What Happens if Bonds and Clemens Get In

 Last year was the first year since the inception of the blog that I didn't do a Hall of Fame ballot post. 

There were two reasons behind it. One was that I had a feeling that nobody would be getting in, as the ballot-tracker spreadsheet was already tracking people at 60s at the very highest. The second reason was that there was a large probability that some of the steroids guys would make it in, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

In case I haven't talked about it much on here- I don't collect players that took steroids. As a hypocrite, I've made the occasional exception, like Andy Pettitte, who took them to get over an injury and has expressed regret about it, or David Ortiz, who did enough in the wake of the non-Mitchell-report HGH claims to gain a lot of headway, as well as becoming an important sports figure that seems to even forgive a major scandal, sort of like Brett Favre or Ray Lewis. And I'll go into more detail about it when I do a ballot for the blog, but Ortiz still gets my vote. Because of the timing, his career outweighs the steroids push. Which I can't say for Clemens or Bonds, or even Robinson Cano or Alex Rodriguez, people who I rooted for that played with HGHs. 

So, I've had to even stop collecting people like A-Rod, or Jason Giambi, or Marlon Byrd, people who did enough for my team to enjoy them but eventually became more steroid than player. And that's really where I'm at with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Let's do the math right now. Barry Bonds started working with the BALCO trainer in 2000, so I would say that anything from 1986 to 1999 is fair game. In that time he has 445 home runs, 460 stolen bases, hits .288, has 2010 hits, and has a career WAR of 103.7, which is already great career numbers. Roger Clemens started working for his steroid-supplying trainer in 1998, so anything from 1984 to 1997 is fair game. In that time he has 213 wins, a career 2.97 ERA, 2882 strikeouts, a 1.147 WHIP, and a career 92.7 WAR, similarly excellent. 

If Bonds stops playing after 1999 and Clemens stops playing after 1997, I have a clear conscience, they both go in easily, they deserve accolades as ambassadors to the sport. But the fact that they weren't satisfied with everything they had already achieved, including 3 Cy Youngs and an MVP for Clemens and 3 MVPs for Bonds, irks me. 

I did a research paper on steroids in eighth grade, and I talked with Howard Bryant, who literally wrote the book on the subject, and who my dad knew well from college. While admittedly my interview skills were not up to snuff at that age [that was around the time I started writing the blog], I got the sense from his book that giving respect to these players was entirely counterintuitive. Bryant knows the strength of a great black role model in sports, he's written books on Hank Aaron, and one of his chief subjects is the race discrepancy in sports, especially baseball. So the fact that the man who dedicated several years to a work about why Hank Aaron was great also dedicated even more to a work about why Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were indefensible...stuck with me. 

Bryant was preparing for a world in which the right choice for many sportswriters would be to enshrine Clemens, Bonds and Rodriguez anyway, and talk about their high points while sweeping their 'cheating' under the rug. In 2013, the first year Bonds, Sosa and Clemens went on the ballot, Bryant handed in a blank Hall of Fame ballot. No names. Not even admirable choices like Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, or even Lee Smith, Tim Raines or Edgar Martinez, would be on his ballot. And that year, no one got in. It was a habit that Bryant would go back to on a few more occasions. He wasn't doing this, in my opinion, for attention from the public. He was trying to get the attention of his fellow sportswriters. Basically saying 'if you give them glory, you'll be encouraging people to forget about steroids'. 

Howard Bryant's main thesis is that these players deserve to be remembered, but not for the awards and the records. For breaking the rules. They shouldn't be legends, they should be cautionary tales. And already, a lot of these people, like Jose Canseco, Lenny Dykstra and Ken Caminiti, have become that. 

And so here we are. 2022. The last year that Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa or Roger Clemens can get into the Baseball Hall of Fame before a veterans vote inevitably gets them in anyway. It is looking very likely that Bonds and Clemens will get in, primarily for their pre-steroid numbers, but also for their 2000s numbers, record breaking and the like. 

So what happens then? I collect the Hall of Famers, I have a binder full of contemporary releases of HOF players. I try to collect everybody, even the obscure ones, and even the ones I didn't love getting in, like Harold Baines and Ted Simmons. I'm already telling myself that I won't collect Jim Kaat, solely because I don't agree that he should be in, and also I'm not ready to forgive him for that racism on the air against Ohtani. And so if Bonds and Clemens get in...I'm not gonna find all my Bonds and Clemens cards and re-add them to my HOF binder. I just don't see the point of rewarding that, or wasting binder space for them.

