Morning show co-hosts Jim Lang and Greg Brady do not agree on anything, not even agreeing to disagree.
Our guys think these two megastars from the “steroid era” should be in the Hall of Fame, but we told them they could only pick one — Bonds or Clemens?
Greg Brady: Watched Roger Clemens pitch, and knows a Hall of Famer when he sees one.
For me, Cooperstown has always been about the eye test. And though a”new stats moderate” like me will be castigated for saying it, if you watch a player through his career and are convinced beyond a doubt they belong in the Hall, that’s enough.
Clemens’s talent was remarkable, but he also had the work ethic and ability to be a big-game pitcher. Plenty of guys have looked as good for a season or two as Clemens did in 1986, but very few had the ability to maintain it. Among his contemporaries, Dwight Gooden had more talent. Randy Johnson was more overpowering. Greg Maddux was more consistent. But none was all of those things at once -— for 23 years.
Barry Bonds was a fantastic hitter, but his fielding and baserunning betrayed him in the latter part of his career. Clemens was often the biggest reason his teams made the post-season. Bonds is universally known for post-season shortcomings.
I believe Clemens probably took drugs to enhance his statistics, prolong his career and help his body recover from his legendary workouts — but not before he’d already accumulated enough awards to be a Hall of Famer. And even if he did, I refuse to accept that Clemens had an advantage, given that he was facing lineups that likely had four or five steroid users for every nine hitters.
Really, we’re guessing based on biceps and power numbers. I saw Clemens. He gets my vote.
Jim Lang thinks that, steroids or no, Barry Bonds might be the greatest hitter ever.
This isn’t even close. Forget choosing between Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens — if my vote could go to absolutely anyone it would be Bonds.
Love him or hate him, Bonds is one of the greatest players in the history of baseball.
Many will argue that Bonds doesn’t deserve a place in Cooperstown because he took performance-enhancing drugs. But, if we assume, as some do, that Bonds allegedly started using PEDs in the late ’90s, let us take a look at his career between 1986 and 1997. In that period, Bonds was named MVP three times, won seven Gold Gloves, hit 374 home runs and drove in 1,094 runs.
In total, Bonds’s 762 career home runs ranks first all-time. He’s also MLB’s all-time leader with 2,558 walks. He had a career OPS of 1.051 and is fourth all-time with 1,996 RBI. Bonds won a grand total of seven MVP awards and eight Gold Gloves.
To put Bonds’s seven MVPs into perspective, nobody else in the history of the game has more than three.
My vote has nothing to do with morality or whether or not Bonds took PEDs. I am voting for Bonds the baseball player, not the man. If it makes you sleep better at night, you can put a notation on the bottom of his plaque in Cooperstown saying that Bonds excelled during baseball’s “steroid era” — just below the part where it says Bonds’s record of seven MVP awards will never be matched.
POLL:
If you could only elect one player from the “steroid era” into the Hall of Fame, would it be …
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