Sosa is one of the big three on the ballot this year (including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens) for possible inclusion in the Cooperstown class of 2013 that have people buzzing over Did he or didn’t he? Did he use performance-enhancing drugs after they were ruled illegal? Did he ever use performance-enhancing drugs? Do people care if he used performance-enhancing drugs?

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Bonds, Clemens and Sosa clearly have the statistical qualifications to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. But we are about to find out if reputation counts more than numbers in the minds of voters, if enough voters think they got away with cheating even if the cases made against each man have only grown murkier in the light of courtrooms and testimony. Does suspicion trump proof? Is truth somewhere in-between fact and hunch? (more…)

Recently, Barry Bonds, pretty much example No. 1 of the above, told MLB.com that he definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame. “Oh, without a doubt,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

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http://media.philly.com/images/shoeless.jpg

- Lying about anything below.

- Taking money to intentionally lose the World Series (Joe Jackson and other members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox).

Black Sox: the World Series gambling scandal of 1919 … and the cover-up. Monday, June 8, 2009

Interview with Gene Carney, author of the 2006 book “Burying the Black Sox, How Baseball’s Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded”.

- Taking money to intentionally lose the regular season games (Hal Chase, …).

- Gambling on games (Pete Rose).

- Intentionally hitting a batter with a pitched ball (Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza).

- Intentionally crashing into another player (Pete Rose hit catcher Ray Fosse in an All Star game).

- Tampering with the ball (Gaylord Perry, Whitey Ford, …).

- Tampering with the bat (Sammy Sosa, Graig Nettles, …).

- Tampering with the glove or mitt.

- Faking: HBP (Derek Jeter), injury, catch, etc.

- Not trying your best.

- Using illegal performance enhancing stuff: steroids, human growth hormones, amphetamines, etc.

These players admitted using illegal performance enhancing stuff: Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, Alex Rodriguez.  Based on performance and other information, these are some of the more prominent players who probably used: Nolan Ryan, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, David Ortiz.

Legal performance enhancing stuff like cortisone, coffee, vitamins, etc. is OK with most of the steroid zealots.  Amphetamines were commonly used for decades.  Before amphetamines were widely used in the U.S. Army in WWII, coffee provided a boost.  Joe DiMaggio drank coffee during games.  What, you thought he was just Mr. Coffee on TV?  They didn’t call him Joltin’ Joe for nothing.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 More on possible steroid use by Nolan Ryan.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Those 1973 Atlanta Braves: was there something in the water?

Read those two and then consider Clemens and Bonds in a new light relative to Ryan and Hank Aaron.  Remember, the cover up and lying are always worse than the crime.

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Hall of Fame election rules include:

Voting: Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.

There are six criteria and at least three address the player’s character.

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You can follow the personal baseball blog of Kenneth Matinale here: Radical Baseball

There are a select group of all-stars in the game whom I pretty much expect to get a hit every time they step into the batter’s box. Of course that’s nonsense since no-one bats 1.000, or anything close to it, but there’s an expectation, a feeling that they will make something happen. I don’t mean smash a home run. We all reached that level of expectation a few years back when guys like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., and Alex Rodriguez were popping those dingers all over the map all of the time.

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This is almost surely Thome’s last stop on his way to the Hall of Fame, but he signed with Philadelphia after passing 600 home runs last season in order to take one last stab at winning a World Series, the only hole on his resume. Instead, the Phillies, who have been without slugger Ryan Howard all season, and who now have ace Roy Halladay on the disabled list, are struggling to stay afloat when it seemed quite likely they would have been able to cruise into the playoffs.

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Apr 22, 2012; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher

Greene broke his hand because he was frustrated and punched a storage cabinet at PETCO, while Sosa strained a ligament in his lower back after sneezing in one of the strangest injuries in sports history.

The Rockies Opening Day Starter and de facto ace- Jeremy Guthrie is always the de facto ace- will likely come back when his DL stint ends on the 8th of May.

The injury was caused when the chain on his bike broke as he was biking to the stadium, which caused him to fall of his bike and jam his throwing shoulder.

Jeremy Guthrie was a victim of some terrible luck, and I wish him the best in his recovery. I actually miss watching him pitch for the Orioles, even though it was always somewhat sad to see him pitch well and go 10-17 by the season’s end due to a lack of run support.

So far this year, Jeremy Guthrie had a 6.01 FIP in 24.1 innings but is 2-1 due to good run support. He is projected by ZiPS to have a 4.65 ERA through about 180 innings and is coming off of two solid seasons in 2010 and 2011.

Be sure to check out all of Call to the Pen’s transaction breakdowns for the 2011-12 offseason. You can follow Call to the Pen on Twitter at @FSCalltothePen or like us here on Facebook.

Follow Joe Soriano on Twitter here. Catch up on everything about the Colorado Rockies at Rox Pile.

Friday, the New York Yankee third baseman hit the 630th home run of his career. That tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. on the all-time list. There was a lot more hullabaloo last year when Rodriguez teammate Derek Jeter passed the 3,000-hit mark. That’s probably as it should be, but it seems to me that a couple of years ago the excitement level of another Rodriguez blast would have created a lot more and a lot bigger headlines. Heck, in my local paper the headline writer was so oblivious he featured the Yankees win over the Angels over the milestone smack.

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If you’re reading this, you may think I have no problem with steroids or performance enhancing drug use in baseball.  Maybe you’re think I just don’t care.  Maybe you’re thinking I’ve given up on our ability to police ourselves and the league.  You’d be wrong.  I’ve wrestled with this very topic for a long time.  I was angry when the always-increasing list of PED users first began.  I was angry while watching Hank Aaron’s home run record passed by an accused PED user.*  I was angered when I turned my focus from Barry Bonds to Alex Rodriguez because, well hey Rodriguez has the next best shot to be the new home run king, only to find out he too was a PED user.  I’ve now shifted my hopes to Albert Pujols, and everyday I wonder.  I try to ignore the suspicions because, like those thrown against Jeff Bagwell, they are unfounded.  All this, though, is beside the point.

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When the results of this year’s voting are announced Jan. 9 you will not hear McGwire’s name mentioned, nor Palmeiro’s, because while their achievements on the baseball field were grand, they are now perceived as outlaws of the game whose partaking of performance-enhancing drugs tainted their accomplishments and ruined their reputations.

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