Baseball Hall of Fame

I don't get the kerfuffel about not voting anyone in. Am I pissed about not voting in Dale Murphy? Sure. He deserves to be in the Hall as much as Andre Dawson. I feel pretty sure he'll get in on veterans committee in the coming years. The baseball writers have been at the forefront of the steroid era's reporting and disdain for what happened.

Did you really think they would vote for Bonds and Clemons? Really?

I'm surprised they got as many votes as they did. I'm not judging the morality/ethics of what they did. I think they did what they had to do to excel in their careers, much in the same way that taking greenies or whatever when Mantle was playing. There are players in the hall right now that are their due to their use of performance enhancing substances.

However, those substances weren't banned when they used them (or at most, were frowned upon). That makes all the difference. As a baseball fan, I followed the home run chases and the strikeout totals pretty closely. I got to see Bonds hit monster shots into the right field stands in multiple stadiums. I saw Clemons pitch at Fenway.

Their crowning achievements will likely always have to be putting on the show for fans, and the adoration (and hate) that comes with putting up the kind of numbers they did. But, the Hall of Fame ain't calling.

TD