Jose Canseco will be the face of the steroid era. Or he’ll be the WWE World Champion. It’s hard to say.

He’s the perfect anti-hero.

because its cracking me up

Commence derogatory comments :-)

And that is going to hurt his hall chances. He will get in eventually. The veterans committee would put him in on the first vote they had if it took that long.

The hall of fame is a sham now, anyway. It used to be something special but after this year and all the BS surrounding it, it’s completely lost its luster. I hope he never gives a speech. They don’t deserve it.

The HOF is a joke: (a) Pete Rose isn’t in because of an intellectually lazy & incoherent conflation of the ideas of ‘ineligible for MLB’ with ‘ineligible for induction into a museum that isn’t owned by MLB and has nothing to do with baseball operations on any field.’ (I fully agree with Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from MLB and its affiliated minor league teams & operations; but even my cat sees that that can still be accomplished and let the man take his rightful place in a museum.) (b) Voters who think someone is perfectly qualified, but then won’t vote for him in his first year of eligibility because of some “message” or “meaning.” © The years of abuse by the Veterans Committee that has resulted in, just for one example, Phil Rizzutto’s enshrinement. [Interesting topic starter: who is the least deserving inductee? And are there any flat-out unqualified inductees? I’ll throw out the first pitch: Rizzutto doesn’t deserve it.]

But the undeniable fact is that both Bonds and Clemens deserve their spaces in the HOF. Their stats, the dizzying numbers of MVPs (Bonds) & Cy Youngs (Clemens), the levels of achievement in their era, the dominance, the game-changing factor they both brought in their appearances… if there is any worthwhile definition of a HOF, they should both go in at the first opportunity. (And Rose, too.)

And we have always understood that ballplayers are only validly compared within their own era (varying rules, varying heights of the pitchers mound, varying specifications of the equipment used, dead ball, live ball, etc.). Well, here is a case of a pitcher dominating in an era in which batters juiced, and of a batter who dominated in an era in which pitcher’s juiced. They kind of validate each other. (Somewhere, the Baron is working on a screenplay idea in which Clemens and Bonds … “validate” each other.)

Bonds won’t get in mostly because they hate his guts, and he made it easy for them with Balco, and Clemens ain’t getting in because if he did, every writer who voted for Clemens and not Bonds would be called a racist. They’ll keep Roger out to show that keeping Bonds out is not racially motivated. (although in alot of cases it will be). Red neck writer: “I’m not racist. I didn’t vote for Clemens, and he’s white!! I have principles!! The sanctity of the game. The children. Mom and apple pie!!”

They are like the Yin and Yang of the steroid era. They are the great two-headed God of steroids. Half black, half white, all jerk, all great.

The best pitcher and hitter of the era. Both fantastic into their early forties. One is the great American hero and one is the great American Anti-hero.

They should go in at the same time. And give a joint speech.