Jeff Bagwell is a Hall of Famer

The link embedded in that original story is a tough one for Bagwell fans to read.

I know he said he's never taken them and was happy that he did what he did naturally, but that's not exactly the words of someone who wouldn't do something to get ahead if he's condoning others doing it. As a Bagwell fan, I wish he came down with the "my numbers look worse having competed with those cheaters" reply.

 

I thought that was the best response he could have given. I loved those quotes.

 

Bagwell was a good defensive first baseman as well. He was one of the best at picking the ball out of the dirt.

 

Please elaborate.

You have no problem with steroids is pro sports?

Wow.

 

Good numbers but still don't think a first time ballot that he will get in.

 

Think the guy is a moron but he has a right to believe what he chooses...

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/12/29/jeff-bagwell-a-no-for-this-hall-voter/

 

Wow.

Taken out of the entire series of quotes, those quotes look like he trying to justify what he did. When you look at it all together, he was saying he didn't need to, but understands why someone would.

I believe the entire series of quotes to be an honest account and opinion from someone who is innocent. Maybe I'm naive.

While I don't agree that people should cheat, he is claiming he didn't, then giving his opinion on the subject. He is clearly frustrated with being accused, and uses his opinions about who used or could use the drugs as a retort to the fact that it is going to be very hard for anyone from 90-05 to ever get into the HOF unless they are an absolute string bean.

My opinion on steroids doesn't matter, really. We are talking about Bagwell. If he doesn't get in, at least his goatee should.

WOW

 

Really it just shows how easy it is for something to be taken out of context.

 

Here is another pro Cooperstown article.


http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/12/30/hall-of-fame-the-eight-definites/?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

Jeff Bagwell: OK, let me say this as clearly as I can possibly say it: Jeff Bagwell, in my opinion, is one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. His 149 OPS+ ranks 19th all-time among players with 8,000 plate appearances. He is one of only 16 players to finish a lengthy career with an on-base percentage higher than .400 (.408) and a slugging percentage higher than .500 (.540). Among those 16, only Ty Cobb and Barry Bonds stole more bases.

He was a breathtaking offensive player, almost without weakness. He hit for average, he hit for power, he drew walks, he stole bases, he scored runs, he drove in runs, and he looked like a serious badass doing all of it. Remember how everyone talked about Jim Rice’s intimidation factor, so much so that after a while it became kind of a joke. Well, Jeff Bagwell was a scary hitter. He would plant himself into that wide stance, and he would swing the bat with ferocity, and I never knew if it was scarier to be the pitcher or the third baseman or someone seated in a low seat without a net in front. There was enough fear for everyone. The guy was like a cartoon character.

It’s true that Bagwell played in huge offensive time. But he demolished the era. Every single year he was good for a .300 or so average, a .400 or so on-base percentage, 35 homers, 100 walks, 110 RBIs, 110 runs scored … that was just the starting point for Bagwell. A couple of times, he demolished even those numbers. His aborted 1994 season — when he hit .368/.451/.750 — is untouchable in any era. But his 1996 season, when he hit .315/.451/.570 isn’t far behind. In 1999 he walked 149 times and scored 143 runs. In 1997 he became just the sixth National Leaguer to hit 40 homers and 40 doubles in the same year*.

*And two of those six (Larry Walker and Todd Helton) did it Colorado, another one (Chuck Klein) did it in the old Baker Bowl — two absurd hitters ballparks. Bagwell did it in the bleeping ASTRODOME, a legendarily bad hitter’s park. Nobody had ever hit 40 homers runs playing half their games in the Astrodome. And this guy added 40 doubles to the trick.

Bagwell was a force of nature until he turned 35. By then, his shoulder was beginning to deteriorate. He had some sort of arthritic condition there … and it made his career end suddenly. At 35 he hit 39 homers, walked 88 times, and received an MVP vote. At 37, he was done.

Bagwell, to me, looks like a first-ballot, slam-dunk, didn’t-have-to-think-twice Hall of Famer. His rare combination of power and speed (he’s the only first baseman to have a 30-homer, 30-stolen base season, and he did it twice) along with his solid defense (he won one Gold Glove, but was generally viewed year-in, year-out as a very good defender), along with his ability to get on base, along with his solid nature and spectacular peak makes him seem like the surest of sure things.

