The Baseball Hall of Fame, that is, and the ridiculousness of its voters.
On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, the Baseball Hall of Fame voting committee sat down in a room to decide who will be immortalized in bronze for all to see. When they emerged from the room, it was announced that no player would be inducted this year. This hasn’t happened since 2013.
The decision sparked outrage among sports fans, analysts, and players.
Among the 25 former players on the ballot were three men who were in their ninth year of eligibility–Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, and Roger Clemens. Those are controversial names, too, but those men also did a great deal for the game of baseball. I want to make a case for why each player should have been inducted this year.
We’ll start with the top vote-getter at 71.1%, Curt Schilling. A career that spanned 20 seasons was full of success. Schilling came into his own during his fifth professional season when he came to Philadelphia. During his nine years with the Phillies, Schilling went 101-78, threw 61 complete games, and had 14 shutouts. In 1993, he led the Phillies to their first playoff appearance in 10 years, taking them all the way to the World Series and winning the NLCS MVP in the process.
Later, he won the World Series in Arizona (‘01) and again in Boston (‘07) and adding a shared World Series MVP in 2001 with Randy Johnson.
Schilling finished his career at 216-146, with a 3.46 ERA, and 3,116 strikeouts. Schilling should’ve been in the Hall five years ago.
Next is Barry Bonds, who, with 61.8% of votes, finished second in the voting. Bonds passed Hank Aaron as HR king after hitting his 756th career home run, but it was discovered later that Bonds had been using steroids–not a bit, but for many years. That said, Bonds’ numbers were solid. He ended up with 762 home runs, had 1,996 RBI and 2,935 hits, stole 514 bases, and walked 2,558 times–688 of which were intentional. Bonds was also a seven-time MVP (’90, ‘92, ‘93, ‘01, ‘02, ‘03, and ‘04).
Yes, he used steroids. But let’s look at something else. A baseball player has to have the hand-eye coordination to hit a round ball with a round bat at an angle where it travels at the right amount of speed to go where it needs to go.
Steroids undoubtedly helped Bonds succeed, but the drugs did nothing when it came to being able to make contact with the ball. He still would have had HOF numbers with 500-530 home runs and 2,400-2.,500 hits. Bottom line: Bonds is one of baseball’s all-time greats and should be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Now we come to the third-place vote-getter. At 61.6%, it’s the Rocket, Roger Clemens. The man embodied dominance on the mound. Over a 24-year career, Clemens went 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA and had 4,672 strikeouts. Drafted by the Red Sox out of the University of Texas in 1983, he only needed three seasons to show MLB just how good he was.
In that third season, Clemens finished 24-4 and won the Cy Young. He’d win that award six more times (‘86, ‘87, ‘91, ‘97, ‘01, ‘04) while making 11 All-Star appearances and winning the MVP in 1986. He’s also in an exclusive club–five pitchers who threw 20 strikeouts in a single game (he did it twice).
With a seething fastball and diving splitter, nobody could touch him.
But in 2011, it was revealed that Clemens had been using performance-enhancing drugs since 1998. He was now in the same company as Bonds. But if you take away years from Clemens’ career, he’d still be a Hall of Famer. You can’t deny greatness, and he defined the word.
So, there you have it: three dominant players who aren’t in the Hall. And my concern isn’t just about their omission. While I believe that baseball is still a great pastime, the game has experienced a significant rapid decline in popularity over the past two decades or so. The game can’t afford internal controversy. Otherwise, turmoil will contribute to further decline.
That’s why I believe that those three players–Schilling, Bonds, and Clemens–should be admitted to the Hall, and another dominant player– Peter Edward Rose–should be, too. How is it possible to deny entrance to the player who had more hits than any other player in MLB history?
If baseball is flawed, it’s because of men who believe that the sport shouldn’t be “tarnished.” Well, by their actions, THEY are tarnishing the game–a game that would be celebrated by honoring all of its best players.
