The standard for Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting for years to come was going to be set in the year 2022, when it was going to be a landmark year. Baseball progressives have been trying to get people like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens into the Hall of Fame for a long time. I tried to explain to the members of the BBWAA why Bonds and Clemens should be in the Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame requires 75 percent of votes for recognition. In their final year on the ballot, Bonds and Clemens fell short.
The Baseball Hall of Fame doesn't want to tell the story of baseball. Rather, like Rob Manfred and Bud Selig have done for a quarter century at this point, they prefer to keep their heads in the sand and hope the sports world forgets about the not-so-pleasant moments of baseball history.
They prefer well-liked people to all-time great baseball players. The Hall failed Bonds.
I understand the desire to leave him alone. If there were any crimes that ensured someone was kept out of the Hall of Fame, statutory rape would be one of them. It would leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth if he were to be in the Hall of Fame. Bonds is not the same story.
During his time in the Major Leagues, Bonds was not well-liked. He was listed in the Mitchell Report and implicated in the BALCO scandal despite never testing positive forPEDs. It was enough for the journalists who disliked Bonds to leave the all-time home run leader out of the Hall of Fame despite having already voted in former commissioner Bud Selig, who hid the fact that so many players were using performance-enhancing drugs. That is bullshit. Sorry. Did I mention that he is in Cooperstown?
The story of baseball cannot be told without mentioning the steroid era and Bonds is the face of it. The best players in baseball history should be remembered in a building dedicated to them. It is as simple as that.
I hope the voting process stays the same in the future. MLB executives claim that Spider Tack is at least as effective as steroids. It's important that the baseball players named in the Harkins v. MLB scandal don't get 75 percent of the vote. I don't care how well-liked these guys are. None of them should get in.
There are lessons we can take away from the announcement.
Sammy Sosa received a low number of votes because his only positive test happened in the same situation as Oritz's positive test. Both tested positive in the anonymous 2003 survey test to ascertain the level of use in the league, and neither was supposed to suffer any consequences from the test. Someone leaked the results. Both of them found themselves in hot water.
Big Papi was able to climb out of the hole with his personable demeanor and popular public appeal. He is the all-time home run leader for designated hitters. Sosa, despite playing a more demanding position, finishing his career with more home runs, and posting a slightly worse offensive stat than Ortiz, never received more than 20% of the votes. It doesn't make sense to me. Should he be in the Hall of Fame? He should have appeared on more than 20 percent of the ballots.
Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones are not appreciated. Jones was arrested for domestic battery in 2012 while Kent was just considered a jerk.
If you ask me, both players should be in the Hall of Fame. Jones is considered to be the greatest defensive center fielder of all time. He hit over 400 home runs. In 2005, he led the league in home runs. That is a Hall of Famer.
You can stack Kent's numbers with those of any second baseman in history, and he will stack up very well. Even though he left a little to be desired on the defensive end, Kent was a menace with the bat in his hands, winning and the Most Valuable Player award in 2000. Anyone who can beat Bonds on his own team deserves to be on the ballot.
The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame had a bad year. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that Tim Hudson didn't get enough votes to appear on the ballot, even though he was better than any other pitcher. Four starting pitchers got more votes than him. I didn't talk about Billy Wagner's insane credentials because they keep getting overlooked. That is how bad the announcement was this year.
I would like to talk about many things, but they all feel small compared to the BBWAA's hypocrisy. Do better in 2023 for the sake of my sanity.
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