Hall of Fame: Bonds, Sosa NO! Roger Maris, YES!

What a joke to even think about steroid players like Bonds & Sosa for the Baseball Hall of Fame when REAL home run hitters like ROGER MARIS (greatest REAL single season home run hitter of all time) aren't there. Notably also, is that Maris was MVP in the American League 2 years in a row. And fielding ? Maris wasn't a good right fielder. He was a GREAT right fielder.

 

Sadly, NY Yankees management withheld evidence that Maris had a broken hand and forced him to play despite this problem. As a result, he had no feeling in his hand and threw out his arm. This shortened his career or he would easily have hit over 300 career home runs. Maris was a great player who gave 100% and more every single night. He richly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

 

It's never too late to make amends. The Hall of Fame should be inducting Maris NOW, or forever show themselves to be insufficient at what they do. (no knock against the great players there now, who deserve to be)

 

And let's not forget another Yankees great in Bernie Williams:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-10999552


The sports media forgot about him as well even though some of his records exceed those of Kirby Puckett.

 

What were Bernie's records ?

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/willibe02.shtml


Why Bernie qualifies for HOF.

 

I'm so glad we had a blank year this year. While I'm not a huge baseball fan, with the popular options they had, I feel it's better to have no one than put a all but convicted 'roids user on the list. I wouldn't be surprised if they have done this, but please, don't further taint the list. Oh, and if Lance can lose his seven Tour de Frances and Olympic Bronze Metal over longstanding 'roids allegations, why can't they strip Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and especially Mark McGuire (who I think even admitted it) of their home run records? Wouldn't that mean Maris is the true #1 (Home) Run King again?

You know, it actually hurts me to mention the last guy, as his team was the St. Louis Cardinals and being a native Missouri, I have an affinity to Missouri teams, as well as my current state's teams. (Colts, Pacers, Boilermakers, Bulldogs, Fighting Irish, Indians, etc.)

 

Only dispute I have with this post is your use of the word "again". This would suppose that Maris lost his title. I never accepted that notion. I suspected all along that these phonies were dopers. I have regarded Maris as the single season home run king since he hit 61 in 1961, and I've never wavered an inch from it. The only discreancy might be that he did it in 162 games while Ruth hit his 60 in 154 games. I regard them as equal champs. But the dopers ? LOL. Not hardly. I would say the dopers don't have ANY performance records or stats period. Only thing that can really be said about them, is what teams they played for, and in what years. That's it.

 

Hopefully, Maris will be placed there.

 

sounds like this OP was a racist when he was here..somehow he forgets to mention Mcguire and Clemons in that bunch as well.

Bonds,Sosa,Mcguire,Clemons,AND Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat should all be banned from the hall of fame in their sports.

 

It was said at that time that several pitchers refused to give up that extra HR to Maris so that none dared to challenge him with a fastball down the middle.

 

There's only one player from the Sosa, Bonds and McGuire era who should go into the Hall of Fame and that's Ken Griffey Jr. There's no doubt that he played clean. Roger Maris is one of the greatest of all time. That's not even arguable.

 

The issue I have with Maris was is prime - it was very short...

Of course we could use this same argument for Koufax..

 

Ken Griffey Jr isn't in the HOF yet? Yet Frank Thomas is?

Griffey will get in - no doubt about it.

 

Griffey hasn't been out of baseball long enough to be eligible. He'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

 

Isn't the wait 4 years? didn't he retire in like 2010?

Either way I agree - there isn't a debate for Griffey...

 

He's eligible soon.

 

Roger Maris, who I have written about here a couple of times as deserving a spot in the HOF, is passed the mandatory waiting period for the Veterans Committee, which went 15-years and didn't vote him in, to be returned to the ballot. The rules of induction to the Hall of Fame would have to be rewritten to give Maris a spot in Cooperstown, sadly. Yankee fans always would have accepted Mickey Mantle breaking Ruth's 60 home runs in a season record (he almost did with 54 in 1961 in the great HR race that Maris won), but never Roger Maris, a shy professional, who shunned the media, something you can't do in NYC. Those writers made him out to be crass and a poor interview and the bad rap extended out into his professional career as well. Maris is the only player to win the MVP twice and not be in the HOF. He hit more home runs in New York in his time there than Mantle did, and played in five World Series as a Yankee (1960-1961-1962-1963-1964). He then went on to have a fine career in a place he was much more comfortable in, St.Louis, as a Cardinal, and play in the 1967 and 1968 World Series' as a Right Fielder and First Baseman.

I imagine the HOF writers will make the steroid users wait awhile before putting them in. There has been no official league penalty for the antics of McGuire; Sosa; Bonds; Clemens - they will keep them out a few years but eventually vote them in. There have been discussions that they should be deprived of 1/3 of their Home Run totals because of admitted steroid use - which would give the Home Run record back to Roger Maris - not a bad idea. As far as Maris hitting his in 161 games where Ruth hit his in 154, Major League Baseball ruled on that years ago, stating any record set on the field, no matter how the rules might have changed, which becomes a new record, is permanent. Roger's 61 home runs stood - should still stand. So will the Steroid Jerks also. They will go into the HOF eventually after being penalized for the "good of the game" by the writers for a few years.................

