Bonds, Clemens and Sosa won’t get my Hall vote, yet
If you’re doing it right, it should take three to four hours to fill out a ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
You think back to the time when you saw the candidates on the field. You look at the players you deemed worthy of consideration in past years. And you go over the accomplishments of players who are listed on the ballot for the first time.
And that’s where things have become difficult this year.
There were 24 new names on the ballot I received in the mail last week, and five of those candidates have resumés that scream Hall of Fame. After several days of mulling over the choices, I voted for two of them — Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio.
I didn’t vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Sammy Sosa. That’s not to say I won’t vote for them in the future — as long as they receive a minimum number of votes the players remain on the ballot for 15 years — but they’re not getting my nod on the first ballot.
All three players put up tremendous numbers, and there was a time when Sosa and Mark McGwire were credited with saving the game after the 1994 lockout that local fans will remember might have cost the Expos their best chance at winning the World Series.
When Sosa and McGwire led the assault on Roger Maris’s record of 61 home runs in a season, there was some talk about lively baseballs that were being wound tighter than usual by little old ladies in Haiti. We subsequently learned it was the players, and not the balls, that were being juiced. Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro have all had a shadow cast over their accomplishments because they have been investigated for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, and Sosa threw in a corked bat for good measure.
There is a school of thought that Clemens and Bonds should get a pass because they put up Hall of Fame numbers before they became involved with drugs. Each voter has to make his own decision on this question, but I’m following Rule 5 in the Baseball Writers Association of America’s rules for elec- tion to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The rule states: “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the teams on which the player played.”
Pete Rose was ignored by a majority of voters for the 15 years he was on the ballot, and McGwire and Palmeiro have fallen far short of the 75 per cent of votes needed for election in recent years. McGwire, who is on the ballot for the seventh year, was on 19.5 per cent of the ballots last year, while Palmeiro — who first appeared on the ballot in 2010 — received 12.6 per cent.
I suspect Bonds, Clemens and Sosa may receive slightly more support, but I don’t expect any of them to get the first-ballot recognition that would have been theirs if they hadn’t used drugs. The black mark against them is their arrogance in denying any wrongdoing. Everyone loves redemption stories, but they require a degree of repentance. That’s where sportsmanship and integrity figure in the equation, and these players are in the same league as disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Who’s on my ballot this year?
There’s Biggio, who was one of baseball’s finest leadoff hitters for 20 years with the Houston Astros, and Piazza, who hit more home runs that any other catcher in history and had a .308 batting average.
Pitchers David Wells and Curt Schilling have borderline credentials bolstered by post-season success, and Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell and former Expo Tim Raines are all guys who have had my support in the past, and the clock is ticking on some of them.
Barry Larkin was the only player elected last year and he was on the ballot for the third time. Smith is on the ballot for the 11th time and Trammell is on for the 12th time.