If anything, it'll mean that these players' market stock will rise, and that it'll be easier to deal away some of the higher-price cards I have of them, once I eventually figure out how to properly do eBay. But this July, there will still be a ceremony in Cooperstown that rewards these players, and the gift shop will sell Bonds and Clemens merchandise along with Minnie Minoso and Tony Oliva stuff, and...it won't sit right for me.

I can't change the system. The system rewards baseball greatness regardless of moral obligation [no word on Joe Jackson or Pete Rose, though]. The system rewards not the people who break the rules, but the people who are talented enough to get away with it. 

So if I can't change that, I guess I'll just have to change how I think about it. 

Custom Card of the Day: A-Rod Edition

Now, I know that every fiber of your body has the urge to immediately hate the person on this card...but just bear with me for a second. I'm as pissed as you are that he took steroids, and that he lied about doing them again. But...right now he's actually hitting well.

That's the thing. Not since 2009, when the Yankees were in the World Series, has A-Rod hit this well. He's had a couple of down seasons, mostly attributed to aging. But now you can say he's finally hitting again.

Now, most naysayers attribute this to the obvious, that he's probably just juicing again behind our backs. I highly doubt that's likely, as I think this time he's learned his lesson. Though you never know. This is A-Rod we're talking about.

Still, I'm glad he's at least got his bat back, and I'm glad he's actually made a respectable comeback.

Coming Tomorrow- One of the best defensive shortstops in the game right now, only in his second year.

Oh, credibility wasted

 

Ugh.

Why does he keep lying like this? In 2009, Alex Rodriguez said 'Okay, I did steroids, but it only did it once, and I'll never do it again'. Of course, now we know that was bullcrap.

Apparently, A-Rod kept taking steroids, only this time from a different place, some BALCO-esque place in Miami. And that adds to the already-sliding A-Rod slope.

I mean, first he loses his ability to hit. Then he gets hurt last season and never gets back. Then he gets replaced by Kevin Youkilis and is likely out for the season. NOW...THIS! Alex Rodriguez is becoming the most scorned, despised player in baseball, whereas 10 years ago he was one of the most beloved. I mean, from people calling him the best player in baseball to people saying he sucks at life. What a downhill ride.

This hurts the Yankee fans even more, because they've lost their hero, their icon, and the only guy worth a damn, except for the other people on the team worth a damn (which is like 6 or 7 people). It especially hurts his chances at the Hall of Fame, which were definite 5 years ago, and are now very unlikely.

I don't even know what to say. I honestly just don't care anymore. That's how this whole thing has made me feel. A ray of indifference. I don't care if they get rid of him, I don't care if he never gets elected to the hall of fame, I don't care what happens to A-Rod.

It's sad. It really is.

NO, CHOOCH!

 

Earlier this month, I said that I'd be enraged if anybody got busted for steroids in 2013.

It's not even 2013 yet. Hell, it wasn't even a full month later. And nevertheless, I'M ENRAGED. Especially considering it's a player on one of my favorite teams, who had a great season this year.

Chooch...you know, you really had me there. That was a terrific season. I thought you actually pulled it off. And then today, everybody found out you'd taken amphetamines, which is basically steroids only using a longer word. Just what I needed. First Galvis, now Chooch. You're really killing me.

I mean, you could say it's not so bad since it technically isn't steroids. Bartolo Colon took testosterone, and he still got the MLB-version of a whipping. And HE still got re-signed! 

It's bad enough when somebody you respect gets outed as a substance abuser. It's worse when it's someone you admire. And this kills me. Not as much as A-Rod, but still deadly.

Even worse, he's not even TRYING to appeal it. He's saying "I'll face the suspension and get back to what I do best." So, I admire that he's owning up to it, but you're a member of the Phillies! You're not supposed to fail THAT easily! Even Ryan Braun had the balls to lie about his steroid use, or lack thereof, and THAT worked!

So yeah...not very happy right now. There better not be ONE MORE PERSON to get caught taking banned substances this year. Give me THREE DAYS...JUST THREE DAYS without ANYTHING. PLEASE!

On Grandal: Steroids have gotten truly scary

The best analogy I can think of involving steroids in baseball relates to horror movies. Really, steroid outings are like horror franchise movies. They're terrible, they're pointless, they stopped being scary awhile ago and are now just sad, they're career-scarring for everyone involved--and they just won't stop! Even after people stop caring, they keep coming out with more. And the worst part is that they tend to involve veterans of the craft that we used to care about.

To this extent, Yasmani Grandal's outing as a steroid abuser is like the latest Final Destination movie (okay, there are several others I could have used, but that one just fit the best). I can back this up, too:

• Both are terrible. I was growing some respect for Grandal, as he was a great rookie. I was gonna include him in Year By Year (which I still will), but now I'll do so because it's a big story. Also, the Final Destination movies are beyond bad. Any horror enthusiast will tell you that. I only watch them because I want to laugh at the terrible CGI and acting.
• Both are pointless. I can see a point in testing Grandal for steroids, but nobody really cares about steroid outings, at least not since A-Rod's. Maybe Melky Cabrera garnered a little suspicion, but that's because it was so obvious. The same pointlessness belongs to the Final Destination movies, because they clearly should have just stopped at one.
• Both stopped being scary awhile ago and are now just sad. Doesn't need much backing up.
• Both are career-scarring for everyone involved. Like I said, I wanted to respect Grandal, but now I feel that I can't. He's been 'marked', and now I really can't respect him like I once did. The latest Final Destination movie has respectable actors in it, like David Koechner (yes, fratboys, he played Champ Kind from Anchorman) and Tony Todd (aka the Candyman). And now I can't take either of them seriously, for choosing to be even in a supporting role in this festering pile of crap.
• Both just will not stop. After the A-Rod admission, I wanted to shove like 500 rocks up this waterfall and see if it would plug up. And every so often one or two drips would break through the rocks, and Grandal was another one. And it infuriates me, too. Also, like I said before, the Final Destination movies have no real sign of ending, except that last one seemed like the last one, thankfully.

 Do you get my point? Also, I can't stand talking about either. I really hate steroids, and I really hate when respectable players have to tell people they used it. And I really want this to stop.

In 2012 alone we had four huge steroid admissions: Freddy Galvis, Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and now Yasmani Grandal. I want 2013 to have absolutely NOBODY to come out and say "hey, I took steroids." It really makes me mad, because then I'll lose respect for them, too.

So there. I want 2013 to be an absolutely immaculate year for steroids. Nobody will get caught.

I can already see myself being incredibly wrong.

Bartolo Colon- Should I be Surprised?

You know...some things in life happen out of nowhere. A year ago today, I never would have guessed that the Nationals would be leading the NL, the A's would have more of a shot than the Angels to win the wild card, and the Yankees would be propelled by home runs from Ichiro.

And I love surprises like that. They keep me tuned in. But for every thing you don't see coming, there are always one or two things you blatantly do.

I think you know where I'm taking this. I'll cut right to the chase.

Bartolo Colon tested positive for PEDs, or more specifically, testosterone. This shocked exactly one person nationwide- Jim Schneerburgershern, a blind man from Elizabeth, New Jersey, who had been living without electricity in a cave for forty years.

Aside from that, everyone saw it coming. Newborn children saw it coming. Small ferrets saw it coming. The Dalai Lama saw it coming. Even Bartolo Colon saw it coming. And that says something.

The reason for this, and the reason that it was so blatantly obvious that he was taking something, anything, even a case of Four Loko (yes folks, it's still a thing), lies mostly with his age.

Bartolo Colon is roughly 40 years old. This statement is a fact.

The following statements are also facts. In 2005, Bartolo Colon wowed many by winning the Cy Young award. This was the last time he would pitch this well. In 2006 and 2007 he was on and off with injuries and an inability to pitch. For a few years, Colon slipped into irrelevancy.

Then, last year, Bartolo Colon returned with the New York Yankees. And he began pitching EXACTLY LIKE HE DID IN 2005. Let me put this in perspective. With the exception of his pitching arm, Bartolo Colon's body was incredibly over the hill. My father is still trying to fathom the fact that he is older than Colon. Colon is overweight, runs shoddily, and is in no way a brilliant looking player.

Then, there is his arm. Bartolo Colon's pitching arm throws it's attached to a different person. He throws like he's ten years younger, which is incredibly weird. I would have said after last season he'd retire, but NOOOO...He comes back this year with the A's...and, get this, PITCHES EVEN BETTER THAN WITH THE YANKEES!

Something was up. Now everyone knew it, because, this being Oakland, Colon was starting a lot of games, and people were noticing how weird it was that a forty year old overweight man was pitching like a man Justin Verlander's age. When he played for the Yankees, no one noticed, because he didn't pitch as much, and Yankee fans are prone to saying "he's good. Who cares how he pitches?"

