Hall of Shame? Palmeiro and Gonzalez highlight tainted group of Hall of Fame hopefulls

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has come a long way since 2007 when superstars and all around good guys Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected. As steroid allegations and confirmations have soiled this years list, voters will have till Dec. 31st to choose who they want to represent Major League Baseball in next year's induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame.
This year's ballot is talent deprived and filled with scandal. Once great players Rafael Palmeiro and Jaun Gonzalez are two of the more decorated players on the list, but both are surrounded by steroid use. Pamleiro testified in 2005 that he never used steroids, but was caught a few months later and was suspended 10 days. He is 12th on the career home run list and is one of four players to accumulate 500 home runs and 3,000 hits.
It has never been confirmed that Gonzalez used steroids, but in the 2005 book, Juiced, Jose Canseco claims that he used steroids alongside Gonzalez who has 434 career home runs and owns two MVP awards from his time with the Texas Rangers. His career was cut short due to injuries that lead many to believe that he used performance enhancing drugs.
Other names on the list surrounded by drug allegations are first timer Brett Boone and returner Mark McGwire who admitted to steroid use this summer.
Much of the ballot is filled by players who merely meet the requirements, but don't garner the attention that a Hall of Famer usually does. There is no automatic entry into the Hall of Fame no matter what statistics a player might carry with them, nor is there any official statistical criteria, but typical things voters look for when choosing are 500 home runs, 3,000 hits for hitters and 300 wins for pitchers. Taht mean that players on the list don’t deserve to be, but are by meeting the time requirement. However, a few names who remain untarnished by all this actually have a fairly good chance of beating out their rule-breaking peers based on merit.
Roberto Alomar and Edgar Martinez, and Jeff Bagwell were all outstanding players during their careers than spanned two decades and were able to avoid the drug scandal that wiped away baseball's credibility. Now, whether or not that will help their chances of induction, we won't see till the results are announced on January 5th.
Other notable names on the ballot are Kevin Brown, Tino Martinez, lee Smith, and Larry Walker.

Destiny Calls

It must just be the Giants' year. I'm not knocking the Rangers here because I have been pulling for them all postseason long, but there's no denying how well the Giants have been playing. The Giants weren't favored to win the division, then they did. The weren't favored to beat the Braves, then they did. They weren't favored to beat the Phillies, and then they did. And now they are beating the favored Texas Rangers 3 games to 1 in the World Series. The Giants have the kind of motivation to win that could turn someone like me into a fan(it really hasn't, but I'm going to pretend it has). I hold fast to my opinion that Barry Bonds is the worst person to play the game of baseball and that since the Giants traded for him, paid him, and hoisted him on their shoulders for being selfish, I can't stand their franchise. This season the Giants are playing to destroy those demons that they are Bond's team and I really respect that. They are letting rookies like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner play crucial innings and getting great results as of that risk.
If the Giants win game 5 tonight they will emphatically put their stamp on the game as the best team this year. You can get lucky enough to win the first two series' of the playoffs, but then to go out and play so well and dominate the best team in the American league as easily as the Giants have, that takes something much more than luck. The Giants are clearly outlasting their opponents.
They aren't as skilled of a hitting club as Texas is, and their pitchers are comparable, but the Giants are holding together when the Rangers are falling apart. Aside from the game one shootout, both pitching staffs have been competitive enough to win any of the games, but the Giants just aren't letting the Rangers get the offensive edge. So far they have kept Josh Hamilton in check along with Vladimir Guerrero. Nelson Cruz was tops in the league in homers this postseason, but the Giants pitchers have quieted him too. The only meaningful hit for the Rangers came from Mitch Moreland who has been practically anonymous all year long.
If the Giants are to keep winning and close things out tonight they need to continue what they are doing. The Rangers aren't losing necessarily, the Giants are just winning. You can't discount what good teams are doing and this time I think it just is the Giants' year.

-Joey D