For Some Players, Not Reaching the Hall Just Brings More Fame

I don't agree with the Hall of Fame not letting Barry Bonds in. He was a significant baseball in the past. Even before steroids, he was an outstanding player. Having a lifetime batting average of .298 is an extremely hard task and is certainly worthy of the Hall of Fame. I don't believe any of the players in the 2019 class compare to Barry Bond's accomplishments. With or without steroids, I think he is one of the greatest players of all time. John Thorn, MLB's official historian, has said, "I would say that I were asked who were the greatest baseball players of all time, and your answer was to be someone other than Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, or Barry Bonds that you're crazy." That just goes to say, he was really that good. Baseball's Hall of Fame is the harder to enter than any other sport. I agree with the people that think the institution's role is to tell the story of the sport and its best players. Bonds, Clemens, and Rose were all great, and they should be recognized Cooperstown, NY.

Liars and cheaters are unacceptable, in any position, whether it be sports or our elected officials. it's not who you want your kids to emulate or grow up to be, and these liars and cheaters should be called out for being exactly who they are and who they chose to be, and they should not be rewarded for it.

Cheaters never prosper. Bonds wasn't great. He was a cheater. If baseball really had any guts, it would vacate all his records.

Articles like this and the attitudes of some of those interviewed within continue to illustrate the false equivalency of PED offending athletes with the likes of Mr. Peter Edward Rose and his scarlet letter G. Clemens, Giambi, Bonds, Sosa... they cheated in the way they played the game. Period. You can argue PEDs are inevitable or it makes for better baseball or whatever you like. These players cheated on the game. Rose, who is the best 5 tool baseball player ever, certainly of the modern era, as well as the all time hits leader, accomplished record breaking feats that we will not see fall in our lifetime and did it without PEDs, is kept out of the hall while he still lives and breathes mostly out of spite. Yes, he broke a golden rule... don't gamble on baseball games, but moreover he's being punished for Bart Giamatti's fatal heart attack during his investigation of Rose and for himself being a less than contrite and media savvy figure. If Rose was more eloquent and played by the unwritten rules of public prostration, he'd probably be in the hall today but being someone he's not is not how Rose got to be the best ball player. If we held Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth to the same accord, they'd be equally as marginalized as Rose and likely forgotten through time because both of those baseball great were terrible terrible people.

If Bonds and Clemens are allowed in, why not McGuire, Sosa and Ramirez? If they are all allowed, why not return gold medals to Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and every single gymnast and swimmer who ever doped? While you're at it, why not return all the Tour de France championships to Lance Armstrong? It's either cheating, or it's not. I believe it is and that's why I believe the consequences for that cheating have not been remotely severe or far-reaching enough. Championships have been won by teams because they knowingly fielded cheaters. Those championships are tainted. If one believes that PED's are not cheating, then there should be no rules against using them in any sports. The choice is clear.

bonds, clemens, and rose all had hall of fame careers and all were guilty of using ped's. that fact alone precludes their induction. president kennedy and even queen victoria were proven drug addicts yet they shine on in the eyes of many. with pun completely intended, the playing field should be leveled to include other fields of en devour.

I grew up in Ohio rooting for the Big Red Machine. Pete and Johnny were my heroes. Every day Pete walked into a major league clubhouse, he saw the sign that said anyone who bet on baseball would be banned from baseball. Yet he knowingly and repeatedly broke that rule. Many will say that Pete never bet against his own team. Says who? Pete, that’s who. He has demonstrably lied about much of this again and again. How can we believe him regarding betting against his own team? Further, let’s imagine a scenario in which Pete owes a bookie some big bucks. The bookie comes to Pete and says that, if the Reds lose their next game, Pete’s debt is forgiven. An odd pitching change or steal sign and voila, Pete is out of debt without having technically bet against his own team. Sorry, Pete, you can never get in. Bonds and Clemens (and others) seem to me almost assuredly to have used drugs to run up some of their huge numbers. A huge preponderance of evidence points that way. If it’s true, and I suppose some could argue against it with a straight face, then they don’t belong either. This perhaps is not quite as clear cut and unassailable as the case against Rose, but for me it’s clear. This is simply different from a corked bat or a spitball.

I say put them all in HOF, these were icons of the game. The fans deserve an unvarnished history of baseball and that can only be told through its greatest players and the controversies that engulfed them and their sport. The idea that HOF is only for "pure" competitors is a laughable hoax by the MLB powers, players, managers and teams have sought an edge and stretched the rules on and off the field for generations, using drugs, amphetamines, substances, deceit, spotters, coercive financial activities, exclusionary racism and worse. How about we throw any number of racists out of the HOF for their off field actions or those who worked so hard to preserve the color line? They had just as big an impact of the quality of competition and therefore HOF candidacies down through the years.

With the acceptance of "records" set during the Steroid Period in baseball, MLB is providing cover for the most unseemly era in the sport. With a wink and a nod, baseball accepts the acknowledged cheaters in McGuire and Sosa by allowing their records to stand in the books. Same too for those like Clements and Bonds whose records cheapen true achievers like Aaron, Mays and others who worked hard to hone their skills, some under the most oppressive of conditions imposed by segregation and grueling travel conditions. Admitting or even considering admission to Bonds is an insult to anyone who remembers the splinter of a player that came to the majors vs the bear that he was when he retired. The "clear" obviously had an effect. Worse yet, that insult makes the value of all records suspect just as juiced balls and parks built to glorify one aspect of the game. While the "old" Yankee Stadium had a short Right Field porch, Centerfield was 490 feet away with monuments and a flag pole to contend with on the playing field. The Polo Grounds was 279, 257 and 455 respectively, nothing near the places where Bonds had played. How many homers would he have had in Forbes field with 376 in Right and 462 in Center? With or without the clear Ultimately, to accept cheaters into the HOF, should provide admission to Jackson and Rose, for while what they did was wrong, penalties were penalties. Admission would be the clincher that MLB will have sold their souls and mortgaged any credibility.

if Bug Selig is in the hall of fame Bonds and Clemons should be in too.

The narrative exhibits at the Baseball Hall of Fame have plenty on Black Sox, Pete Rose's hitting achievements, scandals and the rest. That's the part you should go there for. The brass placques are boring, their likenesses very unlike.

Two possible differences between Paul Hornung and Pete Rose. Hornung was only a player when he bet; at least part of the time he was betting, Rose was a manager who clearly had more control over a game than Hornung would have. Also, although Rose said he never did anything to affect the outcomes of games, no one can ever be sure of this (Rose doesn't have a great reputation for telling the truth; for years he denied the gambling and then did a 180 and admitted it). In contrast, anyone watching football at the time had no question Hornung was doing his best and if he wasn't, it certainly didn't affect the Packers as they won championships in 1961 and 1962. Bonds and Clemens may have been "great" as John Thorn says, but we have no idea how great they would have been without the use of PEDS. I don't think anyone believes Bonds would have come anywhere close to the single season or career home run records without the use of them and many baseball fans still believe Hank Aaron holds the career record.