2017 Baseball Hall of Fame selectees

Congrats to the inductees, great players all around, but two words:
Barry Bonds (MVP 7x).

 

Three letters for your two words - PEDs. Baseball writers won't easily forget.

 

I dare not disagree too strongly with the fine gentleman from San Antonio...but Pudge over Bench?? surely you jest. I was still in elementary school at the height of The Big Red Machine, but no way Pudge was a better catcher than Johnny Bench. Offensively, Bench had more home runs, more RBIs than Rodriquez while playing 4 fewer seasons. I might give Pudge the edge defensively, but while he owns 13 gold gloves, Bench had 10. Add in Pudge being mentioned in Canseco's book getting shot up with the juice and his best friend on those Ranger teams being a cheat named Rafeal Palmeiro, it's not a stretch to think his career was lengthened artificially. Johnny Bench is still the benchmark by which all others are compared and have yet surpassed.

Very happy for Tim Raines, he waited a long time, but so glad he gets in while he gets to speak and soak it all in (still pissed off the NFL HoF waited until Ken Stabler passed to finally admit him).

Looks like the writers are thawing out on Clemens and Bonds and they'll probably get in before their 10 years are up. Curt Schilling on the other hand has been so controversial that his candidacy took a massive hit this time around.

 

Worthy inductees, no question. Also puzzled about Raines not already being in. At least the baseball writers did the right thing. I'm not that enamored of them as a whole. Or many sportswriters, for that matter. A lot of them seem to be too big for their britches. That being said, we've got two in Louisville that, unfortunately, work for one of our competitors. Both excellent writers and great guys to be around. They don't take themselves too seriously, and don't overdo the "guardians of the purity of sport"
entitlement, if indeed there is one. They even write about non sports related subjects on occasion, and usually knock it out of the park.