Bonds and Clemens

In yesterday's post about the All New Jersey team, I had to compare Joe Medwick's 1937 OPS to Barry Bonds' career OPS of 1.051, and I was searching around Barry Bonds' Baseball Reference page and was just blown away. I texted my good friend telling him that it breaks my heart that Barry Bonds is surrounded by controversy. Bonds did use steroids, but it was his personal trainer that give them to him and they were banned a few years after his ingestion. The problem lies with the investigation when Bonds went to federal trial for accounts of perjury and obstruction of justice. That he even had to go to trial tells the writers and voters that with this whole conflict, Barry Bonds shot himself in the foot at being voted into the Hall of Fame. Especially now with the ballot eligibility shortened to 10 years, he may be on his way out (he's gotten ~35% of the vote the past two years - you need 75%). I think down the road, the air will be cleared and the Era Based Committee will vote him in, but for now, I'm going to argue that even before Bonds allegedly began using steroids, he would have been a Hall of Famer - it was the way he handled the controversy and investigations where he lost it all.

In the Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, the only thing dedicated to Barry Bonds is his 756th home run ball. It sits quietly in a small 2 foot case with an asterisk written on it. The Hall of Fame rarely shows things that have writing/autographs on them, but there's a historical obligation to show this ball. The fact that it sits right behind the Hank Aaron room (that's right, room) goes to show that Hank Aaron is still considered the bona fide home run king. Many people will just meander past it to go see the no-hitter artifacts and won't even realize that Bonds is represented. 

Let's say Bonds played the HOF-eligible minimum ten seasons and was only in San Francisco for a few years rather than most of his career. With this qualifier, he would have played 10 seasons (1986-1996), giving us a wide margin before he even considered using steroids. Here's what we have to work with: .288/.404/.548, 334 HR, 993 RBI, 1595 hits, 380 steals - and here's where it gets good: 3 MVP awards (in 4 years, with another runner up), 6 Gold Gloves, 6 Silver Sluggers, 6 All Stars. Even in ten years, he's a member of the 300-300 club, something only 8 other players have done (none in such a short amount of time). 334 home runs would still allow him to crack the top 100 (even higher if it were still 1996), and 3 MVPs is more than a heck of a lot of Hall of Famers have. Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Mike Schmidt, and Jimmie Foxx have 3, Frank Thomas, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, and Frank Robinson both have 2. I'm not saying Barry Bonds is better than these players, but when you look at this problem mathematically, he is. The Hall of Fame accepts the top 1.8% of all players ever to have a major league at-bat or defensive inning, and only a handful have multiple MVPs. Even fewer have this many MVPs in 10 years. I think he was a shoo-in and threw it all away.

Here's a fun video of former Pirates manager Jim Leyland cussing out a rookie Barry Bonds (warning - lots of bad language).

The same goes for Clemens, whose rookie year was two years earlier than Bonds'. We'll stop his career at 1996 as well, his last year with Boston. Here's what we are working with: 

• 192-111
• 3.06 ERA
• 38 shutouts
• 2,590 strikeouts
• 1.158 WHIP
• 3 CYA, an MVP, and CYA runner up
• He also had 2 20-strikeout games, once in 1986 and once in 1996

Wow. He had 7 CYA in his entire career, but 3 would put him T3rd all time with schmucks like Tom Seaver and Sandy Koufax. His 3.06 ERA and 38 shutouts would be in the top 40 of Hall of Famers (of 72), and just below the average HOF ERA of 2.97 and 41 (respectively), especially in an era of baseball that shutouts are so rare. His 2,590 strikeouts would put him 15th among Hall of Fame pitchers. 

But the problem is, Clemens was an absolute jerk when it came to his steroids investigation. Uncooperative, immature, and just plain rude - Clemens made no friends during his investigation. He used steroids and lied about it. The first part is forgivable (maybe not so much that he's worth the HOF), but the second part is not. When the writers are asked to cast their ballots, they look at the character and quality of the person as well as on-the-field stats. I think that's what would cost Clemens his spot in Cooperstown. Even though he would still be there if he retired after his time in Beantown.

Like I said earlier, it breaks my heart. These two guys had such supreme talent that they reigned over baseball - Clemens from '86 to '91 and Bonds from '90 to '95 - and swept up all the great postseason awards. But they threw it away. Not with using steroids - but how they reacted to it afterwards. Kids - be honest.

Thanks for reading.