 

Yes, except Roger Maris didn't hit a home run every time he went to the plate, and pitchers around the American League were scared of him, and being the one to give up the record breaking home run. I followed this as a grade school kid, when baseball was golden, on B&W television. Remember him hitting 57 and 58 on NBC's Game of the Week, into the right field seats at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, known with affection as the "Mistake On The Lake." In its history - after Maris left the America League for St.Louis, they moved the fences of that stadium in four times, it was a mile long shot into RF there, matter of fact, it was easier to club one out of dead center than down the lines. Was a football stadium, seats behind home plate there were 35-yards from the batters box. Knocking HR's there (and Roger didn't hit a lot when he was an Indian playing there), was almost the biggest oddity in the league. Rocky Colivito hit 28 or 30 one year, and the idiot Indian management (hasn't ever improved), traded him over to Detroit for the AL batting king, Harvey K, even up. Indians GM called it the difference between ground beef and salisbury steak. Colivito got out of Cleveland, and hit 49 in Detroit playing in Tiger Stadium or Briggs Stadium, don't remember exactly what they called the place. The Detroit GM wired Cleveland's GM "how you like those hamburger's?"

The Mantle-Maris story, which is what today's sportswriters don't understand, because they don't look at old tape, just statistics, fail to understand that even though `1961 was a watershed year; Yuri Gagarin and Alan Sheppard went into space. John Kennedy took over the Presidency; but THEY STORY of the year was that game-by-game HR duel between Mantle and Maris. Of course, the Yankees were destroying the opposition along the way. Roger had such a powerful and quick bat, that he got his HR's, even though the pitchers were walking him. That he deserves a spot in the HOF, no question. That he ever will get it, not a chance. His great years were too short to rack up the numbers sufficient to get today's sportswriter's attention.

As for Sandy Koufax? I don't seem to remember him walking anybody from 1960 onto his retirement in 1966 because of elbow problems. Guy was absolutely un-hittable for seven straight years, and along with Drysdale, the Dodger's knew they never would have a long losing streak with those two on the mound. Their holdout year, which made headlines - they held out as a twosome - tariff to sign them by the Dodgers? $60,000 for Koufax; $40,000 for Drysdale - hard to believe the Dodgers almost lost them for $100,000 - that's A-ball bonus money in today's baseball market.

 

I agree, but both had short primes.. IMO, Maris should be a HOF'er and obviously Koufax is.. I really have no idea why Maris isn't in the HOF...

Interesting tidbit about Koufax/Drysdale holdout - it was Drysdale that negotiated their contracts..

 

Probably because Statistically Maris is not a HOF worthy player?

 

I'm curious as to what makes Maris a hofer, yet superior players such as Edgar Martinez and Tim Raines are not? Bagwell and Piazza too for that matter are WAY more deserving than Maris.

 

Lot of nonsense in this thread.
Maris could not carry Bonds' jockstrap, even before steroids. Maris was a very good player, but was not even in the same area code as Bonds.Anybody thinking otherswise is either completely ignorant of the game, or letting their hatred take over.
Maris is not in the HOF because his resume is completely and utterly lacking. 2 big seasons, in a short career, with no counting or rate stats, do not make a HOF'er
There is no logical argument for Bonds being out of the Hall. There were PED's rampant in the 60's and 70's (uppers to help the players cope with the long season, travel, etc.). So, apparently, it is OK for that era of players to pop amphetamines but steroids are the deal breaker? Plus, there was no rule against the steroids at the time. Yes, there was a little memo from the commissioner's office, but it was not agreed upon by the union. There was no testing, no enforcement, and no punishment. A 'rule' without enforcement and punishment is not a rule. It is a suggestion. Even now that testing and punishment is in place, nowhere is it stated that a positive test results in a life-time ban from the game or the Hall. Plus, the whole steroid era came with the emphatic approval of the league. When McGwuire and Sosa were chasing the record, the league was gaga over them, even though it was readily apparent they were using. It was only when it blew up in the public's eye that they started tsk-tsking it.

Probably the biggest nonsense, though, is the blather about Bonds not being the record holder. He is. Deal with it. Just because you say something repeatedly, does not make it so, no matter how hard you wish. "An apple is not a fruit. I do not recognize it as a fruit so that is that."

 

Personally, I think all home run records hit by left-handed Yankee hitters are suspect. That includes Ruth, Mantle, Maris and Reggie Jackson. That rightfield porch wasn't even a test for high schoolers.

 

Bonds , Sosa , McGwire, and Alex Rodriguez have no business being I the hall of fame and all of their records should be swiped away.