But it doesn’t look that way. It looks like Bagwell will fall well short. And I can only come up with two somewhat related reasons:

1. The crazy offensive Selig Era has made us jaded about spectacular offensive numbers. That’s understandable, I guess. Bagwell’s six seasons of 39-plus home runs would have seemed otherworldly 20 years ago. After all, that’s as many as Willie Mays had, more than Mickey Mantle had, as many as Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt COMBINED. But the Selig Era has taken the jolt out of those numbers, in part because of steroids but also in part because we simply have grown numb after seeing home run after home run after home run after home run.

2. Jeff Bagwell — though he never tested positive for steroids, never was implicated in any public way, was not named in the Mitchell Report or by anyone on the record as a suspected user, and is not even on this rather comprehensive list of players linked to steroids or HGH — seems to have become in some voters’ minds a player who used performance-enhancing drugs.

I can’t even begin to describe my disgust at No. 2 … it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. This is PRECISELY what I was talking about when I said how much I hate the character clause in the Hall of Fame voting. I think it encourages people to believe their own nonsense, to stand up on high and be judge and jury. It’s something that my friend Bill James calls the “I see it in his eyes” tripe. Bill has finished a book on crime — it is, he says, actually about crime books as much as crime — and one thing he kept running into in his research was people who claimed that they could pinpoint the murderer because “it was in their eyes.” Well, as Bill says, that’s a whole lot of garbage. Eyes are eyes. Some people look guilty when they’re innocent, and some people look innocent when they’re guilty, and most people don’t look innocent OR guilty except when we want to see that something in their eyes. Oh, but we love to believe we know. It’s one of the flaws of humanity. And the Hall of Fame character clause gives voters carte blanche to judge the eyes and hearts and souls of players.

I think my e-migo Craig Calcaterra has made this point on Twitter, but I’d like to also make it as strongly as I can: I’d rather a hundred steroid users were mistakenly voted into the Hall of Fame over keeping one non-user out. I don’t know if Jeff Bagwell used or didn’t use steroids. But there was no testing. There is no convincing evidence that he used (or, as far as I know, even unconvincing evidence). So what separates him from EVERY OTHER PLAYER on the ballot? Were his numbers too good? That’s why you suspect him?

Bagwell has written (or spoken) a story defending himself from the steroid charges. This is the takeaway: “I’m so sick and tired of all the steroids crap, it’s messed up my whole thinking on the subject. … If I ever do get to the Hall of Fame and there are 40 guys sitting behind me thinking, ‘He took steroids,’ then it’s not even worth it to me.”

I would say this to those people who would not vote for Jeff Bagwell because they simply believe he used steroids, based on how he looked or some whispers they heard. I have a better idea: Let’s just burn him at the stake. If he survives, you will know you were right.

 

Dude's HoF vote should be immediately taken from him based on that statement alone.

There *has* to be a standard beyond oneself.

What a freaking dolt.

 

Best take I've seen yet on the subject (which shouldn't even *be* a "subject"). Bravo. Bravissifreakingmo.

 

Guess what, guy? I realize he's not saying that he himself took steroids. Thanks for the over-sized text for emphasis, though. Nice touch.

I don't personally think that he did take steroids. I still think those comments are absolutely garbage. He's "OK" with other guys doing it?

Wow.

 

No, they don't.

Yeah, I see that. That's the part I think is ridiculous. How exactly is that the "best way" he could have answered those questions?

 

oh god not this crap again

 

i clearly remember one play that made me say to myself, "that dude is one smart player."

a man on first, the batter was trying to bunt him over. the ball is bunted in the air straight to first base. instead of catching it on the fly for the out, he lets it drop in front of him. he gloves the ball, tags the runner at first and then tags first base for the double play.

 

ESPN's HOF ballots

 

Sadly and stupidly, he's not going to get in this year. Assuming that's the case, I selfishly wish he doesn't get in until 2013. That's when I'm planning my first trip to Cooperstown with my 2 boys to see Bagwell and Biggio go in at the same time.

 

Barry Stanton - news editor, ESPN

Only vote for BJ Surhoff, Don Mattingly, and Tino Martinez and voted for Edgar Martinez.

0 votes for Alomar, Blyleven, Larkin, Bagwell or anyone else.

Yeah...this guy clearly deserves a vote. He apparently thinks this is a joke.

 

That's about where I saw Jeff ending up. My biggest issues with that is not that he is behind the guys he is behind or that he is tied with Tim Raines BUT that he is tied with Edgar Martinez. Nothing against the guy, heck I was a big fan of his in Seattle, but the guy was a DH, darn good one, yet only a DH. Baggy was just a good a hitter, better baserunner and a MUCH better fielder. Slap in the face to Baggy and it's a shame.