Sunday BP, 8/12/18

In case you missed it, here’s the jersey retirement ceremony from yesterday:

Willie Mays’ speech begins at 48:30 and it’s one for the ages.

Buster Posey was asked about Barry Bonds and the Hall of Fame and before I sat down to watch the clip, I assumed Buster would furnish a non-committal “both sides” answer and boy did the MVP deliver:

What was Buster Posey supposed to say? Exactly. His brand is all about not making waves. Maybe his personal beliefs are that Bonds is a cheater who doesn’t deserve the Hall, but because of Buster’s position in the franchise, he has to be a bit more diplomatic about the guy whose jersey number was just retired.

I’m not trying to dump on Buster Posey. What I’m getting at is that plenty of players both active and retired way in all the time about the place of PED users, Bonds or otherwise, and they’re strongly opinionated about it. I think the consensus of strong voices suggests that pretty much no baseball player thinks Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame...

But the loudest player voices all deem non-factors like Jack Morris to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, which just goes to show that the people who watch and the people who play will always have a different perspective and “opinion load” from the other side. The people who play the game will always think their POV is the best since the people watching would have had no POV without their playing, but I submit that the Hall of Fame, as run by the BBWAA is governed by the POV of those who watched it. The Veterans’ Committee was the BBWAA’s gift to the player POV, but let’s not forget that the Hall is run by those who watched the game.

To that end, if you watched the game and don’t feel that Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame because of all the stuff he did that you didn’t see (and, for the record, what he did that you didn’t see that made you question what you saw was enhance his performance so that you saw something more amazing than you had ever seen before), then I can only hope you’re as remarkably consistent in your personal life (you’re not).

As an entertainer and performer, Barry Bonds entertained and performed better than the vast majority of his peers. In fact, during the time he played baseball, he was the best baseball player. If you don’t believe me, ask Willie Mays. If you don’t believe Willie Mays, then... wow. Well, you must be a Dodgers fan. Or these guys: