Buck O’Neil Goes in, While Bonds and Clemens Left on Cutting Room Floor. – Opinion

MLB will be on vacation while its labor dispute is settled. A record amount was given to current players this winter, despite a possible stoppage.

The Hall of Fame has elected two deserving baseball players this week: Tim Kurkjian (a TV color man and long-time writer for the game of baseball), and Buck O’Neil (a star of the Negro Leagues). Buck O’Neil, a star of the Negro Leagues, was also voted in by the Early Baseball Committee.

O’Neil was a terrific player and a great ambassador of baseball, but he was not a unanimous choice. Three committee members voted no. O’Neil numbers were good but not Willie Mays-like. However, O’Neil was worthy to live in Cooperstown. Baseball needed O’Neil after Jackie Robinson was signed by the Dodgers. O’Neil, and men like him, faced racism and ridicule yet remained gentlemen and advocates of baseball. Why he wasn’t a unanimous pick escapes me.

For a second, let me tell you about Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) mark their legacies and like ugly tattoos, they are permanently inked as “cheaters.”

Barry Bonds quit baseball after his body was like a balloon. His defenders felt he belonged to the Hall of Fame. They argued that PEDs may have been beneficial, but his Hall of Fame numbers were higher than before the PEDs. Roger Clemens numbers remained Tier 1 well past the age where pitchers lose their “stuff”.

Both men denied using PEDs. Bond’s denial was more Jesse Smollett-like. After BALCO broke, and facts made it clear that he was PED-inflated, Bonds claimed he didn’t know he was using Performance Enhancing Chemicals. Bonds was sending baseballs to the top, but Bonds denied it like a little boy standing at the cookie jar covered in crumbs. Clemens was unaffected by his violent denimination of PED usage. Most baseball fans reacted with a “Sure, Jan.”

Bonds was charged and convicted for obstruction. However, the verdict was overturned. Clemens, however, was found not guilty of obstruction. The baseball writers didn’t choose Bonds or Clemens this year to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They are both in their final year of eligibility, and will likely be removed from the next year’s ballot.

A fascinating article at ESPN.com by Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn presents a case that Bonds and Clemens both would have had dramatic drops in “numbers” but for PEDs. Based on an amazing statistical analysis done by Dan Szymborski (baseball stats expert), the projections can be seen. Szymborski’s system is called ZiPS projection. It uses data from the past to predict future results. It’s all fascinating, but irrelevant to the people voting for the Hall.

Are Bonds or Clemens eligible to be elected? The baseball writers who induct players have answered with a lukewarm “No”. Many voted in favor of one, while others opted for the other. However, not enough people voted to exclude both. Baseball writers are not my favorite. It reminds me of a Groucho Marx resignation line: “I don’t want to be in a club that would accept me as a member”.

Twenty-two baseball writers didn’t vote for Jackie Robinson’s Hall of Fame induction; 23 percent of writers left him off their ballots. Nineteen writers didn’t want Ted Williams in the Hall. According to contemporaries, Ted wasn’t “nice” to them, so a petulant pack of 19 newspaper writers didn’t vote for him.

Willie Mays? He was rejected by 22 writers. Yes, those writers are all dead now, and none can vote, (unless they’re buried in a Blue state) but up to 2019, when Mariano Rivera was selected, there had been no unanimous pick for Cooperstown. The baseball writers can be compared to economics professors. They can’t “do,” so they write about it – not that there is anything wrong with that.

Hall of Fame voters need to be made up of both Hall of Fame players and managers as well as those who have managed or run a team. Then add maybe a half-dozen writers like Tim Kurkjian and it might be a fair vote that leaves personal animus out, and votes in for men who were inarguably good for baseball — like Buck O’Neil.