It seems crazy, but Barry Bonds’s, Pete Rose’s and Roger Clemens’s Hall of Fame bids are a matter of “if” and not “when.”
When you think of the Hall of Fame — regardless of what sport precedes it, whether it be football, basketball or even rock and roll — you think “the best ever.”
This is not necessarily the case in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
If you get a chance to visit the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, you’ll see the likes of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams, along with over 300 more of the greatest players to ever play the game.
But if you are looking for the slugger who hit the most career home runs, you won’t find him. If you want to see the player with the most home runs in a single season, not there.
How about the all-time hits leader? Nope, not there either.
Also not there? The most dominant pitcher of his era (if not all-time): the guy who won seven Cy Young awards, finishing his career ranked third all-time in strikeouts.
The reason behind these three gentlemen not being recognized among the greatest to ever play the game is because all three, in one way or another, are considered “tainted.” Whether proven or just popular suspicion, they have been held back from having a bronze statue next to other immortals of the game.
Barry Bonds
The all-time leader in home runs in a single season, along with most career home runs, Bonds was the most feared hitter ever. At best, he would get pitched to one at-bat per game. But seriously: when his team was down by four or five runs in the latter part of a game with nobody on base, he would be intentionally walked. Unsurprisingly, he is also the career leader in walks.
Some career numbers that stick out the most: 2558 walks, just 1539 strikeouts, a .298 batting average, 2,935 hits, and 762 home runs. That means one of every four of his hits left the ballpark.
Bonds was a seven-time MVP and a 14-time All-Star in his 22-season career. Every at bat during his chase of the single-season home run record interrupted other games so the world could watch it live. The same thing happened when he was chasing the all-time career total.
There are two reasons Bonds isn’t in the Hall of fame.
First, he wasn’t liked by many people. He came off arrogant and cocky, but he very well backed it up.
Second, the black cloud that Bonds created through the use of steroids, which perhaps has never been proven to be 100 percent true, unlike in the cases of other players of that era who have been proven to have cheated the steroid way.
The same people who wrote about him every night when he was chasing history are now some of the same people who refuse to vote for him to get into the Hall of Fame, which in itself is hypocritical.
Football’s greatest player ever, Lawrence Taylor, is in the Football Hall. NBA’s best, Michael Jordan, has a spot in the Basketball Hall. Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player ever, is in the hockey hall.
But the greatest baseball player ever, Barry Bonds, does not have a spot in the Baseball Hall.
Pete Rose
The all-time leader in hits, at-bats, and games played is not among those enshrined in baseball immortality. Unlike Bonds, Pete Rose was loved when he played the game.
The blemish on his résumé is a result of it coming to light that Pete Rose was a gambler, which in and of itself isn’t the worst addiction to have. But when you gamble on games that you are managing, which will most definitely have an effect on the outcome of the game depending on who you bet on that night? That is where it becomes much more despicable.
But what he was able to accomplish as a player should stand on its own. The gambling stuff should be a separate argument, especially since, in today’s society, we are all about second chances for whatever addiction.
Roger Clemens
Seven Cy Young awards, 11 All-Star games, over 4,600 career strikeouts thrown, and over 350 career wins. But, like the other two, not in Cooperstown.
Like Bonds, Clemens is under the cheater cloud. He spent 24 years in the league as a dominant MLB pitcher whose career numbers are pretty consistent across the board year after year.
All three of these men deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. You can’t claim to honor the best of the best, yet not include the best in the sport’s most important categories. Whether it be gambling or steroid use or the suspicion of one of the two, they should be in no matter what.
Throwing or hitting takes skill above anything else. Do steroids help get the bat on the ball? Or allow you to throw a fastball up and in on the corner for a called strike? No, they do not.
Take a look at the latest player suspended for drugs, Tim Beckham. In six seasons, he has hit a total of 63 home runs, including just 15 this season. Did the drugs he consumed make him the most feared hitter in baseball? Absolutely not.
There are players who were caught cheating but are still enshrined. One guy who used too much pine tar and another who was a spit-baller are two that come to mind. Do we know for sure that none of the men ever took performance enhancers of some sort, but have just never been caught? Or if they ever used a corked bat?
And one more thing — whether it is right or not, if you could double your salary at your job by doing something “frowned upon” (illegal or not), would you?
