He's being honest. Again, that's part of the problem for me: you take him at face value when he says something you can pin on him; assume he's lying *in the very same article* when he denies cheating. Further, why does his statement place him in the same category as, you know, actual cheaters? That makes no sense to me; it feels like you're retroactively holding these guys to constantly moving targets - he denies it, but not strong enough; or he denies it and I don't believe him, but this other implicating thing he says - *that* I believe. It's so maddeningly convenient.
I sure get tired of all the people who want to call the baseball HOF a mockery. It's the most significant hall of fame by far. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's the best there is.
I hear you, yank, but the hypocritical stance of today's voters is certainly costing the HoF in terms of credibility. It *has* become a mockery.
As a former Astros fan, I am all for Bagwell getting into the HOF!!!! Note: I am not a fan of the AL-stros and will not be until they move back to the league without the beyond idiotic DH rule. I only come to the Astros part of this forum for the CSN updates and only respond to threads involving the real Astros who resided in the National League!!!!
My gut feeling is he is lying about using. Then like I have already said, trying to save face with his peers (who likely know he cheated) by justifying cheating as a necessary evil.
It will certainly be a mockery if Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens don't make it. Both those guys had the career credentials of TWO hall of fame players combined, before a well-documented point in their careers where their numbers spiked way above what their natural age-related bell curve would suggest. If ******* reporters are choosing to attempt to revise history by rejecting these guys in punitive fashion, then the BBWAA can suck it. They are already fast becoming irrelevant in my eyes: I effectively quit seriously following baseball in 2006 after Hunsicker left. But yes, the advent of steroids has tainted everything. There's no going back, however, even if the quote unquote Steroids Era has concluded. No one is above the shadow of a doubt when it comes to using. If anyone tries to paint somebody in that light, then it's just hypocritical on their part. That being said, if we keep this up the HOF from here on out will be comprised only of skinny scrawny leadoff/#2 hitters (Barry Larkin, Robbie Alomar, Craig Biggio, Derek Jeter, and eventually Ichiro Suzuki). You just can't do that. Sure, I'm all in favor of excluding guys who looked like they wouldn't even be in AAA had they not juiced their entire careers (McGwire, Sosa, Giambi). But now you're going to be hurting guys who did not look like Hulks, who actually could hit for average and power both, and actually gave a damn about playing baseball the right way. I just don't understand how people can draw this arbitrary line and say that Frank Thomas is beyond it and Jeff Bagwell not. They have the same birthday, the same time entering the league, and similar HR numbers all thru their careers. And which of those two looked like the juicer again? It's total BS if you ask me. And how is anyone going to make the argument that a farmstrong guy like Berkman could use steroids? It's just inane and further opportunity for the NE-coast bias to rear its ugly head. All in all, I just don't see how baseball ever wipes this taint away. No one today is without a doubt clean. And you know what? Aside from the stodgy, greying, dying newspaper writers, no one cares. Baseball, you made your bed.
One of the many reasons Houston is suck a great sports town!! "I hate the DH more than I love my team"
Houston is a great sports town. There are diverse opinions and extreme opinions in every "sports" town. You can go anywhere and find things to insert your rolly-eye emoticon over. Houston, by the way, is an amazing, world-class city any way you look at it (except the weather). reference some love from BBC and Business Insider.
The weather thing is over blown. The summers can be brutal, but the rest of the year the weather is nice. For example Chicago has amazing weather in the summer and fall but the rest of the year is just terrible.
It is overblown... But Houston is built around being a HOT city and is pretty regular year-round. whereas the cold weather cities tend to metamorphosize in the summer and turn into an entirely different place.
I have not moved to another team, rather I have given up baseball. I can't root for another team and I can't root for the Stros in the AL either, therefore no baseball for me.
Again, same story here, if I had been a casual fan that wouldn't notice the huge difference between AL gimmickball and real baseball then I would have stuck with the team. That said, I just don't enjoy gimmickball and I wouldn't root for any other baseball team so I haven't followed baseball since the switch.
So I'm sure if the Astros make a World Series run, you guys won't care at all because of that mean ol DH It's easy not to care when the team is awful.
The team doing well won't make the gimmickball product any more entertaining to me. If they go to a World Series, I'll be happy for them because they are a Houston team, but it won't change anything.
You are correct. The Comets and Dynamo represented. There are suspect fans everywhere, I just know it happens more in Houston. Add the lack of championships, and other bullish that goes on around here (Cowboy fans, Rocket fans rooting for the Spurs, epic embarrassment, etc), we suck. I don't cheer for other teams though, I'm just not blind to the facts. And to everyone who doesn't cheer for baseball at all anymore, that's cool, it's your life. But the fact remains.... "You HATE the DH more than you LOVE your team". No need to deny that fact.
You dudes sound like a scorned woman who hates her baby's father more than she lives her own kids. Again, it's your right though.
