Clemens and Bonds forever linked in infamy
By Beltway Boss
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news
I apologize. I promise not to write often about steroids. But I feel compelled to put my thoughts about the subject down on paper. For a long time, I was in denial about steroids. I used every excuse to discount their existence and/or their effect on the game. I said that we did not really know who was using and who was not. I said that they did not have much of effect. I even said that so many players were using them that it all balanced out.
In short, my defense was that we did not know enough to draw any conclusions. And even after Jose Canseco’s book, even after Game of Shadows, and even after the Mitchell report (all 400 pages of it) we still do not know enough about the subject. But, it’s time we start drawing some conclusions. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have achieved things that no other modern player has even dreamt of doing. And they have done these things not at the peak ages of 26-29, the age that research has proven to be a player’s dominant age, but in their late 30’s and early 40’s: A time period when players are expected to regress as they head for retirement.
Bonds is a seven time MVP. No one else has won more than three times. Bonds won four times in a row at ages 36, 37, 38 and 39. In 2000, before Bonds started has run of four straight MVPS, he finished second. Teammate Jeff Kent rode Bonds’ coattails to a MVP of his own. As you know Bonds has hit more homeruns than anyone else in single season history and more than anyone else has accumulated in their career. And not by a little bit.
What makes Bonds’ homerun totals so spectacular are the number of walks he draws. An average of 139 per 162 games played. Everyone’s favorite player, Derek Jeter, drew 56 walks last season. That’s 83 less than Bonds’ career average per 162 games played. If you give Bonds an extra 83 chances per season to hit a homerun, instead of trot down to first base, he would have hit over 200 more homeruns. Hell, in his 73 homerun season he walked 177 times.
Turning our attention to Roger Clemens. Like Bonds, Clemens has been honored as the best of his position seven times - meaning he has won the Cy Young award seven times. Randy Johnson is next best with five. Clemens posted a 1.87 ERA ERA at age 42. His numbers, like Bonds, are just unthinkable given their ages. The combination of statistical unlikelihood and evidence against them in the Mitchell Report or Game of Shadows is enough to condemn these two. And you know what, I would leave them off my Hall of Fame ballot, too.
- Beltway Boss
As one might infer from the name, Beltway Boss is a resident out in the suburbs of Maryland who lived in Washington D.C. for ten years and may move back to the area. He’s a big Orioles fan and also a diehard Redskins fan to go with a bandwagon allegiance to the University of Maryland’s basketball and football teams. Despite his allegiance to the District, he has stayed loyal to the Orioles and loathes the Nationals. Currently, the Beltway Boss is studying towards a degree in Mass Communications which he hopes to complete at York College in Pennsylvania with the dream of one day being a beat writer for a major league team. In the meantime, you can catch his column on Baseball Big Mouth three times weekly. The middle column will focus on national
happenings while the other two entries will be about the Orioles.
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