Baseball has broken its Bonds.

The greatest player to ever wear a uniform was once again excluded from the Hall of Fame.

We can argue logistics, steroids, character clauses, whatever you want; the facts don’t care. There has never been, there will never be, and there sure as hell never will be again a player like Barry Bonds.

In 2004, Barry Bonds walked 232 times. One hundred and twenty of those were intentional. Kyle Schwarber walked 108 times the entire 2025 season.

That same year, Bonds made only 238 outs.

When pitchers actually threw him a strike in 2004, he hit .609 against it.

Not fastballs. Strikes.

His 2004 season rivals what you could create in a sports simulation vacuum. What would happen if my team were playing the greatest player on earth, and everyone knew he was the greatest player?

We got to see it.

He stole 40+ bases three times in his career, including a 40-40 season in 1996, and collected eight Gold Gloves like they were participation trophies.

Seven MVP awards. Seven. A number so ridiculous it might as well be carved in stone, it will most likely never happen again in North America.

Baseball had years, literal years, to figure out how to handle this on a writer’s ballot. They refused. Now highlight reels rot in unpromoted YouTube playlists. MLB Network begs to run them and gets told no. The footage keeps collecting dust while another generation of kids grows up in a world where the greatest player to ever touch a baseball isn’t even a footnote in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Those young fans deserve better.

Hell, the game itself deserves better.

I can’t quite explain the rage and disappointment I feel toward the game I love.