2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

If I had a vote (which I don't), I'd look at it like this:

If, when I was 22, I was a professional baseball player, and somebody had told me, "Here, take this pill, and it'll make you the Greatest of All Time, you'll put up absolutely unbelievable numbers, be on the front page of every newspaper, have more fame and fortune than you'll even know how to deal with, have a garage full of Corvettes, your choice of women from all over the world ... and you'll be dead at 45," I would have said, "Um, OK," and taken that pill without giving it even a second thought.

So why should I hold that same basic line of thinking against these guys?

It was pretty much a level playing field. Everybody did it. And nothing that *really* mattered changed.

PEDs didn't help Bonds get a World Series ring. They didn't help McGwire or Sosa win championships. Can't say I remember much about that Astros dynasty with Bagwell or any team winning a World Series with Ken Caminiti. It didn't tilt the balance of the things that mattered in any particular direction. The Yankees still pretty much won (or at least were in) every effing World Series in the Steroid Era.

And not only did Baseball "condone" it, I fully suspect that Baseball encouraged it, in the wake of 1994. (How's that for an unsubstantiated suspicion?)

Bonds? HOF. Clemens? HOF. McGwire? Only if I couldn't find 10 better players. Sosa? Not enough sustained excellence. Bagwell and Biggio? Yes and yes. Bret Boone and Brady Anderson? No and no. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

The Red Sox?

 

Which non-steroid team did the Red Sox beat?

 

People seem to make this argument a lot - that Sosa wouldn't be in, even without considering PEDs.

I'm just not so sure I buy it. For six or seven years, even in a hitter's era, he was a very dominant offensive player. Before that, he was a very good one for several seasons. I'll have to quantify it all later a little bit to see if the facts match my intuition, but I think he was better than people are giving him credit for.

 

That's a good counter-argument. But he seemed to be saying that the teams with known PED users anchoring their lineups didn't win World Series anyway. And that's not true. The Red Sox won two of them.

 

They're not being judged on how many championships they won, but what their offensive totals and/or ERAs were.

 

I say Bonds gets in but only if the HR records are returned to Aaron and Maris. Same for McGwire.

 

LOL

 

I don't think Sheffield is borderline.

 

And if Palmeiro gets in, his records stay intact; the only precondition being that his bust includes an arm and his finger pointing forward to remind us of his hearing before Congress.

 

You don't think that's quite an improvement upon Sosa and Palmeiro?

 

Would be much better if you include the counting stats as well. If you want a full picture, you should include both the ratios and the counting statistics.