Willie McCovey On Barry Bonds' Hall of Fame Case: 'It's A Sin He's Not In There'
Hall of Fame first baseman and Giants legend Willie McCovey told John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle that Barry Bonds deserves to make the Hall of Fame.
"I just think it's a sin he's not in there," McCovey told Shea. "If anybody deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, it's Barry."
McCovey, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986, spoke to Shea about whether or not players who were linked to performance enhancing drugs should be voted into the Hall of Fame in light of the letter sent around by Hall of Fame vice chairman Joe Morgan encouraging voters to not elect players linked to PEDs.
In the letter, Morgan warned voters that some Hall of Fame members would not attend the ceremony because they don't want to share the stage with players linked to PEDs. McCovey explained to Shea that he and Morgan are friends and he spoke with him about his disagreement over the letter, particularly because McCovey said it was targeting Bonds.
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"That letter Morgan wrote sure is not going to help Barry," McCovey told Shea. "But I'm glad to hear a lot of the writers say the letter is not going to influence their vote because I know a lot of it is aimed at him. I wasn't too happy about it."
McCovey added that "guys took things ever since baseball existed," and people who played against Bonds will "say he was the best hitter they ever saw in their lives."
Bonds, who is on the ballot for the sixth time out of a possible ten, is closer to getting in this year than ever before, according to Ryan Thibodeaux's Hall of Fame tracker. According to the tracker, Bonds was on 72.3 percent of the ballots already counted. He needs to appear on 75 percent of the ballots to make the Hall of Fame, which would mean he needs to appear on 219 more ballots, according to the tracker. Roger Clemens is currently tied with Bonds on public ballots.
In his five previous attempts to make it Bonds' percentages were 36.2, 34.7, 36.4, 44.3 and 53.8 respectively.
McCovey, who played 22 seasons in MLB, spent 19 of those with the Giants. Bonds played with the Giants for 15 of his 22 years in the majors. The two are both top ten in franchise history in games played, WAR, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, at-bats, plate appearances, walks, total bases, hits, runs, RBIs, doubles and home runs.
