Pete and Repeat

I saw recently that Pete Rose was going to be part of the MLB All Star festivities this year in Cincinnati. Just a day or two after that announcement, news came in about the Barry Bonds obstruction of justice conviction, which was overturned by a court of appeals.
These are two important details related to the baseball Hall of Fame.
Both Bonds and Rose, along with some others, have been denied access to the Hall of Fame in previous years and it's about time all of that changed.
Pete's situation is somewhat different than the others. There was a conviction and an admission of wrong-doing on his part. He paid a price and has been the butt of an endless array of "I'd bet you anything..." jokes.
For Rose, I think the point of "don't bet on baseball or else" has been made. In recent years, he's been involved with some minor league camps, some youth camps and there's been a general softening of attitudes throughout baseball about Pete Rose.
But don't let that detract from how all of this came about. Pete Rose has suffered through his own actions and by his own hand. But ours isn't a Mortal Combat society, where we see a beaten down, defeated figure on the brink of collapse and think, "finish him!"
Even the mob, after a bludgeoning with a bat or lead pipe, will toss a guy a towel and say "here, clean yourself up."
What should never be forgotten, however, is no matter what anyone can ever say to slight Pete Rose, nobody can ever deprive him of his Charlie Hustle nickname. All things considered, Pete Rose should be in the Hall for no other reason than being an example of how to play the game properly.
As for Bonds, the circumstances are different to me. The Hall issues for Bonds, as best I can tell, are based on conjecture. In other words, some people who can vote for Bonds don't based solely on what they think. They think he took steroids. They think he cheated. This isn't to say he did or didn't, it's simply to say there is no tangible evidence he did.
There's the ever-reliable ex-girlfriend testimony, which is really the most accurate picture anyone can paint of another. And then there's the...Um. The um. I could sit and pick apart the lack of evidence, but let this be a simpler way to decide: Journalist have a certain level of access to information. Federal prosecutors have a greater level of access, however. Prosecutors can subpoena information. Whatever evidence was available, you'd have to assume prosecutors knew about and had in their possession. They also had the full resources of the federal government behind them. Yet with all of that, they couldn't convict him on charges he had possession, use or other contact with steroids. There are no failed drug tests. There is no tangible proof, period. Therefore, a vote against Bonds for the Hall is based on belief, not proof.
But let's just agree that Bonds did steroids. OK, guilty. So answer this: When did he start taking them? You don't know. How much did they help him? You don't know. When he hit 73 home runs, how many would he have hit without steroids? You don't know. Are his pre-steroid use stats good enough for the Hall of Fame? You don't know. Are the people in the Hall 100-percent free of performance enhancing substances? You don't know.
So what is the no vote based on? You don't know.
But then there's the whole thing about the weight gain, the muscle mass and the increase in cap size...but enough about me. Yes, since I graduated from high school, I've gained about 80 pounds...some of which is pizza and donuts, let's be honest. But a great percentage of that is muscle mass. I gained 30 pounds in one fall weight training class in college. It's not easy, not even common, but it can happen-that people add a lot of bulk in a short period of time naturally.
The added muscle did nothing for my home run totals, by the way.
So what we're left with is a Hall of Fame without some of the best players that ever played based on some really flimsy reasoning, which turns the Hall of Fame into a joke. They should change the name to the Hall of Guys the Baseball Writers Really Like.
It's always nice when something that is supposed to be the pinnacle of professional success in baseball can be likened to a 13-year-old girl's OMG list of Totally Hot Guys.