Another year has passed and tainted Major League Baseball legends Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens once again failed to receive the necessary votes to be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
On Tuesday, Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina and Roy Halladay were elected to the Hall, while Clemens (59.1 percent) and Bonds (59.1 percent) gained marginally more votes than last year but still did not eclipse the 75 percent needed to be enshrined.
As has become tradition, the debate around steroid users and the Hall of Fame ramped up the day after the new class was announced.
Alex Rodriguez went on ESPN’s “First Take” and was asked if Bonds and Clemens should be inducted, He offered a resounding yes, for obvious reasons.
“Of course I want them to get in, because that would mean that I have an opportunity to get in one day,” Rodriguez said.
“Look, I pray every day I get a chance to get in. The hall is the ultimate place.”
Rodriguez won’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2022, but he knows if Bonds and Clemens continue to gather votes and perhaps squeak in, that would be good news for him. But Rodriguez, who admitted fault for his part in the Biogenesis scandal, is comfortable with however his future candidacy pans out, blaming only himself or his actions.
“I’ve taken the approach that I think talking about it is best,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve made my mistakes, I’ve paid huge penalties.
“I would love to get in, but I understand that I made my own bed. So if I don’t make it to the Hall of Fame, I can live with that. I will be bummed, it would suck and I can’t believe that I put myself in this situation. But if that happens, I have no one to blame but myself.”
