Sports Time Radio

Yesterday the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the Hall of Fame vote and just one player was elected. Now this caused quite an uproar about a few players that didn’t get in, but I don’t understand what the big deal was about it.

David Ortiz received 307 votes which translated to 77.9% of the vote which gets him into the Hall of Fame. A player needs 75% of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame. Not sadly Oritz’s election was overshadowed by a bunch of sanctimonious idiots either on social media or actually on television complaining about two of the players that didn’t get in.

Two players in their last year on the Ballot Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens didn’t receive enough votes to get into the Hall of Fame and now it will be up to the veterans committee to decide their fate. Both Bonds and Clemens had been trending upward in the voting, but they couldn’t get to the require 75% of the vote to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Like I mentioned this caused quite an uproar and I don’t get why two great players who would’ve been voted into the Hall of Fame anyway had to cheat and cost themselves this prestigious award. I don’t care what you’re going to try and sell here both of these guys used performance enhancing drugs and when they were confronted about it and had the chance to do the right thing and made save their reputations, they both choice to either stay quite or threaten to get litigious about the situation.

Don’t forget that Bonds trainer went to jail rather than admit anything that Bonds had use, but there was what they called “The Cream” that I believe he admitted to using. Of course, I also think he said he didn’t know what it was. Clemens had his DNA found on the end of a needle that was supplied by a former either steroid supplier or trainer. This was a little while back, but I believe he tried to say it was his wife who was taking steroids.

Now I fully believe that Bonds and Clemens both belong in the Hall of Fame as does Pete Rose, but their needs to be an asterisk or some type of explanation next to their plaques about their steroid use and in Rose’s case his gambling. All three where Hall of Fame type players and belong in there, but you have to realize that they did this to themselves. They weren’t forced to take whatever performance enhancing drugs they took, but they choose to do it and they’ve had to face the consequences every year at this time when the Hall of Fame vote come out.

Now there have been some people who have thrown Curt Schilling’s name in with Bonds and Clemens, but don’t forget that Schilling asked for people not to vote for him. So, Schilling not getting elected to the Hall of Fame this time seemed to be his choice, but there were some writers that still voted for him. You can argue all you want that Schilling should be in the Hall of Fame, but this was his decision as he’s said that he’ll take his chance with the veteran’s committee.

I won’t be surprised at all if at some point in time all three of these players end up in the Hall of Fame along with someone like Alex Rodriguez who received just a little under 35% of votes in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot.

What I find quite odd is that one of these people mentioned Sammy Sosa. Now Sosa is the only player in Major League Baseball to ever hit 60 or more home runs three seasons in a row and he’s also a member of the 600-home run club. He hit 609 home runs to be exact. Sosa managed just 18.5% of the votes yesterday in his last year on the ballot. Sosa like Bonds and Clemens is suspected of using performance enhancing drugs but has never admitted to it just like Bonds and Clemens.

It’s very, very clear where I stand on Bond and Clemens, but I’d be interested to know is where you stand. Do you think the writers should’ve voted them into the Hall of Fame? And do you think that the veterans committee will eventually put them into the Hall of Fame?

Just a quick update on my NFL picks from last weekend. I was .500 again as I went 2-2. I was right with the Rams and the Chiefs, but I missed on the Packers and the Titans. For the playoffs I am 6-6, so I hope you’re doing better than I am. In Saturday’s blog I make my picks for this Sunday’s games.

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