Barry Bonds rounds the bases after hitting his 750th career home run off Arizona Diamondbacks' Livan Hernandez in the eighth inning on Friday at AT&T Park.

Check, if you will, your steroids whining at the door.

The question over whether Barry Bonds should be selected for the National League All-Star team has absolutely nothing to do with steroids.

You certainly can argue, if you want, about whether his home-run numbers should count, or about whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame (for the record, I'm OK with both), but those are really arguments that belong in another place.

Selection to the All-Star Game has only to do with this season — OK, maybe a little bit with last season too, but that's it.

Just as we really shouldn't put a lot of sentimentality into our All-Star votes, we shouldn't put a lot of resentment into them either.

Barry Bonds belongs in the July 10 All-Star Game for several valid, unjuiced reasons:

n He's pretty much the best player the San Francisco Giants have this season. The team is in last place in the NL West, the signing of Barry Zito hasn't been a particularly joyous occasion and Bonds is just about all the Giants have going for them right now.

n The rules say every team has to have a player in the All-Star Game (a darn good rule too, I believe). An argument could be made that catcher Bengie Molina is more deserving of being the Giants' representative, but there's no way he'll make the game with Russell Martin of the Dodgers and Paul Lo Duca of the Mets ahead of him in the voting, so why not Bonds?

n The Giants are hosting the All-Star Game at AT&T Park. It's true the stadium has gone through three names in the eight seasons it's been open, but the one constant has been Barry Bonds. It's definitely the house that Barry built. Now that San Francisco is welcoming baseball for the All-Star Game, how can you keep him out of it?

n It's one way — perhaps the only way — you'll be able to get Bonds and commissioner Bud Selig in the same stadium at the same time ever again.

However you feel about Bonds (and quite frankly, it's his me-me-me attitude that offends me, much more than any alleged steroid use he may have had), he's got the credentials to be in the All-Star Game.

He deserves to go.

Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com.