Isn’t it always news when Barry Bonds talks about the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Bonds was (once again) asked about the Hall of Fame as he is in back in the game as a coach for the Miami Marlins:

“God knows I am a Hall of Famer…I know that I'm a Hall of Fame player.  I don't really need to get into that.  I'll leave that to you guys to make that determination. That's not my fraternity.

Over the last forty-five days, both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame announced their latest classes.  Recently, we here at Notinhalloffame.com put together our latest list of the 500 plus Rock and Roll acts worthy of consideration for the vote that will take place in December of 2016.  Our Notinhalloffame.com baseball list is naturally next.

The 2016 vote saw Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza selected for Cooperstown, both of who were in our top five.  Obviously, they will be taken out of our Baseball 100, but there will be three new eligible former baseball players who will join them.

Let’s take a look at our new Notinhalloffame.com Baseball Top Ten.

This is one of our favorite days of the year.

Today the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the Class of 2016 and two former baseball greats will be immortalized in Cooperstown.

As expected, Ken Griffey Jr. breezed through on his first attempt.  Griffey Jr. set a new record for voting percentage, receiving 99.3% of the vote.

Griffey’s Hall of Fame co-entrant will be former Catcher, Mike Piazza who enters on his fourth try with 83.0%.

While Griffey and Piazza are excited today, there are certainly a lot of disappointed former baseball stars that were hoping for a certain Hall of Fame call.

Longtime Houston Astro, Jeff Bagwell, continues to be snubbed.  Like Piazza, Bagwell is on his fourth year of eligibility however like many on this ballot, he received his highest vote total, with 71.6%.

Last year, we did our first ever debate on Notinhalloffame.com where we tackled the Hall of Fame merit of twenty-four men who are on the Hall of Fame ballot, in what was in our opinion the most loaded ballot in our lifetime.

Since it was so much fun last time, we thought we would do it again!

One thing that has not changed is the number.  We will again debate twenty-four men who are on the ballot.

What has changed are the ones debating.  Last year I had the pleasure of having DDT, the curator of DDT’s Pop Flies blog and D.K. of the Phillies Archivist blog.  This year, Spheniscus, who has participated in past Rock and Roll discussions, will be joining me.

Sometimes I feel like I’m beating a dead horse.

Not that long ago when Mark McGwire landed the Hitting Coach job with the St. Louis Cardinals, we thought this might help his Hall of Fame chances as he was back in the MLB fold.  It didn’t, but McGwire isn’t the home run king.  Barry Bonds is.

While the Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot for this year was already known, it is worth noting that the names on the ballot have been made official and have been sent out to prospective voters.

Let’s go through the ballot and take a quick look shall we?

Barry Bonds got into the Hall of Fame!   The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame that is. 

While Bonds is struggling to gain the necessary votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the city of San Francisco might be the only Baseball stronghold that holds the all-time Home Run king in high regard. 

The vote for the candidates on the 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is without a doubt historical because of two salient and unavoidable facts: One is that this year's ballot is overstuffed with potential Hall of Fame candidates—presenting an even bigger logjam to entrance to the Hall—and the other is that this year's vote is an inescapable referendum on the stance toward the "Steroids Era" as even more players active during the period of the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s implicated with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) are newly eligible.

Note: Part 1 of this two-part series goes into detail—considerable detail—to examine both the overstuffed ballot and, more comprehensively, the atmosphere of moral dudgeon surrounding the suspected and admitted usage of PEDs by players on previous ballots and especially by players eligible for the Hall for the first time this year. If you want only to read the players' evaluations, skip to Part 2.

You may have noticed that many sportswriters who have a Hall of Fame ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame drink a little more since the PED candidates entered the ballot. The PED question is now utterly unavoidable with the wave of eligible candidates, as the sport’s biggest stars of the last two decades are now eligible for Hall of Fame enshrinement.

It is not that our baseball list has not been controversial in the past. We already made significant revisions when we initially created a “1a” and a “1b” to account for the fact that both Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson are ineligible for the Hall due to gambling (though this was reversed in 2025).  A thought crossed our mind to create a list of eligible players who were caught (or suspected) of using PEDs, but there is one fact that cannot be ignored: these players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, and it is widely suspected that PED users have already entered Cooperstown.

Let’s get to the man at the top of this list:  Barry Bonds

It has often been said that Barry Bonds would have been a Hall of Famer before the period during which it is believed that he started taking Performance Enhancing Drugs. With excellent career numbers (both traditional and sabermetric) and three National League MVP Awards under his belt, the Cooperstown resume was already there. What has been speculated is that Bonds grew frustrated at the attention that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire received during their famous chase of Roger Maris’ single-season Home Run record, and that had he done the same things (PED) that they did, he could have surpassed their levels. Whether or not that history is correct, Bonds’ already impressive numbers reached stratospheric levels, and he completely dominated the Steroid Era.

We don’t have to tell you all the statistics. A first look shows seven MVPs, the career Homer Run and Walks marks, and the top five career tallies in Runs, RBIs, WAR, and OPS, without going into great depth. We also don’t have to tell you that Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro (others tainted by PEDs) have colossally failed to earn the writer’s support for the Hall, and there is no evidence that they will change their minds. However, Barry Bonds was a better player than those two superstars, and if any player from that era deserves to be in, it is Barry Bonds.  Let’s also not forget that many of the writers who voted for Bonds to win the MVPs in his later years strongly believed he was juicing.  They voted for him anyway.

We would have no problem voting for Bonds for the Hall of Fame if we were ever granted a ballot, as evidenced by his selection at the top of our list. We would, however, understand if you wouldn’t.   As it stands now, we doubt he will see a plaque with his name on it.

Should Barry Bonds be in the Hall of Fame?

Definitely put him in! Maybe, but others deserve it first. Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. No opinion. No way!

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Definitely put him in! - 58.1%

Maybe, but others deserve it first. - 1%

Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. - 2.6%

No opinion. - 0.5%

No way! - 37.8%