Who would leave off Cal Ripken, Jr. or Tony Gwynn?

[Ninong]

Cal Ripken, Jr. received 537 of 545 ballots cast and Tony Gwynn received 532 votes. So 8 sportswriters didn't think Ripken was deserving of the Hall of Fame and 13 felt that way about Gwynn. Who are these idiots?

On the other hand, Jose Canseco, on the ballot for the first time, received six votes. I think those six sportswriters should have to take a drug test, along with the ones who didn't vote for Ripken or Gwynn.

P.S. -- Mark McGwire received only 128 votes.

[zhenya]

Cal Ripken, Jr. received 537 of 545 ballots cast and Tony Gwynn received 532 votes. So 8 sportswriters didn't think Ripken was deserving of the Hall of Fame and 13 felt that way about Gwynn. Who are these idiots?

On the other hand, Jose Canseco, on the ballot for the first time, received six votes. I think those six sportswriters should have to take a drug test, along with the ones who didn't vote for Ripken or Gwynn.

P.S. -- Mark McGwire received only 128 votes.

I can't imagine two more deserving players than this two. Some of those writers needs to relax a little and stop nitpicking and maybe get a drink, if that helps them...

[almostdiva]

I heard one guy interviewed last night -- I forget who he was -- who said he turned his ballot in blank. Didn't vote for anyone. Said it was because in the "steriods era", which he defines as 1994-2004 "give or take a season", he has no idea who was using performance enhancing drugs and who wasn't, so he doesn't feel capable of making good choices. The interviewer then directly asked if he thought either Ripken or Gwynn did and he gave a fairly lame answer that basically said no, but he still wasn't voting for anyone this year. He said he MAY be able to vote next year, depending on what baseball does during this next season. Which I wondered was relevant how, since any of the current policies don't impact any of the hall of fame nominees.

What does everyone think will happen with Barry Bonds?????

[Ninong]

What does everyone think will happen with Barry Bonds?????

That's hard to say. Bonds was already a great baseball player before he first started using steroids. If you believe all the books and articles written on this subject, it was Mark McGwire's 1998 steroid-fueled breaking of Roger Maris' single season home run record that motivated Bonds to agree to let his buddy Greg Anderson "help him out." Then, three years later, Bonds broke McGwire's record in spite of the fact that pitchers weren't throwing to him, especially towards the end of the season, in contrast to the batting-practice fastballs that were served up to McGwire in the last weekend of the 1998 season. There is no question that Bonds knew what he was taking. He was assured, as were all those top runners, that it was positively undetectable.

I think a lot depends on what happens between now and the time Bonds is first eligible. What is hurting people like McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro is that, unlike Jose Canseco and Ken Cameniti, they pretended to be goody-goodies who didn't do steroids. Palmeiro was caught outright and drug dealers have already pled guilty to supplying McGwire with all the hard stuff. That's why he went to all the trouble of staging that little Andro charade. Then, when he was called to testify before that congressional committee, he looked like a hypocrite pretending that he had never done steroids and yet refusing to discuss anything that had happened prior to the day before yesterday.

Sammy Sosa was obviously juiced in 1998, too. If you believe all the stories that have come out over the past several years, the only question is how extensive it was, not whether it took place at all. There are even pitchers implicated, especially that obnoxious jerk who went to Houston in 2004 after he was supposedly retired.

Steroids in sports have been around for more than 30 years now. Just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers of the early 1970's how they won all those championships. Then it spread to Dallas and Oakland and all over. Look at what retired players have already admitted, especially the ones who were about to die in their 30's of brain tumors caused by steroids.

The tragedy is that steroids are a problem even in high school sports now, to say nothing of virtually all of the international competitions. Just look at cycling, for instance. Or we could go all the way back to the East German women swimmers who were winning everything thanks to steroids.

I don't know what should happen as far as the Hall of Fame is concerned. Should players be elected even if they took steroids? Should it make any difference if they fess up first? If that's the case, what about Pete Rose? I think he's finally willing to admit he gambled on baseball and lied about it.

[RHINO13]

Pete Rose has already admited to that now the only thing that has to happen is have Bud move on to wherever he goes when he passes,and I sure hope that obnoxious jerk comes back to the Yankees with his lil' buddy Andy!