I miss the days of Dale Murphy, when one of the best baseball players of the ’80s promised a disabled girl that he would hit a home-run for her and delivered on his promise by hitting two. Murphy, who mostly played for the Atlanta Braves (who stunk in the ’80s), was MVP twice in a row, won five consecutive Gold Glove awards, and led the National League from 1980 to 1991 in home runs and runs batted in. He was also outstanding off the field, refusing to allow his money or celebrity status to lead him to compromise his integrity. He never took illegal drugs; I don’t think he even drank.

Today, though, you’ve got Barry Bonds. I used to like Bonds — I readily recall the times when he would go “30-30″, hitting 30+ homers and stealing 30+ bases in the same season. Bonds used to be fast. Now he’s just juiced…I mean…big and slow.

With the recent Baseball Hall of Fame vote putting Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn into the Hall of Fame, the big news was not how deserving both of those players were at being selected. No, the big news was that Mark McGwire did not make it. Then, shortly after, Barry Bonds talks to reporters and says that he thinks that McGwire and the infamous, gambling Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame. Forget the fact that Rose was banned from playing baseball and that McGwire has brought more shame than fame to the previously venerable sport (well…mostly venerable, at least before the strikes of last decade).

What’s even sadder than Bonds’ view on those who have been excluded from the Hall of Fame — which makes sense given that he’ll face some of the same hurdles as McGwire does when he (Bonds) retires — is the seeming carelessness he displays about breaking Hank Aaron’s career home run record. Bonds has hit more homers than Babe Ruth and now is “sure [he is] going to break the record this year.” He only needs 22 more, so he likely will smash right through the record of 755. Given the current animosity toward McGwire for his obvious use of “performance-enhancing substances”, and the apparent presence of those same “substances” in the performance of Bonds, Bonds should expect to meet opposition to his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Bonds ought to just retire now and save us all the headache of dealing with the contradiction of disallowing baseball’s home run leader into baseball’s HoF. The other option will be to create a new room in the Hall of Fame and call it the “Room of Shame”. Then you could stick Bonds, McGwire, and Rose in there together, with exhibits on how much they tarnished the great pastime.