Poll of the Day

First of all, HT to EvanMG for sending this one in. Good, thought-provoking question.

If it were up to me, both would be in the HOF.

Now, to pick only one - if that's all I was allowed to do - I went with Pete Rose. And the deciding factor was not that I've actually seen Rose play in person (I have), or anything "personal". I chose Rose over Bonds on the simple fact that, as far as I know, Rose never did anything during his playing days that was outside the rules of baseball.

I'm curious as to everyone's reasoning behind either pick.

If Shoeless Joe Jackson would have been a third option I would have pick him.  For the choices given I chose Bonds since the entire era was tainted by steroids and the commissioner who oversaw it all is in the HOF.  Someone please explain to me how that makes any sense.

My vote is for both

if i voted, i would vote for BOTH.  with the ASTERISK* and THE DISCLAIMER NEXT TO EACH. 

LET THIS BE AN EXAMPLE TO ALL, OF THE DANGERS OF HUMAN TRAFFIC, AND THE LURE OF "EASY BUTTONS" IN LIFE

https://imgur.com/a/zYfpI5o

There are other steroid user in the HOF. For MLB and the HOF to continue to discredit Clemens, Bonds, ARod, and Canseco over steroids while allowing others to fail test and still get in is hypocritical IMO.

Rose bet on baseball. Something that has signs in every locker room warning you against. Something that every player and coach goes to a meeting every spring training warning you against. Rose should get in after he passes, but not before.

In ARod's case you can look at it like this. While he admitted to using while there was no policy he continued to have ties long after the policy went into affect. Should we forget his year-long suspension? Same reason Manny won't get in.

It's not my argument one way or the other. This is the way voters looked at it. There was a policy, you broke it and rather spectacularly at that.

Pete Rose bet on his own team to win. Every manager should have to bet their paycheck on their team to win. 

I decided that opening the door for Bonds meant opening it for other 'roiders and I didn't like that.  Also, what Rose did wasn't cheating, it was just not very cool, provided that it's true he always bet on his team to win straight up.

Both should be in but I'll go with Bonds. You can't tell a story about the history of baseball without him. Were the astros confirmed to be cheaters? (I don't know, and i am not crying about it- I'm a casual fan who loves the yankees). IF they did cheat, are none of them hall of fame worthy? (Altuve should be in)

Just my .02

The problem with saying he always bet on his team to win, is that if he knew he had money on tomorrow's game, does he intentionally save his best pitchers, bullpen etc for that game and sacrifice this one etc ?