its not a hall of fame until Pete Rose gets in. As long as they keep the greatest hitter and hustle player ever out of the hall of fame, its just a building. My bet they are waiting for the guy to die, like they did Santo (who I dont think belongs anyway)
Pete Rose is in jail for a crime he committed. His on field greatness would have put him in, but he can't go to the HOF, as he got himself in jail. Rightly so. Let's stop this stupid rehashing of Rose's hits and exploits. He comitted the ONE crime that gets you banned. That was the rule. He knew it. He should NEVER be in.
As for the current class, the writers are getting all giddy as "the steroid wall is coming down", as one website had it. (I believe ESPN). These writers want everybody in. They whine that they can "only" vote for ten. In their eyes, everyone should get into the HOF, and then they will start polls of "Who are the 100 greatest hall of famers?"
I bristled at the notion a few years ago that "the guy in Peoria or Des Moines shouldn't get a vote as that's not an MLB city". In their minds, only they can identify a HOFer, and they do it by interviewing them and getting chummy.
Sorry, I see it as exactly opposite. A guy in a non-MLB city CAN tell a HOF player. And they are FAR less likely to vote for a guy because he smiles when you interview him, and far less likely to ban a worthy player because he doesn't like to talk to reporters.
All my life, on the day they announce the HOF vote results, the analysts immediately speculate which player - like a Steve Carlton - got fewer votes than he deserved because he didn't give interviews. That should NEVER enter into it, but it does.
I am sick of hearing Stark and Kurkjian (both of whome I like, BTW) keep calling for more and more and more players in. Kurkjian nearly cried that "there will be a whole era of players not elected" if we don't ignore the fact many cheated. One year later, Maddu waltzed in, refuting that argument quite loudly.
I do believe Clemens and Bonds are among the very best to ever play, and would certainly have been in if their careers ended before the point where their steroid use started. But then again, if I cheat in a race, I don't still get the Gold medal because "I would have won anyway". So I have mixed feelings about them.
But for all the others suspected of steroid use, while Jayson and Timmy want to ignore that, I say it is unfair to all the guys who had equal talent, but are outside the HOF because they didn't pad their stats by cheating. Why reward these guys for doing so? The idea of "an asterisk" is insane.
So Jeff Bagwell, suspected PED user and FOUR time all star heads to Cooperstown. Hooray! Can't wait for Big Papi, known PED user who got better as he turned 40 - but hey, he's a happy go lucky guy, so vote him in.