Comments on: A Hall of Fame vote for Barry Bonds http://baybridgebaseball.com/2011/04/a-hall-of-fame-vote-for-barry-bonds/ An A's-Giants blog Sat, 18 May 2013 11:46:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Aaron http://baybridgebaseball.com/2011/04/a-hall-of-fame-vote-for-barry-bonds/comment-page-1/#comment-4003 Aaron Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:46:40 +0000 http://baybridgebaseball.com/?p=2444#comment-4003 Here's my feeling on Bonds and the HOF: if you don't elect Bonds then you can't reasonably elect anyone for the next 20 years. I think anyone who is realistic has realized over the past 5-7 years that while we know many names that had ties to PED we don't know all of them. That means that guys we assume are clean may not have been. Ultimately I think HOF voters have to assume everyone was dirty and then compare players form this era not to players from other eras but to each other and only each other. That might not be fair to any players who were actually clean but those players failed to speak up and speak out about this issue during their playing careers. Clean players had to know what was going on and they opted to be good teammates above all else, and should have to sleep in the bed they've made. Bonds was clearly the best player of his generation and was the best while competing against pitchers and other position players who were also using, so if he doesn't get in then nobody should be allowed in. I'm also of the opinion that playing the media relations game, while great for the media and for fans, really doesn't say all that much about how good of a person you really are. There are a lot of guys with "good guy" reputations that are not good people (and Jeff I'm sure you know of more than one). In a weird way I sort of respect the way Bonds was consistent in being an ass because unlike a lot of players we actually got to see who he really is. Here’s my feeling on Bonds and the HOF: if you don’t elect Bonds then you can’t reasonably elect anyone for the next 20 years. I think anyone who is realistic has realized over the past 5-7 years that while we know many names that had ties to PED we don’t know all of them. That means that guys we assume are clean may not have been. Ultimately I think HOF voters have to assume everyone was dirty and then compare players form this era not to players from other eras but to each other and only each other. That might not be fair to any players who were actually clean but those players failed to speak up and speak out about this issue during their playing careers. Clean players had to know what was going on and they opted to be good teammates above all else, and should have to sleep in the bed they’ve made. Bonds was clearly the best player of his generation and was the best while competing against pitchers and other position players who were also using, so if he doesn’t get in then nobody should be allowed in.

I’m also of the opinion that playing the media relations game, while great for the media and for fans, really doesn’t say all that much about how good of a person you really are. There are a lot of guys with “good guy” reputations that are not good people (and Jeff I’m sure you know of more than one). In a weird way I sort of respect the way Bonds was consistent in being an ass because unlike a lot of players we actually got to see who he really is.

]]> By: Marvin http://baybridgebaseball.com/2011/04/a-hall-of-fame-vote-for-barry-bonds/comment-page-1/#comment-4002 Marvin Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:44:57 +0000 http://baybridgebaseball.com/?p=2444#comment-4002 What about the issue that Bonds was not really a very nice guy and not very genial with many people, especially some guys in the media. Will that play a role in giving people the steroid excuse for keeping him out? What about the argument that if everyone was using steroids, and we really don't know, Bonds still had all those homeruns, etc. He enchanced, in a way not banned by baseball at the time, a great career into a really great career. What about the issue that Bonds was not really a very nice guy and not very genial with many people, especially some guys in the media. Will that play a role in giving people the steroid excuse for keeping him out?
What about the argument that if everyone was using steroids, and we really don’t know, Bonds still had all those homeruns, etc. He enchanced, in a way not banned by baseball at the time, a great career into a really great career.

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