MLB.com:Do you feel you belong in the Hall?
Bonds:Oh, without a doubt. There’s not a doubt in my mind.
MLB.com:How do you think the writers are going to handle you and the players of your era who are [linked] to performance-enhancing drugs?
Bonds:You have to vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on. If you vote on your assumptions or what you believe or what you think might have been going on there, that’s your problem. You’re at fault. It has nothing to do with what your opinion is. Period. If that’s the case, you better go way, way back and start thinking about your opinions. If that’s how you feel life should be run, I would say then you run your Hall of Fame the way you want to run your Hall of Fame. That’s what I think. That’s my personal opinion. If you want to do the Hall of Fame the way the Hall of Fame is supposed to be done, then you make the right decision on that. If you don’t, that’s on you. To stamp something on your assumptions, it doesn’t work for me.
MLB.com:What are your thoughts on how the Clemens trial wound up?
Bonds:I was overwhelmed with happiness for Roger. Very happy. Roger is a great athlete and a great pitcher. I think Roger Clemens is telling the truth, and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. He’s acquitted. Now everyone leave him alone, let him be. He went through the system just as I did and he deserves respect and forgiveness and move on. We have sacrificed our lives and bodies for this game. We have beat our bodies up for something that we love to do. OK? They accused him. They accuse whoever. Who cares? He was acquitted. He deserves the same rights everyone else does. And he deserves the same respect he’s always had. I love him. He was one of the greatest pitchers I’ve ever faced. He’s always been a good friend of mine. I will go to the end of the earth for that man.
MLB.com:And what about your legal situation?
Bonds: Mine is on appeal for obstruction of justice. So what? I have to say I’m a felon of obstruction of justice because that is my title. That is it and hopefully (the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) will see the light and overturn it. And if they don’t, I will accept what my punishment was and will have to move on. But I would like for those same people to respect me in the same fashion. I went through that system just like a lot of people have done. I fought for what I thought was right. I got a conviction for obstruction of justice. What that means, I don’t understand it. But it is what it is. I accept it. And that’s the end of it.