The Boston Globe
May 31, 2006
You know what I hate most about Barry Bonds and his joyless, fraudulent pursuit of the home run gods?
My Hall of Fame ballot.
And Mark McGwire.
The Barry Plague infects Shea Stadium this weekend, which means another tonnage of speculation and suspicion about Bonds and his place in baseball history. Barry surpassed Babe Ruth's home run total last weekend and goes into tonight's action 40 home runs shy of honorable Hank Aaron's career mark of 755. With the Bambino in the rearview mirror, there will be a lot of talk about Barry and Hank in New York this weekend.
And we'll hold our noses. I'm still hoping Barry retires, or confesses and asks our forgiveness, but that's not likely. As Sundance said to Butch when considering options while they were hopelessly cornered by a team of hired guns, ``They could surrender to us, but I wouldn't count on that."
Barry is going to be 42 in July. He's standing in the batter's box on a surgically repaired right knee and he has bone chips in his left elbow. Most nights he runs around like a man with a Steinway baby grand on his broad back. He has stopped hitting home runs with regularity.
Waiting for No. 714 and No. 715 was like waiting for Franco to die (Generalissimo, not Julio).
Barry's $90 million contract with the Giants expires at the end of this season and it looks as if his days in the National League are almost over. At best, Bonds is bound for a role as a designated hitter, but right now he'd be a drag on any American League team, and Oakland is probably the only place where he'd be welcomed by new hometown fans.
But what's killing me the most is the prospect of McGwire on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. And that is because those of us who vote are going to be held to new scrutiny now that the Steroid Boys are coming up for election. We won't have to decide on Bonds for at least five years (players are not eligible for election until five years after they retire), but McGwire is up this year and he's going to be the litmus test for all who follow.
Unlike Bonds, McGwire is not tainted by the BALCO scandal, and there is no grand jury testimony of Big Mac admitting to using ``the cream" and ``the clear." There also is no best-selling book detailing Mac's steroid history.
But I know what I saw on that infamous day when a lawyered-up McGwire sat before Congress and told us he was not there to talk about the past. I saw a confession. Pure and simple. And nothing since that day has changed my opinion. McGwire clammed up because he knew he was dirty and he didn't want to face a perjury charge down the road.
So now we'll have Big Mac on the ballot, and by Dec. 31 more than 500 card-carrying members of the Baseball Writers Association of America will vote heads or tails on his Hall of Fame candidacy. And woe is he who votes for McGwire this year, then turns thumbs-down on Bonds five or more years from now.
This would be less problematic if Barry were up for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Canton cares only about performance. Gamblers are not kept out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A disgraced O.J. Simpson keeps his place in the football hall. Baseball, on the other hand, asks voters to consider a ballplayer's character and contributions to the game in general -- in addition to his performance on the field.
Baseball writers making judgments about a ballplayer's character? Pretty absurd, no? It's never been a comfortable place for this 30-year member of the association.
So what are we to do with those suspected of cheating? And how to quantify the impact of performance enhancers? Bonds no doubt was a Hall of Famer before his head inflated to the size of a basketball. How many of his home runs can we attribute to steroid use? And what about the fact that baseball did not legislate against most of the stuff during the times Bonds appeared to be juicing?
McGwire's fate will set a standard. There no doubt will be voters who elect to punish Big Mac by making him wait -- ``just say no" this December, then vote for him one year later. Nonsense. Withholding one's vote for a year as punishment strikes me as childish and pointless. A guy is either in or out. ``End of story," as Tony Soprano would say.
It's not just about McGwire and Bonds, either. Among others, there will be tough calls to make on the likes of Rafael Palmeiro, who failed a drug test, and Sammy Sosa, who never failed a drug test, but appears as guilty as McGwire.
Will I vote for McGwire? Not telling. I'm still hoping new information surfaces between now and New Year's Eve. It's a dark, dreaded task, made especially difficult because we all know Barry is getting loose in the on-deck circle.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Boston Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com. What do you think about Bonds passing the Babe on the all-time home run list? Share your opinion at www.boston.com/sports
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