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When told the results of the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, Barry Bonds responded by saying, "I guess I'm in (the Hall of Fame) then, huh? Otherwise, I really don't have a comment."
Baseball fans have mixed feelings about Barry Bonds. They are decidedly ambivalent in their views whether or not they want him to continue playing or even be elected into the Hall of Fame.
Baseball fans, surveyed in a national USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, would slightly prefer Bonds retire now but would still put him in the Hall of Fame.
"I guess I'm in (the Hall of Fame) then, huh?" said Bonds, while leaving the San Francisco Giants spring training site Monday. "Otherwise, I really don't have a comment."
Just 49% of fans surveyed believe Bonds should be elected to the Hall of Fame, compared to the 43% who want to keep him out of Cooperstown, in the aftermath of the steroid allegations in excerpts from the upcoming book, Game of Shadows.
Last summer, 57% of fans surveyed said Bonds belonged in the Hall of Fame. Players must receive 75% of votes cast by the Baseball Writers Association of America for election to the Hall of Fame.
Also in the survey, only 41% of fans want to see him play this year while 46% want him to retire. If Major League Baseball ever concludes Bonds is guilty of taking steroids, 52% of fans believe his records should be taken away.
The results were based on telephone interviews of 478 baseball fans conducted March 10-12. Margin of error is plus or minus 5%.
"I don't think he should be in the Hall of Fame," said W.L. Helton, 74, of Powell, Ala., who participated in the survey. "If anybody is found doing steroids or any of that stuff, they should be out. O-U-T. Same goes for (Mark) McGwire and all of those guys."
Said Joanne Trovato-Brown, 55, of Philadelphia: "I don't care much about sports. I care more about social issues. And drug testing, I think, is a complete joke. Surgeons go in and operate on patients, and if something goes wrong, they don't do drug tests on them.
"It's not right. It's unconstitutional."
Bonds, 41, who has 708 career home runs — six shy of Babe Ruth and 47 shy of home-run king Hank Aaron — has never tested positive for steroids since they began testing in 2003.
Commissioner Bud Selig said he will review the Bonds allegations in the book, which is scheduled to be released March 23.
Source: AP