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| Yes | 60% | 163 votes | Total: 272 votes | |
| No | 40% | 109 votes |
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I believe without a doubt that Barry Bonds should be stripped of his homerun title. The fact that he used performance enhancing drugs makes his record illegitimate in my opinion. Let's look at the reasons why Bonds should lose the title.
Rules were broken
Any time an athlete chooses to break the rules in their respective sport, they not only create an uneven playing field for all other athletes that refuse to break that rule, but the offender also compromises the integrity of the sport in the eyes of the fans. Rules are in place to ensure that all athletes have the same opportunities afforded to them. This in turn lets the fans cheer their favorite teams on with the confidence that their team has an equal chance to succeed. If the message is sent that rules can be broken, but no consequence will be dealt, it becomes disheartening to the fans because they are no longer certain that they are watching a fair competition.
Precedent has been set in other sports
All sports, to my knowledge, strip their champions of titles if it is discovered that they have used performance enhancing drugs. I look at a record stat as somewhat of a championship. Instead of being determined over a determined number of contests, it is built over a career. But it still has the same significance as a world championship or gold medal. It signifies that athlete as the best in the world. Numerous Olympic athletes have been stripped of their medals due to use of steroids. Boxers, mixed martial artists, weightlifters, and a host of athletes in many different sports have been sanctioned and stripped of accolades due to their decision to use drugs. Baseball allowing this the record to stand damages the integrity of the sport in a way.
It is an extremely difficult record to achieve
The homerun record is achieved over a lifetime, a career. It is not something that can be attained in a short amount of time. The other players that were chasing this record for their entire career have been slighted and treated unfairly. This is not something that one can simply say, I'll get it next year. This is an accomplishment that very few will even be able to ATTEMPT to achieve. It requires consistency, hard work, and a bit of luck over many years. For the record to be given to an athlete that cheated in order achieve it is disrespectful to all those who tried to reach the accomplishment fairly. Their efforts were in vain due to the fact that they decided to be honorable and fair.
In my opinion, there should not even be a question as to whether or not his record should stand. He achieved it by CHEATING. There should not be an asterisk. There should not be a footnote. There should be no mention of his name whatsoever in the record book. It is not a valid statistic. It was achieved through illegal means and to let it stand cheapens the game of baseball and encourages the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Learn more about this author, Shane Tucker.
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No
Okay, let us break this down. We are arguing that Barry Bonds should be stripped of a record he rightfully earned, hmm. Until you can prove that WITHOUT a doubt he used steroids when Major League Baseball had a policy against there use, than the record is to stay his. Point blank! The year in which everyone wants to accuse Barry Bonds of abusing steroids was in 2003, according to Major League Baseball Player Handbook; there was no testing policy and/or rule against their use until the beginning of the 2005 season, 2 years later. Based on these facts, Barry Bonds did not "CHEAT", yes he used a performance, enhancing drug; as did Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite and Alex Rodriguez. He used the same steroids as Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Miguel Tejada, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and the entire list of abusers. But, he used steroids, when major league baseball did not acknowledge them as an illegal drug.
Now, if you are going to play the morality card, which 98.9% of you do when you make the ill advised statement that Barry Bonds should have his records stripped, then the same should be said for Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Williams was a womanizer, as was Mantle and Ruth. Williams, also treated the media with tremendous disrespect, just as Maris did while he was on his epic run in 1961.Ruth, drank ILLEGALLY (yeah, the prohibition era) during games. Mantle would come to the park wreaking of liquor, and suffering from hangovers while DiMaggio was known for domestic violence only it was not illegal, when he played. If you are going to make accusations about a baseball player scarring the record books, then these men did worse to their communities and very little good for the game, but instead of being seen as "CRIMINALS" they are revered as GOD's in the baseball record books.
If you look at Barry Bonds accomplishments then he is arguably the greatest baseball player EVER. He is the ONLY baseball player to have joined the 400 homeruns-400 stolen bases and 500 homeruns-500 stolen bases clubs. He is a 40-40 player, 3x 20-20 player and 3x 30-30 player; nobody else has ever accomplished that. He had eight gold gloves, 3 MVP awards, 3 Silver Slugger awards and that was PRIOR to his disputed 2003 season. With all of that on your resume, there is only two things to do, retire or get better and at 36, you can't expect to NATURALLY get stronger, faster and better offensively. So without any rules against the use, Barry Bonds did the same thing that many players did only problem with it, steroids transitioned players like Sosa, McGwire, Tejada and Canseco from average players into great players; but it transitioned Bonds from a first ballot Hall of Famer into Bud Selig's personal scape goat.
Barry Bonds should keep ALL of his MLB records, because at the time he enhanced his performance, the substance was not illegal by baseball's rules and handbook. Gambling was. Steroids became a rule in 2005. Therefore, you can not compare Bonds to Pete Rose or Rafael Palmeiro both committed their crimes when baseball had a clearly defined rule against steroids and gambling; in 2003 baseball did not; therefore; major league baseball can not rightfully place an asterisk by his name, nor can they strip him of the accomplishments.If they do, then we need to make it all right, by stripping those statistical accomplishments of Babe Ruth (alcoholism - prohibition), Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettite, Reggie Jackson (cocaine use), Daryl Strawberry (cocaine habit), Roger Maris and Ted Williams (disrespecting the media), Mickey Mantle (womanizing, alcoholism) and Joe DiMaggio (Domestic Abuse) - oh, then that means we have to strip every Yankee Dynasty the past 100 years... here's to being ignorant.
Learn more about this author, James Lagrow.
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