CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT
Voters need to finally come to their senses, induct Bonds and Clemens to Hall of Fame
On Tuesday, we will find out if Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
I figured steroids accusations would keep the all-time greats from being first-ballot choices, a penalty for breaking the rules. That they would get to their
10th and final year of eligibility without earning a nod surprises me.
If baseball wanted a Hall of Fame without scoundrels and cheats and steroids users, a small double-wide would be twice the space needed to house those who could get in.
As is, Clemens and Bonds should have been inducted by now, joining the other questionable characters who are already in.
After this year, the pair, who are linked by on-the-field greatness and performance-enhancing drugs, will have to rely on the Veterans Committee for their final and most meaningful baseball honor.
This is not a just punishment for their transgressions, particularly Clemens, the former University of Texas star who has repeatedly and emphatically denied steroids use.
What else is an innocent man supposed to do?
Clemens even proclaimed his innocence before Congress, which led to a ridiculous potkettle prosecution for lying. Found not guilty by a jury of his peers, Clemens nevertheless walked out of that Washington, D.C., courtroom in 2012 convicted in the court of public opinion.
His sentence? Annual embarrassment at not getting voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
David Ortiz appears to be headed toward a first-ballot nod, despite being connected to steroids via his name being on a list of MLB players who tested positive for banned substances in 2003. MLB has said that some of those samples produced false positives.
Apparently, that and a likable personality have cleared the way for Ortiz to reach the Hall with lesser credentials than Clemens and Bonds.
It is also interesting how differently we treat performance-enhancing drugs in football compared with baseball.
Experts believe Julius Peppers will be a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible next year.
That he tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended for four games in his rookie season aren’t likely to be mentioned when his candidacy is discussed.
And that has absolutely no bearing on Texans fans wishing the team had drafted him with the No. 1 pick in the 2002 instead of David Carr. (Peppers went No. 2 to Carolina.)
Without question, dozens of Pro Football Hall of Famers used steroids.
Recognizing that it had a problem, the NFL was the first sports league in the country to start suspending players for performance-enhancing drug use.
Commissioner Pete Rozelle banned steroids use in the NFL in 1983, and he suspended 13 players at the start of the 1989 season, marking the first PED suspensions in American professional sports.
The NBA’s first PED suspension was handed down in 1999. The NHL’s first such suspension came in 2007.
MLB didn’t suspend a player for a failed PED test until 2005, when Alex Sanchez of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was given a 10-day sentence. Ironically, considering the home run boom brought on in part by steroids use, the first player popped by the league hit just six homers in 1,651 career plate appearances.
MLB’s slow reaction to steroids in the game resulted in a confusing time, during which performance-enhancing drugs ran rampant through the sport. Bonds and Clemens got caught in a steroids storm, allegedly, that played a significant role in boosting the sport’s popularity.
There is a hope that voters will come to their senses. A little, anyway.
Ryan Thibodaux, whose annual Hall of Fame tracking is an outstanding tease leading up to the release of the results, had 176 ballots on Saturday. Bonds was included on 77.3 percent of them, Clemens on 76.1 percent.
With the Hall of Fame threshold at 75 percent, one would think the pair, who retired in 2007, would have a shot.
But last year, each lost 12 percentage points from the tracking list to the final vote, as holders of the unknown ballots did not vote for them.
There is likely to be a repeat, meaning the all-time home run leader and one of the top three right-handed pitchers of alltime will not be honored at the Hall of Fame.
That’s a shame.