Baseball writers, their panties in a collective bunch, have made it a crusade to keep the faces of the steroid era out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It was OK to put in guys who played before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, those who played in the decades of greenies, outright racist ass clowns like Ty Cobb and many others, but the likes of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and, next up, Alex Rodriguez, aren’t going to get in.
“It is what it is,” Bonds said Sunday night on ESPN’s “KayRod Cast,” which features Rodriguez and New York Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay.
“That’s their vote, they are entitled to their vote. But that dream is still not over for me,” said Bonds, baseball’s all-time home run leader, with 762.
Bonds won three of his seven National League MVP awards before going on the juice in the late ‘90s.
Rodriguez finished with 696 homers, three American League MVP awards and a career WAR of 117.6, ranking 16th all-time.
Bonds’ 162.8 WAR ranks fourth, behind Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson and Cy Young.
Clemens, who won seven Cy Young Awards and won 354 games, ranks eighth with a 139.2 WAR.
Those three are the only players eligible for induction in the top 60 in WAR all-time who are not in the Hall.
You can guess who the next two guys on that list might be: Pete Rose (65th, 79.6) and Curt Schilling (66th, 79.5).
Each of the five have their issues – in addition to ‘roids, Bonds, Clemens and A-Rod came across to writers (and others) as an arrogant prick; Rose bet on baseball; Schilling is an obnoxious Trump-loving, taxpayer-money-defaulting troll.
The Baseball Hall of Fame is supposed to highlight the best players of the different eras of baseball.
It’s hard to argue that Bonds, Clemens and A-Rod weren’t among the best players of the 1990s and 2000s, just as it is hard to argue that Rose wasn’t among the best players of the 1970s and 1980s.
Schilling is more of a longevity guy, but his career numbers don’t lie.
A-Rod joked on Sunday’s telecast that he and Bonds could try to play the rules for being voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America against the writers.
“Maybe we come back for one more at bat and reset the clock,” Rodriguez said. “Give us one A-B!”
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Chris Graham
