Off the Bench

For the last three years, Jeff Miller of the Orange County Register did not fill out a Hall of Fame ballot. He came off the bench this year and voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens:

Well, sometime in the past 12 months, I finally settled on my official stance concerning those who played when the numbers – much like the muscles that produced them – were unnaturally inflated.

I decided I’d vote for the players I believe would have been Hall of Famers had “the cream” and “the clear” never become baseball terms once used as commonly as “the Cubs” and “the Cardinals.”

Sure, this approach requires some imagination and plenty of opinion. But those are two things I typically use in abundance in this position, so why not employ them again now?

In this context, Bonds and Clemens absolutely embody the concept of players whose performances didn’t need enhancement, two of the forever legends who mathematically just became more legendary.

Some form of this argument seems to be the reason writers are coming around to voting for Bonds and Clemens. I don’t think they’ll get in this year, but it’s clear there is a change in the voters this ballot. If Bonds and Clemens do make the jump over 50%, I suspect the momentum will carry them to the Hall sooner than later.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1NQyuh1