I developed a running joke about Colon, on and off the blog, that he used some sort of Cuban Mystery Cream on his left arm, and it made the arm 10 years younger. Whenever I'd pull a card of him, or talk about him, I'd say 'Bartolo Colon and his Cuban Mystery Cream'. Because we all knew something was up. And, as it turns out, he was using testosterone to help his arm feel younger, and to get his manliness back, or something like that.

In conclusion, what happened today was bound to happen eventually. It was as obvious as the ending of The Dark Knight Rises (to me, at least). Colon deserves the 50 game suspension he got.

Maybe next time he'll think twice before he uses his Cuban Mystery Cream.

Custom Card of the Day: Goldschmidt Edition

 

Okay, fine. I cheated. You caught me. But only a few times. 

You see, it takes twice as much time to customize an older design for an expansion team than it does for a regular custom. I have to redo everything. And it only works for some designs. So if I'm having a lazy day, I have to cut corners somehow.

This one, yesterdays, and the Matsui from last week are taken from products like Trading Card History and Archives. But really, does it matter? It's all the same, really.

It isn't?

Fine. I sincerely hope the commissioner does not fine me for this misuse, or strip me of my Most Valuable Customizer award. I only did it once, and I'm not doing it anymore.

Coming Tomorrow- Yes, another expansionist, but one I put work into making look old. The uniform did most of the work, though.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

My friend the Indians fan also happens to be a Red Sox fan. I feel sorry for what I am about to say.

I KNEW IT!

How is it possible that someone as beefy as Man-ram or Papi could NOT be taking roids?

You know what this means? You do, right?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 World Champions, the New York Met- I mean Yankees"

SOSA DID WHAAAAAAT?

This may come as a surprise to no one, but Sammy Sosa DID take steroids.

I can hear everyone out there going "OHHHH, RIIIIIIGHT!"

This was the most predictable thing since Texiera going to the Yanks

A Roid

Okay, you've seen me rip apart Andruw Jones, now I'm gonna rip apart my favorite player. And Rodriguez be thy name

Alex Rodriguez started a nice career with the Mariners in 1995. For about 5 years he blew Seattle away with his homers and style of play. Then he signed with the Rangers in 2000. Then in 2004, New York got a hold of him. Somewhere between 2000 and 2004, something happened. Something completely unexpected

He took bleeping steroids.

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Why would he do this? Hew as already a great player! When did he think "Hmm, I'm going to destroy my career without anyone noticing. But HOOOOOWWWWW???" It was completely idiotic of him, or anyone in that matter, to do that. Think of his fans. NOW THEY THINK THIS GUY IS A FRAUD! Joe Torre was right- A-FRAUD!

I think you know how I feel. I am completely devastated by this news. He was Baseball's future. Then he tore it apart.

There are 2 Good Sides to this
1- Definite Hall of Famer
2- WE STILL HAVE JETER!!!

More signings

Apparently Jeff Weaver has signed a 1 year deal with the Dodgers. This is a deal that could get his career back in the saddle, although it never really was. He had a pretty good career, but he's not a really big star, like Andy Pettite or John Smoltz. He's just Jeff Weaver, and he's in the same line as Kenny Rogers - the aging star who isn't getting noticed.

Also, Randy Wolf signed a deal with the Dodgers as well. It seems that after Greg Maddux, Brad Penny and Derek Lowe left, they need a serious pitching addition. Weaver and Wolf will help if they are used the right way. Randy Wolf was a superstar with the Phillies- until he had Tommy John surgery, missed 2006 and was dealt to the Dodgers and then the Astros.
GIVE THIS MAN RESPECT!!!
He's a great pitcher, not an endless nomad like Jeff Weaver.

Speaking fo Philadelphia, Tom Gordon, who played with BOTH my favorite teams has signed with one of my least favorites- the Diamondbacks. Why? Let me put it this way-
"2001- A World Series Oddessy"
Yanks- "Open the pod bay doors, Randy"
D-Backs- "NO! YOU SHALL LOSE THIS SERIES!"
Yanks- "But we were on a streak!"
You get it?
The Backs have housed a few good pitchers like RJ, Brandon Webb, Curt Schilling and Dan "The Man" Haren, not to mention some good bats like Adam Dunn, Justin Upton, Eric Byrnes and Luis Gonzalez. Adding Tom Gordon will help sooth the team from the loss of their pitching ace.

Also, there was a teensy weensy issue involving PED's and one of the greatest players in the game right now. I don't know if you heard. I'll post that one tomorrow.