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Here comes “the Clear” issue. Did he or didn’t he? But Bond’s breakout season was two whole years ago; and now he’s in the 40s, where he’s been before. Did he cheat? If so, did he come late to the party? Has he now got “religion?”
Now, how about the older guys, some long dead? Did any of them gulp amphetamines or other forms of speed? Who knows? Want to dig ‘em up and go for DNA surveys on their remains? How’s about living legends. Wanna get hair samples and run ‘em through electron microscopes for tell-tale remnants of past sins?
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It's the wrong question, at least to my mind. It does not stand in Bonds' favor that we apply greater standards to him out of ignorance or presentism. There's no validation of his accomplishment in seeing that he was a great player and hall-of-famer
without taking steroids, and those who criticize him now aren't taking any legitimacy away from older accomplishments. Even given the worst of the accusations, even if Bonds is swimming in juice up to his nose, his career and his numbers are a remarkable achievement for a ballplayer, and if that is the standard you wish to apply as as a baseball fan, that's your prerogative. Giants fans filling the seats are within their rights to enjoy the spectacle and the achievement, though if they choose to let their feelings as fans influence their thoughts as to whether Bonds cheated or not, I might judge them to be a bit silly. It's their choice as fans to apply whatever standards they like to their players. If they choose to enjoy it, they can, and if they want me to confirm he's a great baseball player, he is.
So what other question is there to be asking? Is there an asterisk? Of course there is, and the record books don't need to be putting it there for it to be recognized by public opinion. The public can observe the evidence at hand, and it doesn't need a trial-tested burden of proof... there is no adequate burden on MLB to gather the proof, such that up until quite recently not only could we not know that a given player was cheating, but we had no idea whatsoever as to whether the given player was
not cheating, and we have had athletes individually and as part of the MLBPA doing everything in their power to avoid comprehensive testing. Neither Bonds nor any other player gets a pass on this, and if that means, that, over time an entire generation of ballplayers gets asterisks on their names and get excluded by my personal HOF list, so be it. As I see Bonds tie the record I can best describe my response as disinterest in home runs, disinterest in the player and relative disinterest in professional baseball... along with a great deal more interest and esteem for those players who do it cleanly.