Does this Guy Belong in the HoF?

Let’s do the player A vs player B thing:

A: hit ,297/.408/.540, 449 HR’s, 488 2B’s, 202 SB’s, 79.9 WAR, 1 RoY, 1 MVP, 3x Sliver Sluggers, 1 Gold Glove

B: hit .290/.413/.576, 456 HR’s, 403 2B’s, 445 SB’s, 99.8 WAR, 3x MVP, 7x Silver Slugger, 8x Gold Gloves

Overall pretty similar although Player B is clearly a bit better than Player A. Player A is Carl Yastrzemski. Player B is Barry Bonds through the end of his 1998 season.

The common belief is that Bonds only started using steroids in 1999. As the above makes it clear, Barry Bonds was already a Hall of Fame caliber player before ever touching “the cream” or “the clear.”

The BBWAA voters who didn’t vote for him either didn’t realize that or allowed themselves to make an emotional decision and not an objective one.

One thought on “Does this Guy Belong in the HoF?

  1. I’m not a lawyer, by any means. I think that there are laws about evidence, to wit if information about a suspect is obtained illegally, then subsequent information obtained as a result is “fruit of a poisonous tree” and inadmissible in court. Since HOF eligibility and admission is based on the entirety of a career, some of our players are apparently left out. For now. That’s the interpretation of the rules by more than 1/4 of voters.

    I’m generally of the opinion that there may be members already in the Hall who are equally guilty (Piazza). Then there is the argument that many of our heroes from prior years were using speed (Ted Williams), or racists, or just generally despicable (Ty Cobb).

    There will never, and I mean never, be a level field applied to all eligible players. I personally don’t think that a pitcher who threw only 1282 innings in his career deserves to be the only unanimous vote recipient, but they (surprisingly) did not give me a vote that I could then not cast.

    So eventually cooler heads will prevail and these guys will get in. I don’t think Pete Rose will get in until he’s dead, but eventually even he will join the other legends. Or maybe they just rename the place. Hall of Fame of Those Who Did Not Piss Off Too Many People

    Liked by 1 person

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