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In Defense Of Barry Bonds

In Defense Of Barry Bonds
By 

Sports Editor, The Huffington Post

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FILE - In this July 28, 2006, file photo, San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds waits on the dugout steps to bat in the eighth inning with bases loaded against the Pittsburgh Pirates during a baseball game in Pittsburgh. With the cloud of steroids shrouding many candidacies, baseball writers may fail for the only the second time in more than four decades to elect anyone to the Hall. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

A lot can be said about Clemens, Schilling, Palmeiro and McGwire, but I want to focus on Barry Bonds. Bonds, along with Clemens, is one of the two scapegoats of the industry of a tainted era. Records were broken, amazing feats were accomplished, and asterisks with footnotes have been affixed.

But here is the thing I feel that a lot of people forget. Barry Bonds was great before he allegedly took steroids. By most accounts, this began sometime in the mid-1990s. Time Magazine posted an interesting article titled The Evolution of Barry Bonds a few years back that profiles his physical and baseball stats by season.

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