During a visit to AT&T Park last summer, Barry Bonds was asked about his chances for being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“It would be very sad if it didn't happen,” he said.
The former Giants slugger gets his answer at 1 p.m. on Wednesday when Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson will announce the results of voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
And “sad” might be the least of the possible emotions. Bonds' first appearance on the ballot has ignited a polarizing debate that even has some current residents of Cooperstown all riled up.
“Cheaters should absolutely not be in the Hall of Fame,” reliever Goose Gossage told the Denver Post last week. “You are telling me we are going to reward these guys? Are you (expletive) kidding me? What is going on in this world? Right is right. Wrong is wrong.”
This ballot represents the first time that the Baseball Writers' Association has been asked to decide whether a pair of statistical slam-dunks — Bonds and Roger Clemens — should be denied enshrinement because of their link to performance-enhancing drugs.
In contrast to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, whose numbers can be dismissed as steroid-fueled mirages, Bonds and Clemens were among the most dominant players in the game long before BALCO became part of the sporting lexicon. Bonds hit 762 home runs and won seven MVP awards; Clemens won 354 games and seven Cy Youngs.
This isn't a statistical debate; it's a moral referendum. Voters are paying close attention to a provision on the Hall of Fame ballot that has been there since its early origins. The current wording reminds voters to consider: “character, integrity and sportsmanship as criteria for election.”
As Bonds' supporters have noted, however, that integrity clause has not prevented the election of, say, Ty Cobb, whose “reputation as a racist has, if anything been understated,” according to “The New Biographical History of Baseball,” which devotes a section to his violent acts.
Cheating? Gaylord Perry earned enshrinement despite using a “spitball” and other slimed-up pitches en route to his 314 career victories. (Former catcher Gene Tenace once said: “There were occasions I couldn't throw the ball back to him because it was so greasy that it slipped out of my hands.”)
Drugs? Baseball writer Joe Sheehan recently detailed how amphetamines may have created some statistical anomalies during the 1970s and wrote: “Voters have been putting players in the Hall who used illegal drugs to enhance their performance for a quarter-century, and deciding that this is where they're going to draw the line is ignorant of history, and aggressively so.”
Ballots were due New Year's Eve. And the early rumblings aren't promising for Bonds and Clemens. A survey by The Associated Press revealed that those two failed to muster even 50 percent among the 112 voters they contacted — about one-fifth of those eligible to choose. (To be elected a player must receive 75 percent of the vote; eligible voters must have covered major league baseball for at least 10 years.)
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