Bonds, Sosa, Clemens on the HOF Ballot

[The stache]

Of those three (Bonds, Clemens, Sosa), the only one that I would even consider voting for would be Bonds... in my view, he was the only one of the three who had a HOF caliber career prior to juicing.

 

I have to agree with this. As much as I hate that Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career home run record because he juiced, he was easily a first ballot Hall of Famer before he started bulking up. He had 259 home runs and 300 + stolen bases, 3 MVPs, 5 gold gloves and 5 silver sluggers....before he was 30. And his later years? Well, you can say what you want about how steroids made him even more of a home tun threat, but when you hit .370, walk 198 times, and still hit 46 home runs...at age 37, you're a great player.

 

In a four year span from 2001 to 2004, Bonds walked 755 times. That's one of the most mind-blowing statistics I've ever seen.

[The stache]

As far as this whole steroids and the Hall of Fame debate goes, Eric Byrnes on the MLB Network had a great solution the other night. Vote the players in that deserve it based on their performance, and then have a section of the MLB Hall of Fame that explains the steroid era. Don't exclude anybody at all that is suspected because we're never going to know definitively who used, and who didn't.

 

Players that did use are going to be voted in at some point (Bonds being a prime example). Players that are worthy and didn't use might not get in because they are somehow guilty by association (they were a power hitter in the steroid era, ie Bagwell and Piazza). I'd rather induct somebody that used than exclude somebody that didn't use.

[danzig6767]

Biggio gets in sooner than he otherwise would because other players were more obviously involved in PEDs..

 

That's the rub. Just because a player like Biggio wasn't a home run hitter, that doesn't mean he didn't ever use PED's. Same with pitchers besides Clemens.

 

Big hulking guys like McGwuire, Bonds, and Sosa were obvious, but clearly the league as a whole was awash in roids, so writers can only guess about players who they assume were clean.