Count Giants’ legend and Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey among the former players who are taking a stand on whether or not steroid users belong in baseball’s most sacred space.
On Friday afternoon, John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle published a detailed account of McCovey’s thoughts on why Barry Bonds belongs in the Hall of Fame in which McCovey said “I just think it’s a sin he’s (Bonds) not in there.”
Bonds is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the sixth time this year, but after receiving just 53.8 percent of the vote last year, it’s unlikely the top home run hitter in baseball history will meet the 75 percent threshold that’s necessary for enshrinement. McCovey told Shea, “If anybody deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, it’s Barry.”
Several of the best players from the steroid era have been on the Hall of Fame ballot in recent years, and very few have made significant headway toward earning a coveted place in Cooperstown. If Bonds does not receive enough votes this year, he’ll have four more opportunities to reach the 75 percent threshold before his name is removed from consideration.
Though a number of players would be clear-cut Hall of Famers if they lacked ties to performance enhancing drugs, McCovey told Shea that even before the steroid era, baseball struggled with regulating drug usage.
“Guys took things ever since baseball existed,” McCovey said. “It may not have been steroids, but guys took things like those greenies and stuff so they could play the next day.”