card.

Finally here is a trio of really nice Topps shiny inserts.  The first one is an All-Star insert. I love the look of this card, it appears like fireworks going off as he swings.  The middle card is a Topps Stars Walk of Fame insert, I think Topps Stars is underrated, this insert is representative of many of their releases. I am going to need to pick up a few more.  Finally the Gold Nuggets insert from back when Topps celebrated gold in the last decade.  The gold shiny card is pretty nice to look at the scan doesn't quite do it justice.

There is my quick tribute to one of my favorite players of all time and arguably the best player to ever play in MLB history.  He has my vote but I predict he will be named on about 1/3 of the ballots case.

I just want to leave you with this, the most commonly named player of the guys new to the ballot being discussed as likely to get in the HOF I have heard is Craig Biggio.  Ask yourself this, if you were a pitcher would you prefer to face Bonds or Biggio? If you were a fan would you rather see Bonds or Biggio come to the plate?  Biggio was a great player but Bonds was on a completely different level as a player and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.