AP Survey Indicates Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, And Sammy Sosa Won't Get Enough Votes For The Hall Of Fame In 2013

Apparently the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) can't overlook the association of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). On November 30th, 2012, ESPN reports that a survey of prospective voters by the Associated Press indicates that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa will not get enough votes for induction into the Hall of Fame on their first try in 2013. In fact, Sosa fares worst of all.

Players need to be named on at least 75 percent on BBWAA ballots for inclusion. Ballots must be submitted to the BBWAA by December 31st, and selections will be announced on January 9th, 2013. Inductions will take place on July 28th. Among voters who expressed an opinion, Bonds received 45 percent support, Clemens 43 percent and Sosa 18 percent. To gain election, Bonds and Clemens would need more than 80 percent support among the voters not surveyed and Sosa would need to get more than 85 percent.

Bonds has denied knowingly using steroids, although a positive test was introduced as evidence during his criminal trial in 2011, in which the jury hung. Clemens has repeatedly denied drug use and was acquitted in 2012 on charges he lied to Congress when he said he didn't take steroids or human growth hormone. Although Sosa was among the 104 positive tests in baseball's 2003 anonymous survey, he told a congressional committee in 2005 that he never took illegal performance-enhancing drugs. But despite the denials, David Lariviere still thinks there's enough evidence against the three, writing "As a voter for 20 years, there is no way I could vote for any of these three men simply because there is more than enough evidence that they cheated at least once and, most likely, more often. Obviously, there’s no way to know how often they used the performance-enhancing drugs and how much it elevated their statistics, which should automatically disqualify them" in Forbes. But Lariviere presents no objective evidence, believing that mere association with PEDs automatically creates a character issue.

Also typical of those opposed to their inclusion is Thom Loverro, a columnist for The Washington Examiner, who wrote "No one would dare say that Bonds, a seven-time National League MVP with 762 home runs, isn't a Hall of Famer. Nor would anyone say that Clemens, with 354 career victories, 4,672 strikeouts and seven Cy Young Awards, shouldn't be enshrined in Cooperstown. The same goes for Sosa, who finished with 609 career home runs, including 243 of them from 1998 through 2001. Except they cheated -- all of them. And this Hall of Fame is not just about numbers. Three of the six criteria for election to Cooperstown are sportsmanship, integrity and character. Bonds, Sosa and Clemens fail on all three counts."

But typical of those who don't object to their inclusion is San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins, who wrote in an e-mail response "The Hall of Fame's 'character' clause should be stricken immediately, because it's far too late to turn Cooperstown into a church. Whether it was gambling (rampant in the early 20th century), scuffing the baseballs, corking bats, amphetamines or steroids, players have been cheating like crazy forever. It's an integral, if unsavory, part of the culture. I've always had the same criteria: which players were the best performers of their particular era -- so absolutely, I'll vote for Bonds, Clemens and Sosa."

The distinction between Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on the one hand, and Sammy Sosa on the other, also has to do with their career records. Jim Caple of ESPN.com believes Bonds and Clemens have stronger resumes than Sosa. The public echoes this distinction in a current Sports Nation poll which now shows Bonds with 44.5 percent, Clemens with 44.0 percent, and Sosa with only 25.7 percent. I agree with this assessment because Bonds and Clemens were more consistent throughout their careers, while Sosa was not particularly productive during the first four years of his career. But Jon Greenberg of ESPN Chicago thinks Sosa's "good" years were simply too good for Sosa to be delayed or passed up.

Bleacher Report writes, "Regardless of what you think of them as people, there was nothing illegal about what they did and they weren't the only ones doing it. Voting individuals need to get off their high horses and address the different baseball culture that existed in the early '90s and 2000s". And the "cheating" argument loses its punch when you consider that Gaylord Perry, who wrote a book confessing to using the spitter as his "out" pitch for several years, is ALSO in the Hall of Fame. Unless Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa either confess to using PEDs or objective evidence appears, this should not ban them from the Hall of Fame.

Why Barry Bonds And Roger Clemens Deserve Election To The Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame

I can think of no better excuse to re-start this blog than the latest Hall of Fame ballot which has just been published on November 28th, 2012. Included on the ballot are three prominent superstars who are suspected to have used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) during their careers -- Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. For all three, it is their first time on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballot; they will each need to be named on at least 75 percent of the BBWAA ballots to qualify for induction. The outcome will be announced on January 9th, 2013.

All three have imposing credentials. Barry Bonds is the all-time home run champion with 762 and won a record seven MVP awards. Roger Clemens set a record with seven Cy Young trophies and Sammy Sosa hit 609 homers. But all three were linked to PEDs, although unlike Mark McGwire, who's also on the ballot this year for his seventh time, they've never admitted to using the drugs. I've hot-linked their names to the career stats on Baseball Reference.

Reaction to their possible induction is mixed. Much of the public seems receptive, since none of the three admitted to using PEDs. Here's a screenshot of a Sports Nation public poll currently in progress.

However, Curt Schilling, currently an ESPN analyst who's on the HOF ballot for the first time this year, said he'd never vote for them. "Here's the thing, it generally goes this way with people who are caught doing stuff: You generally never catch someone on the first go-around. These guys to some degree or another in different cases cheated and in some cases cheated for a lengthy period of time", said Schilling.

The problem is that so many players were linked to PEDs during the "Steroid Era" of the late 90s/early 00s that you would have to keep out the lion's share of superstars who played during that era. Is it their fault that the Lords of Baseball refused to recognize the problem and take corrective measures during that time? Furthermore, these players didn't take PEDs to get high; they took them to get more out of their bodies. Conscious of the fact that they were making seven-figure salaries at the time, they felt the need to get more out of the physical tools that already put them at the top of their game. Just because these superstars were making gargantuan salaries doesn't mean they didn't still take personal pride. They wanted to help their teams win -- and prolong their careers as long as possible.

Consequently, unless they suddenly admit they took PEDs, I would consider Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens to be slam dunks for admission to the HOF this year. In the case of Sammy Sosa, I'm not so enthusiastic -- while he hit 609 career home runs, he was not consistent throughout his entire career. His first four years were rather ordinary, and he aged quickly in his 30s, so Sosa should wait. I predict of the three, Roger Clemens may have the best chance to get selected this year, since he succesfully defended himself in two trials for allegedly lying to Congress (although Congress never gets put on trial for lying to us).