The Hall of Fame does the right thing on Bonds and Clemens. Now it needs to force MLB to do the rest.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have had the door permanently slammed.

Today, they were denied their tenth and final opportunity at the writers' ballot, and there's no real chance, it is believed, through the Veterans' Committee.

Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa become the second and third members of the 500 Home Run Club to be denied because of steroids.  Mark McGwire was the first.

Gary Sheffield has two years left, Manny Ramirez has four, A-Rod just went on the ballot and was about 40% public ballots.  They all will also be denied for steroids.

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SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE WE PUTTING DAVID ORTIZ IN THE HALL?

Yep, they elected Ortiz and him alone:  77%.

And I fucking wanna know why.  It's clear that word has been coming out that Rob Manfred has been trying to stump for Ortiz, claiming his name on the initial positive test list of 104 was possibly a false test, and it never should've been publicized anyway.

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ESPN is fucking caterwauling on the concept that the Hall should tell the story of the game.   (To wit my baseball-historian friend immediately thinks of Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson -- exonerated from the Black Sox Scandal after many years.  As well as Hal Chase, also banned for throwing games in other respects.)

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Bud Selig (who should be thrown out of the Hall), and Donald Fehr should all be in Federal prison for their roles in taking (and in the last two cases, TRAFFICKING) steroids through the National Pastime at least from the resumption of play after the 1994 strike to the intervention of Congress.

And the BBWAA and the Hall are not blameless:  I said ten years ago that none of these roidies should be on the ballot.  (And my baseball-historian friend points out that Fred McGriff probably gets in from a clean era, but because of the fact we've skewed the numbers because of rampant drug-fueled match-fixing, he's never going in.)

The fact is that Bonds and Clemens should be on the Disqualified List, as should all others involved in steroids.  The reason we don't do it is simple:  There was AT LEAST a ten-year period in which the power of Major League Baseball trafficked these drugs not only to the athletes directly, but to the fans as a concept that "Steroids Saved Baseball".

And that is up to and including the then-Commissioner of Baseball, probably the head drug-pusher through the home run derbies of the late 90's and early 2000's.

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And now, for the first time, the Baseball Writers Association of America has inducted a KNOWN steroid-user.  David Ortiz, one of the 104 names in the initial list, just went in -- and on the same ballot that slams the door to two steroid users far more "deserving" than him for the final time.

There are four people who need to be thrown out of the Hall for either participation in or sufficient suspicion in such:

1. Bud Selig, Commissioner, who should be in Federal prison for drug trafficking rather than in the Hall
2. Mr. "Thirty Pounds of Meat A Day" Jeff Bagwell, that statement alone all but confirming he was on the gas.
3. Ivan Rodriguez -- long believed to be using steroids and rumored (not confirmed like Ortiz) to be on the original list of 104.
4. Mike Piazza, for whom it appears steroids are one of the worst kept secrets of his career.

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But, even so:

YOU MAKE A PRODUCTION NUMBER, BBWAA VOTERS, OF KEEPING OUT THE STEROID CHEATS.

You now have THREE members of the 500 Home Run Club denied induction -- the first three in the history of the game -- because they used.

You have three more who will be similarly denied for the same reason.

At what point do you demand that Major League Baseball, because of the overwhelming evidence against the home run records of Barry Bonds, strike the records from the books for his obvious use of steroids and that there would be no way he would be at 600 home runs (Fainaru-Wada, if I recall, said his non-steroid ceiling was just into the 500 HR Club), much less 756 or 73 in a season?

At what point do you demand that Major League Baseball put together a group of players, owners, and fans (no Congress!) to demand something real and actionable be done against the steroid cheats?

Because now you have two problems:

1. You have a KNOWN roidie in the Hall.  This isn't speculation like Bagwell or Piazza or maybe I-Rod.  This one's known.
2. And you do it the same year you deny Bonds and Clemens.

You've now opened the door two bad ways:

1. You now may have to throw out a number of voters, starting next year.  Because you have a certain percentage of voters who will take one look at the remaining people and do the same thing to them they did to McGriff -- and ballots may be starting to get blanked as a result.
2. You all but basically have affirmed that being affable to the media is more important than even the integrity of the game.

ORTIZ USED STEROIDS.  PERIOD.

And then you're going to deny Bonds and Clemens.

HYPOCRISY.  You've now got five to throw out!!!!

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Bonds got to 66% in his final year.  Clemens, to 65.2%.

The temper tantrum by right-wing fuck Curt Schilling dropped him to 58%.  (But we note:  Only for the temper tantrum, at least for about 10-12% of the voters.  Not for the bigotry, etc. -- though it would be correct to state Curt Schilling will not see the Hall, but through the Veterans' Committee, because of his political beliefs...)

A-Roid got 34.3% in his first year.

Scott Rolen appears to be the next inductee, if he can get another 12% from his 63.2% he got in his fifth year.

Sosa fell to 18.5%.

I'd say Rolen has a decent chance, and history indicates that Todd Helton and Billy Wagner have good shots at about 50%.

But you take a look at those names and compare them to the names who are out and who will be out -- and then understand you have a KNOWN steroid user (no longer supposed, like Piazza, Bagwell, etc.) in the Hall.

I could easily see this group McGriffed.  There are going to be some ANGRY voters next year.  You watch.