Baseball’s Hall of Fame Problem
Jan 28, 2021, 10:48 AM | Updated: 10:48 am
Credit: Tom Hauck /Allsport
This week the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that nobody will be entering in this year’s class.
It isn’t the first time and may not be the last. In fact this is the 9th time that nobody has been elected in a single year. The question for me is why? Why not for Bonds, Clemens, and Schilling?
I am almost certain that everyone believes these guys are Hall of Famers. Bonds and Clemens have the stigma of cheating the game attached to them. I could go on and on about this and how baseball writers seem to pick and choose who they feel should be punished. 14 writers turned in empty ballots this year.
Why? You don’t have to vote for someone just to vote for someone but to me are you a Hall of Famer or not? If your reasoning for keeping them out is because you believe they cheated or you don’t like them, I think that is odd that you are the judge and jury in this situation when baseball never punished them.
There are managers in the Hall of Fame that penciled in these guys into their every game lineup. Baseball profited off the “long ball-steroid era”, yet never punished anyone at the time. Pete Rose in my opinion should be in the Hall of Fame but at least has been banned from the game. That is showing a firm decision. Bonds is allowed in baseball parks, he has been a hitting coach. His home run record is acknowledged as the record, but no Hall? The inconsistency is maddening and quite curious to me.
Listen to long time baseball announcer and historian Bob Costas here talk about what could happen soon:
This premise also seems silly. Let me, the writer, punish them for 10 years because I think they are a Hall of Famer but I want them to suffer.
Either you are in or you are out and in this case Bonds and Clemens are no doubters. Schilling, who I am not a fan of, has a huge case and should be in as well.
Let them in.
