Book Doesn’t Discredit Bonds’ Hall Worthiness

The damaging, detailed allegations of steroid use by Barry Bonds in an upcoming book don’t change a thing for me. I already suspected he used performance-enhancing drugs. And I still believe he belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

In the book “Game of Shadows,” San Francisco Chronicle sportswriters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams allege that Bonds used an assortment of potent steroids after the 1998 season. Well, here’s what Bonds did before the 1999 season: hit .289 with 411 home runs and 1,216 runs batted in, won the National League most-valuable-player award three times, made eight All-Star teams and won eight Gold Gloves.

A Hall of Famer is someone who dominated or defined his era or both, and Bonds did that in the 1990s as well as the steroid-pumped early 2000s. In some ways his credentials were stronger before he started blasting home runs at ridiculous rates, because he was a better all-around player; all of his Gold Gloves and 445 of his 506 stolen bases came before 1999.

Bonds’ case is vastly different from that of Rafael Palmeiro’s, whose only credentials were a couple of time-honored numerical thresholds, 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Palmeiro’s case was shaky to begin with and his positive steroid test last season brings at least some of the numbers into question.

But Palmeiro already had failed the desirability test against his peers, let alone the all-time greats. How many years during his prime would you have taken him at first base ahead of, say, Frank Thomas?

During that same period, Barry Bonds was a must pick for your top three outfielders, year in, year out.

Where Bonds’ case differs from that of Pete Rose is that Bonds didn’t break a long-standing rule of baseball. Specifically, Rose violated Rule 21 (d): “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”

Though steroids were illegal, baseball didn’t have any rules against their use until 2002. And even if Bonds took androstenedione in 1997, as an ESPN magazine story alleges, it wasn’t a banned substance at that time.

If Bonds is barred from the Hall of Fame, it forces baseball to start cleansing its most prized asset: its history.

Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry’s abuse of substances -- on the baseball -- was so accepted that Nike even made a poster of him that had a Vaseline-jar theme.

Ken Caminiti admitted that he used steroids during his MVP season in 1996, yet his name is still on the list of winners with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson and all the other all-time greats.

It’s not only the steroid story that baseball is ashamed to face. Baseball doesn’t want to admit that its whole statistical foundation is flawed.

For far too long baseball has been fixated with numbers, as if the game could be distilled into some form of digital purity. The reality is the only numbers that remain relevant through the generations are the 90 feet between bases.

Here are a few of the changes that have taken place since Babe Ruth last swung his big plank of wood that bears little resemblance to today’s big-barreled, thin-handled bats: integration, domed stadiums, arthroscopic surgery and global warming.

And steroids.

This is not a Bonds issue, it’s a league-wide issue. The drugs are a part of the game and have been for a better part of the decade. If players are defined by their eras, Bonds came along at a time when steroid use was prevalent, and he produced on the field better than anyone else.

I’m convinced that so much of the anger directed toward Bonds is because he remains unapologetic.

Two years ago, Rose finally admitted he bet on baseball, some 14 1/2 years after he was banned from the game.

There are two acceptable responses to this book from Bonds: an admission or a lawsuit. If the book is true, stop lying to us. If it’s not true, go to court and get your money.

So far all we’ve heard from Bonds and his agent is that Barry won’t read the book and he plans to have a productive season. Thanks for the update.

It doesn’t help that the media aren’t willing to give Bonds any benefit of the doubt because he has treated them with disdain for so long. Dealing with Bonds is such an unpleasant process that if he were holding on Line 1, ready to give me the exclusive ultra-scoop confession that he used steroids, I wouldn’t take the call -- because that way I wouldn’t have to talk to Barry Bonds.

But the media’s personal feelings shouldn’t prevent them from voting Bonds into the Hall of Fame. Neither should the allegations in “Game of Shadows.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/Adandeblog.