The 2018 MLB Hall of Fame class will be announced today and it wont mean much to baseball fans like myself who are against the Baseball Writers Association of America trying to control which deserving players make the Hall of Fame and which dont because of a steroids era that is long forgotten by most fans and is no more impactful than stories of Michael Jordan scoring 63 against the Celtics on the younger generation.
How can anyone get hyped about a Hall of Fame induction that doesnt include some of the the greatest players in the history of the game? Until Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa get in, Im not celebrating all of these inferior players being inducted.
Bob Nightengale on Twitter
It’s absurd that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are not in the. Hall of Fame, and won’t be among the likely four electees Wednesday. Its time to put them in before eligibility runs out. https://t.co/ckiqxjbI8s
Some old head writers still have an obsession with blackballing the biggest and brightest record-setting stars and distancing them from baseball’s most captivating and controversial era. Consequently, Cooperstown has lost some of its luster. The guys that are getting inducted over the past few years have careers that pale in comparison. The record books will support this.
Today, three more HOFs will garner the necessary votes and become beneficiaries of a premeditated plot to keep the true stars of The PED Era out of the Hall of Fame as if they never existed and the fans never saw them accomplish great feats and feed the game of baseball, providing sustenance for a sport that was almost dead and stinking following the strike-shortened season of 1994.
Based on the tabulations of Ryan Thibodaux, who has compiled the more than half the ballots publicly revealed in advance of Wednesday’s announcement, three candidates are definitely going to make the cut for Hall of Fame induction. Chipper Jones is a Top 3 all-time third baseman and one for the greatest switch hitters in history.
USA TODAY Sports on Twitter
A first-ballot Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones lived up to every lofty expectation in his career. https://t.co/paK1VoS8YK
Vladimir Guerrero was one of the best pure hitters Ive ever seen.
theScore on Twitter
Agent: Vladimir Guerrero prefers to join Hall of Fame as Expo. https://t.co/9YPcpT2qIG
Jim Thome is one of the greatest sluggers in MLB history and probably the quietest and least revered 600-homer guy we have ever seen.
Padres closer Trevor Hoffman, a definite borderline pick in my opinion and Seattle Mariners DH Edgar Martinez are supposedly on the bubble. Martinez would be the first designated hitter ever selected as the stigma of not playing the field has diminished over the years.
MLB Network on Twitter
Get ready for tomorrow’s 2018 @baseballhall announcement on MLB Network with our Hall of Fame roundtable at 10pm ET. https://t.co/18dNQ4X7Tc
All three of the shoe-ins are elite and worthy of inductions, but they cant compare to the players who will once again fall short of the necessary votes. A-Rod comes up in 2021 and if Bonds and the legendary outcasts havent been voted in by then, there will be a backlog of legends, sitting on lawn chairs outside of the HOF castle, waiting for their overdue entry.
MLB and the Commissioners office rode the backs of McGwire, Bonds, Sosa and Clemens to record profits. Their historical feats provided the resuscitative public boost that baseball needed. Whether it was breaking a home run record, sitting in front of Congress to be humiliated or the media craze, witch hunt and alienation that followed, these guys made baseball a big deal and everybody had an opinion.
Same with A-Rod who will probably be snubbed in 2021, his first chance at a Hall of Fame nod.
Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) Highlight Mix
Hey guys I don’t know about you but Im a big yankee and baseball fan and since opening day is tomorrow I decided to make this video don’t worry I will be back to normal call of duty videos tomorrow but 20 likes for another.
As Ive written every year, its good to see the stars of my generation taking that next step towards immortality. However, you cant be a baseball fan and hold the HOF in the same reverence when the Trevor Hoffmans, Tim Raines, Jim Thomes and Craig Biggios of the baseball world are getting lauded as if they ever meant more to the game, on their best day, than a seven-time MVP with a record 756 career homers in Bonds, the first MLB player to slug 70 bombs in McGwire, the only player in MLB history to hit 60 dingers three times in Sosa and a seven-time Cy Young Award winner in Clemens.
The harder it gets for these legends to get the 75 percent needed from the BBWAA, the easier it gets for fringe Famers to get a spot in Cooperstown. Former Detroit Tigers teammates Jack Morris and Alan Trammell were elected to baseballs Hall of Fame in December by a new 16-member Modern Baseball Era committee that considered 10 candidates whose biggest contributions came from 1970 to 1987.
Detroit Tigers on Twitter
6 All-Star Selections 4 Gold Glove Awards 3 Silver Slugger Awards 1984 World Series MVP Hall of Fame Election https://t.co/U5PAioJae1
Neither player could make the cut in the BBWAA eyes and they probably got it right as neither Morris nor Trammell were the clear cut best at their positions. Both had some great moments and Morris is really close, but were they great?
It doesnt matter because now they are Hall of Famers and falsely, historically solidified as a higher quality of diamond-miner than those players who have yet to be inducted but totally deserve it. But who are we fooling? This punishment and unfair attitude towards a few of the hundreds to thousands of PED users needs to stop. Especially when Bud Selig, The Commissioner of The PED Era, was inducted in 2017. Bonds and Clemens are expected to get over 50 percent of the vote, but it’s not nearly enough.
Like baseball writer Jonah Keri (who doesn’t have a HOF vote) told CBS when asked if 75 percent of BBWAA voters will evolve over time and vote these guys in while they are still eligible: There is no evolution. Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter who ever lived and Roger Clemens is probably the greatest pitcher who ever lived. This not really complicated and I dont care who used what.
