Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to go to the Hall of Fame.
They were both great players in their era—and yes, that era includes the fact that steroids were used like candy in MLB locker rooms.
I really don’t care that Bonds and Clemens doped. Or that they are Hall of Fame level a-holes. It may seem wrong today, but it’s hard for me to justify punishing them for taking part in an action that the MLB and its fan base all but ignored in the late 90s when the game was struggling to regain relevance after the damaging 1994 strike.
Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs. He was an all-star seven times. He may have juiced and had a neck the size of a tree trunk, but he still had to hit the damn ball.
Clemens won seven Cy Young awards and has 354 wins (and two World Series with the Yanks). He was the first pitcher in baseball to strike out 20 batters. So yeah, the numbers may be tainted, but in context for the era they competed in they are pretty dang good.
The only thing keeping Bonds and Clemens out of the Hall are the PED allegations. This will be their fourth year on the ballot and they have yet to break 38 percent support (75 percent is needed to be elected to Cooperstown).
Though Bonds was a well-known miser with the media, he may be helped by the visibility of his new role as the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins. But it’s still unlikely that either he or Clemens will double their support before the ten year cutoff. Which is a shame, because they deserve to have their plaque in the halls of Cooperstown.
--Alexis Garcia, BYB's "Eye on MLB" Columnist &
Los Angeles Dodger fan
Twitter: @heylexyg
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