Frank Robinson: If Bonds Is Illegal, Wipe it Out of the Books

Hall of Famer Frank Robinson was a guest on Mike and Mike in the Morning on Tuesday. The interview was pleasant, with Robinson touching on several baseball issues. He seemed indifferent to where he stood on the all-time home run list (currently 6th with 586) because players keep passing him. Part of Frank's reasoning is that records are meant to be broken -- it's part of the spirit of the game. When it came to the question of Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron for the all-time home run record, Frank Robinson had this to say:

I look at it this way: It hasn't been proven publicly with [Barry Bonds] doing anything wrong. Until I have proof that he did something wrong, then I will accept him breaking the record and doing it what I call 'honestly and clean.' But if he is proven that he did something illegal, I've always said that you should wipe his record out of the books.

I consider Frank Robinson to be about as authoritative of a figure on the subject considering the crossover in his career. Robinson played from 1956-1976 when performance enhancing drugs were not believed to be a part of the game. During his career, Robinson slugged 586 "clean" home runs, which placed him 4th on the all-time list for many years. If anyone should get outraged about being passed up by players on performance enhancers, he certainly would have the right. But Robinson also managed on-and-off from 1975-2006, with '02-'05 being in the tail-end of the steroids era. That means Robinson's teams, job, and managerial record were influenced by some players who used illegal performance enhancers. In that respect, Robinson should understand how performance enhancers can be beneficial. So like I said, Frank Robinson's opinion on the issue should carry more weight than almost anyone else. And Robinson says he will accept Bonds' record until Barry's proven guilty, at which point you should wipe the records out of the book.