Palmetto Proving Grounds

If they don't put Bonds in, and they won't, it's a sham. I know he's an ass. I know he took steroids. But that guy was a HOF player, period.

If he were willing to come clean and agree to erase any stats after 2001, when he was a HOF lock but not a steroid user yet, then I would be all for it. The guys stats before Balco were amazing but he got too greedy and ruined not only his image but the image of the league. I don't want him in unless he comes clean. I hate it but if he makes it in we have to let both halves on him in.

Well Jack Morris shouldnt get in bc he was an average pitcher. 3.90 career ERA, .577 winning %, 5 time All Star (18 yrs), 5.8 Ks/9, never finished in the top two for Cy Young either.

Here is the ballot.

In order I would vote

Bagwell - Never tested positive great #s and D while playing in the worst (90% of home games) hitters park in the last 50 yrs.
Tim Raines - 2nd best leadoff hitter ever, higher OBP% than Tony Gwynn
Bonds - Best player Ive ever seen and was a 3X MVP before steroids
Schilling - If guys are holding votes due to steroids Schill shoule get in. Pitched in a hitters era, best career K-BB ratio in the history of baseball, only 216 wins but a % close to .600, Cy Young runner up 2X to Randy Johnson once to Johan Santana, 3 WS and one of the best postseason SP of All time. 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA.
Biggio - All star at two positions, 7X AS 5X silver slugger, 414 SBs 291 HRS, again played most of his games in the Astordome

On the fence and could go either way on Piazza and Trammal. Trammal was a little before my time. I also think Edgar Martinez and Larry Walker could get in in time.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_2013.shtml

Isn't Bonds the guy that couldn't throw out Sid Bream from deep short? or anyone out for that matter? never carried a team when we wasn't juiced, and not sure he did even then?

Bonds wasn't bad in his younger days on defense and he carried the pirates and the giants. The guy has like 6 or 7 mvp awards with only a few coming after it was speculated he was juiced. So to say he didn't carry a team is completely wrong.

Baseball sat on their butts for years and willfully ignored a problem that was glaring and obvious. It was no big secret that baseball players were juicing. But baseball didn't care. "Chicks dig the long ball" remember? When Sosa and McGuire, who were all roided up and we all knew it, went on that magical summer long ride back in 1999 it was great for baseball. Everybody loved it because it made the game relevant again. All of these pious, sanctimonious baseball writers that are now refusing to have the HOF stained by the scurge of allowing a steroid user in were the same lapdog sycophants that sat in front Big Mac's locker everyday slurping at him like a school girl while he had bottles of Andro sitting there in plain view. But nobody cared. Baseball was cool again.
It was only when Barry Bonds started doing it AND it became obvious that he was going to chase down the most hallowed record in sports that they suddenly became the self appointed guardians of the games honor. He's an ass. They didn't like him. So all of a sudden, steroids mattered. Before Bonds, nobody gave a crap so I find it to be amazingly hypocritical of the baseball writers to now have this no steroids rule when they turned a blind eye to it for years.

Not sure if serious.

This guy is a moron. He admits that by returning a blank ballot, he understands that it will be counted and make it more difficult for anyone to get voted in by the required 75% but he does it anyway. Here's what it boils down to - check out this passage:

"I do not recall a single active-at-the-time player distinguishing himself as a voice for the clean athlete, a voice for this moment. Instead, they bullied and tried to intimidate anyone who questioned them, and lied to the faces of people who they held in obvious contempt (journalists) and even to the faces of those they claimed they respected (Mark McGwire to the Maris family on national television). Or they were silent, and took the money. They received lots of money, and it likely will cost the best of them enshrinement in the Hall of Fame."

It's mostly about how players treat journalists. If you kiss their ass and give them good quotes and stories, they'll vote for you. If you don't speak openly and often to the media, they will screw you.

Why? McGwire was not a HOF player anyways.

I agree with that. I do not think Bonds should be excluded because McGwire is. Bonds was a much better player, it is not even close.

Very well said. Even if Bonds was juicing, he was juicing when many others -- including pitchers -- were also juicing. Yet, he still dominated.

His pre-juicing career also warrants a HOF induction even if you sever the later years from his career.

Bonds is an ass, but he's still one of the greatest to play the game.