Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Vote Clemons, Bonds into Hall

The NY Times reports younger sportswriters, with little direct experience of the baseball steroid era, are increasingly likely to vote super duper stars Jim Clemons and Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame. The pitching wonder (354 wins) and home run king (762) have been blackballed by the blue noses who run baseball even tho they've awarded Hall lockers to Commissioner Bud Selig and manager Tony LaRussa, both of whom thrived with likely full knowledge of the player steroid shenanigans during their baseball tenure.

Even this old codger who followed their steroid fueled stats would vote them in if I could. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, 'talent is talent...is talent.' No amount of junk could make a .250 hitter or a .500 pitcher into a Hall of Famer. Every inductee has skeletons, personal and professional, that could be used to deny entry should they come out. The Bambino was a boozing, skirt chasing lout for much of his career, while racist Ty Cobb would vault into the stands to beat up a black fan who annoyed him.    

How 'bout voting them in - time is running out on their getting the 75% vote total - and include a blip on their alleged drug use in their bronzed Hall bio. Let's not bury fabled reality. Let's celebrate unbelievably athletic wonders...warts and all. 

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