PAST TIME FOR BONDS, CLEMENS TO BE IN HALL
It’s absurd the two greats are not in
We read every word of the letter Joe Morgan sent to Hall of Fame voters two months ago, telling us not to vote for steroid users.
We listen to Hall of Famer players who tell us they don’t want steroid users in.
We get the emails and voicemails and Twitter messages from baseball fans imploring us not to vote for them.
We understand all of the sentiments, and embrace the passion on this issue, but can we be honest?
It’s too damn late.
How many players are already inducted into the Hall of Fame that used steroids, HGH or other performanceenhancing drugs in their careers? You probably can’t count them on one hand.
If you want to count greenies or amphetamines, well, there might not be a handful of players in the entire Hall of Fame who weren’t habitual users, or at least experimented with them.
“Guys took things ever since baseball existed,” Hall of Famer Willie McCovey recently told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It may not have been steroids, but guys took things like those greenies and stuff so they could play the next day.
“You’re telling me everybody is clean as a whistle? You played against guys who were doing the same thing he was doing, so what the heck?”
Amen.
Even Bonds’ godfather and McCovey’s teammate, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, was named as a source of am-
phetamines by former New York Mets and Pirates first baseman John Milner in the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials.
So suddenly now everyone has morals and we’re supposed to keep out anyone who ever used performance-enhancing drugs?
Sorry, that door has already been knocked off its hinges and left in splinters after being stampeded by PED users.
And now we’re supposed to keep Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens out of the Hall of Fame?
You kidding?
Why, simply because they were too good, with Bonds breaking the most historic record in sports with his 762 home runs, or Clemens’ 354 wins and 4,672 strikeouts?
It’s absurd that two of the greatest players in the history of the game are not in the Hall of Fame.
Yet we’re going to punish them again this year when the balloting is announced Wednesday evening.
We will see Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and probably Trevor Hoffman voted in, joining Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, who were elected in December by the Modern Era ballot.
But the two guys who combined for 15 MVP and Cy Young awards — 13 more than the combined total of the six likely inductees — will be sitting home for the sixth consecutive year.
Oh, and just in case you’re keeping score, Bonds and Clemens failed just as many drugs tests as everyone who’ll be inducted into Cooperstown: zero.
These two men were easily the greatest players of their era, which happened to be the steroid era, when there was no testing until 2005 and steroid use was about as common as chewing tobacco. No one cared.
Did you hear anyone complaining when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire invigorated the game of baseball in 1998 with the home run race, shattering Roger Maris’ season record?
How about when Clemens helped lead the Yankees to two of their three consecutive World Series titles?
Sure, there were always whispers about steroid use, and in 1995, I chronicled the growing concern among players and MLB officials about the apparent epidemic, but public complaints were rare. Management never scolded anyone. And fans continued to worship their favorite players, whether accused of cheating or not.
You want hypocrisy? Wait ’til next year when Andy Pettitte and his glossy résumé is on the ballot.
Will the same folks who refuse to vote for Bonds and Clemens vote for Pettitte? He used performance-enhancing drugs. He even admitted it. He claims he tried it only once. Yes, just like when you were caught speeding, telling the police officer it was your first time, too.
Will Joe Morgan write another letter to make sure Pettitte is kept out?
Bonds and Clemens played in a different era when there were no rules, when general managers and managers actually encouraged their own players to use PEDs, knowing it would help their team.
Can you imagine how many more homers Bonds would have hit if he wasn’t facing pitchers on the juice, or how many more victories Clemens would have produced if not facing juiced-up hitters?
It was rampant throughout the game, and if you want to feel for someone, check out Fred McGriff, who hit 493 homers and drove in 1,550 runs but who hasn’t sniffed the Hall of Fame simply because his stats were dwarfed by sluggers in the steroid era.
“I guess I was the dummy,” McGriff said.
My line of demarcation involving PED users on the Hall of Fame ballot is whether a player tested positive and was suspended at any time in his career.
Manny Ramirez might have been one of the greatest right-handed hitters in baseball history, but with two failed drugs tests and 150 games worth of suspensions, he’s out.
Alex Rodriguez, who hit 696 home runs, the fourth most in history, is out, too, having been suspended for the entire 2014 season for performance-enhancing drug use.
If you want to debate whether Edgar Martinez deserves to be in the Hall of Fame over McGriff, bring it on. I’ll take McGriff, who had 184 more homers, 243 more hits, 289 more RBI and 130 more runs scored and actually played the field, but I appreciate the passionate arguments from my friends in the Northwest.
If you want to debate Mike Mussina and his 54 more victories over Curt Schilling on my ballot, bring it on.
But if you try to tell me Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are not Hall of Famers, how it’s morally wrong to continue to support their candidacy, you lost me.
When my Hall of Fame ballot comes into the mail, the first two names I deliberately check every year are Bonds and Clemens.
I will do it again next year. Right up until the day they are elected into the Hall of Fame, or, if injustice prevails, their eligibility runs out in 2022.
Only when Bonds and Clemens are inducted will we truly have the greatest players in the Hall of Fame.
Well, with the exception of the alltime hits king, but Pete Rose is an argument for another day.