For the acceptance speeches alone, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds should be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Rocket might misremember his own career. Bonds might thank himself for . . . being himself.
The sound bites will live on in infamy and sports radio bits. Alas, the debate surrounding the Hall of Fame candidacies of Bonds and Clemens, who were officially put on the ballot Wednesday — two of the 37 players presented for consideration — isn’t based on what will come out of their mouths, but what they put into their bodies.
Comments
While I agree the pre-steroid careers of Bonds and Clemens merit Hall inclusion, there is no need to send them in on the first ballot. Make both wait a few years and flounder through years of not enough votes. Send a message... any message... that steroid use isn't OK because "everyone's doing it."
The known cheaters need to be put on ice for a few years. Putting those two scumbags in on the 1st ballot would be a huge embarrassment to the game.
The first half of this article is the best argument to admit Bonds and Clemens that I have heard to date. The second half should be deleted. As a sportswriter, in this case, you are charged with a vote that includes morality. Youu cannot avoid that.
Well, maybe, but I say, make them wait a year....getting in on their first try seems to validate their whole body of work. Making them wait sends the message that -- on second thought -- their pre-steroid career outweighs their arrogance and the taint of steroid use.
taint of steroid use?? their careers were based on steroids. wait a year? what a fake punishment.
I also take the stand that they should be made to wait a year. It sends a message, however slight it may be, that at least someone is taking note of their route to the Hall. A great deal of the bias towards Bonds and Clemens is the attitude they presented. If they had "fessed up" early on instead of clingling to their self righteous denials, then the public and media may have cut them some slack.
Identified ballplayers from The Age of Steroids must be permanently banned. Period. The effect they have had on teenage athletes has been devastating. As should be their branding, punishment and shunning. Period.
Commissioner Giamati was right about making examples of egregious rule breakers and there hasnt been as good a leader of baseball since. The Boys of Summer need to be treated as the men they are, not the pampered brats who are able to ignore simple rules.
Good argument. But, if I were voting I would NOT vote for these guys based on the clear criteria. You have to look at the WHOLE record. Someone who leads a good life and then murders someone goes to jail not to the award podium.
The Globe fired Barnicle for plagiarism. Bonds and Clemens enhanced their performance with steroids. What is the difference? Your reference to Ty Cobb and a racial issue happened in different times. You Sir, have not written a meaningful and interesting article, since joining the Globe. Kindly stop boring us with your drivel.
Great reference to Barnicle. His buddy Shag was hard on Bob Kraft and Bill bellichick, but deaf, dumb and blind with regard to Barnicle.
Pete Rose banned for life for gambling. Using PED is worse. These guys should not be voted in.
Who cares. The Halls of fame are what they are, money grabs.
Wow, the league and fans claim steriod use ruined the game, but ignoring this will bring down everyone one prior as well. They should not share the space with true Hall of famers.
"That’s not an endorsement of cheating or cheaters' . It most certaintly is.
The vote needs now to be taken from the sportswriters and given to current Hall of Famers. That'll bring some actual integrity to the vote.
Hall of infamy for PEDs users.
It's the WRITER'S Hall of Fame - thus the writers have every right to determine who has the character to get into their select group. You make a great argument about Bonds and Clemens having HoF careers before the PED use, but putting them in the Hall will condone their PED use, which outweighs the "injustice" of having these great players make the Hall. Like Pete Rose, they should serve as examples of how greats should not behave. As for Gaylord Perry - there were umpires at every game that could have (and sometimes did) throw him out for cheating.
I assume you were trying to be funny with your first sentence, but it wasn't. Anyway, think of the message your votes send to kids-that using steroids to cheat is okay as long as you can get away with it. Besides, Clemens himself said he does not give a "rat's a--" about the HOF anyway.
Known cheaters can't be allowed in the HOF. Unfortunately some unknown and/or suspected cheaters will get in but that's the unfortunate result of this mess.
I guess with Gasper, taking Kodaks of very little use was a major offense of which he wrote incessantly. But two absolute beneath contempt slugs, who lied, cheated, and, in my opinion suborned witnesses are OK with Gasper. This is what we are left to read now in the absence of Ray Fitzgerald, Leigh Montville and Charley Pierce, ya know, when the Globe sports section was actually credible.
Articles like basically condoning cheating make me think twice about reading the Globe Sports section. Should Gaspar be a Globe columnist?
This logic is simply illogical. If the weight of circumstantial evidence tells us someone was a cheater, they do not deserve to be honored. Period.
I think Christopher Gasper hits it right on the head in this column! MLB Network has been showing Ken Burn's masterful documentary "Baseball" all this week (unfortunately broken up by commercial breaks), and I happened to watch the segment on Ty Cobb...not only was the man a rascist, which was, as noted, not uncommon for white southerners at the time, but his refusal to take the field with black ballplayers led to the segregation of baseball itself! Even among his contemporaries, Cobb was considered a wingnut, if not a dangerous psychopath...and yet, full Cooperstown enshrinement was never even questioned!
The PED period of 90's Major League Baseball certainly should give writers pause in evaluating statistical benchmarks, but to use it as a reason to deny either Clemons or Bonds their obvious qualifications for admittance would be, to my mind, an even greater travesty.
Eloquently written but I coudn't disagree more.
Your comparisons to earlier players is most apt - there are many others who were racists and anti-Semites who are happily ensconced in the HOF so why apply a different criteria?. While the use of PEDs, greenies et al helped caused player results to soar - they were still in competition with their contemporaries and they stood out. The analysis of their prior stats is especially compelling and should be the acid test (not meaning LSD). Well said.
All the writers who are voting for HOF players this year should retread Steve Wilstein's articles regarding the beginnings of the steroid era with the discovery of Andro in Mark McGwiire's locker in 1998. Then look inwardly and ask what individually what he ( or she ) did then or afterward to investigate. If nothing or if purposely "looked the other way" then just abstain from voting. I suspect there would be very few votes. Let's face it, that "aint gonna" happen. Question ~ How complicate was all the sports media during the steroid era from its beginning and middle? Many did hop on board when criticizing steroid use became popular. My opinion is to not vote them in the first year. This will initiate much needed reflection and discussion for the remainder of the year by all who love baseball. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens should be on the outside looking in for at least one year. They need to reflect as well. Their speeches can wait a year.
reread Steve Wilstein's...autocorrect - both a blessing and a curse.
How complicit...autocorrect again
Neither one deserve being in the Hall of Fame...maybe the Hall of Shame.