Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa.
What, you thought they were Conquest, War, Famine, and Death? To Hall of Fame voters there's much worse.
All four used steroids to improve their performances and displayed a consciousness of guilt by concealing this and persistently lying about it. One ultimately came clean and admitted what he had done and even performed the baseball equivalent of good works by becoming a humble batting coach: Mark McGwire.
The two leading culprits, Bonds and Clemens, have apparently poisoned the well for the others such that it is now unlikely that any player will be elected to the Hall Fame today.
Some voters, probably mostly younger voters, are willing to overlook the steroids and vote for Bonds and Clemens. This is probably due to the fact that prior to whenever they started using steroids they had already achieved Hall of Fame status even though they were both thoroughly unlikable.
It seems that neither McGwire nor Sosa are perceived to have been Hall of Famers prior to using steroids. It's difficult to know since the writers do not write very well and we can only speculate.
Are transgressors lost forever? Are there no prodigal sons? Can they never be redeemed?
Some voters are supporting both Bonds and Clemens but not McGwire, the only one who has done anything to merit a pardon. Before absolution there must be contrition. What incentive do Bonds and Clemens have to confess their baseball sins and ask for absolution if they are admitted into baseball heaven without doing so?
Yesterday MLB Network Clubhouse Confidential had the second of a two part program with three guests: Bill Madden, about whom I wrote yesterday, and two young guys. At the end of the program they revealed the names of the players they supported. Madden was predictably annoying with people like Jack Morris and Fred McGriff.
The two young guys both filled in the maximum allowed ten names with predictably annoying selections Tim Raines and Alan Trammell. They both voted for Bonds and Clemens, so steroid use was OK with them if the player was good enough before using. Here's what I don't get. They voted for Edgar Martinez but not McGwire. Was this strictly based on steroids or was it based on performance? If performance, then I have a real problem with it.
The main knock on McGwire as a player is that he did nothing outside the batters box, like Harmon Killebrew and Ted Williams. Of the four none did less outside the batters box than DH Martinez. At least the others played the field.
Let's compare them on OPS+ and throw in the other two horsemen batters for additional perspective:
2. Williams 190
3. Bonds 182
11. McGwire 163
41. Martinez 147
57. Killebrew 143
186. Sosa 128
McGwire clearly beats Martinez. Why the fascination with Edgar Martinez? Is it part of the young guys trying too hard to show how smart they are? Is it more of a backlash against steroids than they would like to admit? After all, they are enlightened. They can easily spot all those racists in baseball's past, especially the ones from a distant time and place like Ty Cobb, born in Narrows, Georgia in 1886, less than a decade after the Civil War reconstruction ended. Sensibilities too fine to tolerate Cobb can easily be used to condemn McGwire and deny him redemption.
Bonds and Clemens are not the only ones to blame for this sorry state. Those who stood and watched and now condemn are also to blame.
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