WOODBURY – January’s annual Baseball Hall of Fame voting brought a few surprises, Ichiro Suzuki missing unanimous approval being one of them, but there remains one major issue: baseball’s all-time greatest hitter and one of the greatest pitchers are nearing the end of their opportunity for enshrinement. 

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to be recognized for their successful accomplishments during their MLB career span. Bonds had 73 home runs in a season, which is an MLB record. Also Bonds finished his career with 762 home runs which is an MLB record; he also leads the MLB all time in intentional walks. That may not seem like a crazy stat, but with 688, that’s wild. He is clearly a top favorite to be inducted into the baseball HOF with these stats in my opinion. 

But in the January 2022 voting, Bonds was nowhere to be found among the top vote getters, getting only 66% of votes of 75% needed throughout the 10 years during his eligibility. 

Joshua Kornblut, a science instructor at Nonnewaug, understands the greatness of Bonds and other players who have been associated with performance enhancing drugs or other behaviors that might preclude a player from induction.

“Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, and others all deserve to be in the HOF. The HOF is a museum of baseball’s greatest moments and players,” says Kornblut. “[The HOF] is not telling the true and full story of baseball by excluding these players who are easily some of the greatest of all time. Specifically, when looking at steroid users, baseball knew that steroids were being used and turned a blind eye because they were ‘saving the game.’ The home run races of the late 90s were one of the biggest sports spectacles and brought countless viewers to what was a struggling sport.”

On the opposite side of the diamond, Roger Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. In his 24 year career, he finished ninth is career wins with 354 and third in all time strikeouts with 4,672. He set an MLB record on April 29th, 1986 by being the first pitcher to strike out 20 batters in a 9-inning game. A lot of crazy stats to also not be in the Baseball HOF in Cooperstown, NY. 

You may think that these guys were so good and they should be in the HOF. Trust me, I do, too. But there’s a lot of controversy behind it because of one thing: PEDs. 

Health and Wellness instructor at Nonnewaug high school, Kyle Tehan, can argue for both ways and has two separate opinions on this topic. 

“I can easily go both ways, one side of me can’t imagine baseball without these players and their impact on the game, but I also believe that if there are not any rules or regulations to protect the integrity of the game then chaos can ensue,” Tehan said. Tehan’s unique background is one of a former coach who coached here at NHS following his playing years at Eastern Connecticut as a second baseman. “There have been many scandals that involve cheating the game, but probably none bigger than steroids or gambling on baseball. Although players like Barry Bonds the single season home run king and Roger Clemens were undeniably two of the best players to ever play the game, their careers are unfortunately linked to performance enhancing drugs, while Pete Rose the all-time hits leader is linked to his lifetime ban from gambling on baseball.”

Beyond Bonds and Clemens, Pete Rose, who passed away on September 30th, 2024, deserves similar recognition because he did as great as Bonds and Clemens. He ended his career with 4,256 career hits which leads the MLB all time.  Rose was also a 17-time All-Star, a former Rookie of the Year and MVP, and a three-time champion. He hit .303/.375/.409 throughout his 25 year career with 160 home runs, 2165 runs scored (sixth all time), 746 doubles and 1314 RBI. No player got on base more often than Rose, who reached nearly 6000 times over his 24-year run. Rose hasn’t been inducted into the HOF because after he retired, he was involved in gambling accusations. 

According to Anthony Franco, a MLB trade rumors writer, he explains why Pete Rose will never be inducted into the HOF due to MLB’s lifetime ban rule.

“While those records and accolades will never change, Rose’s seemingly inevitable Hall of Fame induction was halted by a bombshell revelation,” Franco said. “Rose had acted as a player-manager with the Reds beginning in 1984 and continued to manage after his retirement from playing. Late in the ’89 season, MLB announced that an investigation determined Rose had bet on baseball. That included bets on the teams which he’d been managing. While Rose only bet on Cincinnati to win and there’s no indication he ever tried to fix any games, that’s a violation of MLB’s biggest rule.”

Among NHS students, the debate on Hall of Fame worthiness is a contentious topic. Derek Chung, junior school athlete at Nonnewaug, shares his opinion on the baseball HOF inductees.

“I think Barry Bonds should be because he is the best hitter of all time while everyone else used steroids in that era,” Chung said. “The steroids don’t make his hitting any better, just his power and he had power before the steroids.”

Tyler Dielsi, junior baseball player at NHS, similarly understands the modern dilemma. 

“I think they should be in the hall of fame,” Dielsi said. “The rules they broke dont take away the success and accomplishments from their career. Barry Bonds was taking steroids but he still had to be able to hit the ball perfectly. That’s so much still from them and amazing careers just flushed because they broke a rule. They should be in the hall of fame.”

This piece is an Op-Ed and the opinion is that of Trevor Santopietro Class of ’25.