Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader, has withdrawn from the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot after not being elected to Cooperstown over the course of 10 years.
Bonds could still enter the Hall through the Contemporary Baseball Era committee, but his ties to performance-enhancing drugs during his career appear to have affected any chance of him earning a plaque in the hallowed halls.
David Justice, a former All-Star outfielder who won World Series titles with the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees, endorsed Bonds for the Hall of Fame on Saturday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
David Justice of the New York Yankees during the American League Division Series against the Oakland Athletics on October 10, 2001, in the Bronx. (Sports News via Getty Images via Getty Images)
«They’ve already let guys in who have been tested, that people know about or have pretty good circumstantial evidence that they’ve already let in,» he told TMZ Sports.
«Barry Bonds is the baddest guy of my generation. The baddest guy of my generation. Without exception. Without exception.»
Justice explained that the only place Bonds was wrong was in his relationship with the media. She said Bonds did not give the media «the love» they had hoped for. Justice also said that Pete Rose should be a Hall of Famer, «without a doubt.»
The seven-time National League MVP said last week that he thinks he should be in the Hall.
«People have to understand that something is that the fact is that I was vindicated,» Bonds said on the first episode of BLeav’s «Hollywood Swingin'» with Stephen Bishop and Jerry Hairston Jr. «I went to court. I was in court federal, and I won my case. One hundred percent. Where is the vindication of me in my own sport? That’s what bothers me.»
Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants prepares to bat against the Pirates at PNC Park on August 13, 2007 in Pittsburgh. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
DAVID BELL OF THE REDS LOSES HIS COOL WITH THE REFEREE DURING GAME AGAINST THE BREWERS
But after the legal talk, Bonds said his numbers speak for themselves and that the writers unfairly punished him and players who have been suspended from the sport.
«Major League Baseball, and let’s be clear and direct, hasn’t had a rule, and it has rules, whether they were broken or not, there were rules, some rules,» Bonds continued. «My era, there were no rules. They changed the rules in 2003 or 2004, every time the rules started to change, there were rules. There are some people who were convicted by those rules during the case of those rules.
«Well, Major League Baseball said if you did X, you get suspended for X…His numbers stay the same based on what he’s accomplished, which doesn’t keep him from getting into the Hall of Fame. It has nothing to do with it. with that… Major League Baseball already grounded you for those seasons. Why is the Hall of Fame grounding me? It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make any sense that you’re being punished twice over for something you’ve already been punished for. .
«I belong with my teammates to that Hall of Fame. One hundred percent.»
Barry Bonds of the Pittsburgh Pirates during a game against the Giants on May 21, 1992 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In his final year on the ballot, Bonds received 66% of the votes of baseball writers. A player needs 75% for the election.
Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.