Barry Bonds hit 762 career home runs – more than anyone in baseball history. So with numbers like that, why is he striking out with fans and sports writers when it comes to the Hall of Fame? The obvious answer of course, is that Bonds is tainted by the scandal of steroids – but I want to go deeper than just the obvious.
So I interviewed Scott Barzilla, author of The Hall of Fame Index, a fascinating book that offers “a revolutionary compendium of statistics that rates a player’s fitness for induction” into baseball’s most hallowed shrine. To check out the book, click here:
San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds will be on the ballot for the Hall of Fame in 2013. But will he make it in?
Scott Barzilla is very doubtful. “I would say probably not in two years. However, the greater question will be after that election. In the book, I try to steer as clear of the ethical and moral issues as I could. Bonds was a three-time MVP and the best player in baseball for more than ten years before he started using,” he stated.
“Even if you remove everything after 1998 (when he reportedly started using) he would still be a Hall of Famer. Naturally, the voters will have to consider the ethical considerations and with his recent perjury conviction. It will be a tough road for him,” Barzilla concluded.
But how do you deny a player from eternal fame when he’s the statistical leader in home runs?
“I think the voters won’t vote him in simply because there is such a reverence the voters feel towards a first ballot Hall of Famer,” Barzilla told me.
“I also think it will take the voters a number of years to work their way through the entire era. We don’t know who is on that infamous list from 2003 and we don’t know how many people used in total. I think time will heal some wounds, but Bonds assault on the records caused a pretty deep wound that won’t be healed for awhile,” Barilla opined.
Several other players accused of steroid use will also be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013, including Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Rafaelo Palmeiro. Scott Barzilla is convinced they’ll be shut out as well.
“I don’t see some of those other players making it to be honest with you,” Barzilla stated. “There just are too many questions about how much they legitimately achieved without the extra help. Clemens is a lot like Bonds in that he had a Hall of Fame career before the drugs. Guys like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro just have too much surrounding the drugs to make any kind of definitive statement as to what they actually accomplished,” Barzilla said.
The Hall of Fame Index takes you inside the numbers to accurately gage baseball’s best players, position by position. This book will help you analyze who is truly great – and whose numbers were inflated by being on a great team. Read it and you’ll see who the greatest center fielder of all time was – based on statistical analysis (Hint: it’s not Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays).
So who are baseball’s most overrated and underrated players? Scott Barzilla will answer those questions in my next blog. Stay tuned!
