Posted on 03/13/2006 7:35:24 PM PST by Pharmboy
Legendary pitcher Bob Feller, who has been in baseball's Hall of Fame longer than any other living player, said on Monday controversial superstar Barry Bonds should be kept out of the exclusive club.
Bonds, who owns baseball's single-season home-run record, has been under intense scrutiny since excerpts of a new book last week said he actively used steroids for at least five seasons.
"He's not going to get the numbers when it comes to Cooperstown," Feller, 87, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, told Reuters.
"Those players who have been convicted of using steroids or are caught using them are not going to get the numbers to be elected to the Hall of Fame when they become eligible for that great honor. And I am with them on that."
Feller, who played from 1936 to 1941 and 1945 to 1956, was known for a blazing fastball. He spoke by telephone from spring training at Winter Haven, Florida, where he still works for the Cleveland Indians, the team with which he spent his playing career.
Bonds, who plays for the San Francisco Giants, has won a record seven Most Valuable Player awards, and at 708 career home runs, is within striking distance of Babe Ruth (714) for second place on the all-time list.
The latest suspicions about his slugging power follow the imprisonment of his personal trainer and head of the BALCO nutritional lab near San Francisco on steroid distribution charges. Bonds has said he never actively used steroids, and he has never failed a drug test.
Baseball has banned all-time base-hit leader Pete Rose from the Hall of Fame for life because be bet on the game.
The approximately 550 eligible voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and 82 on the veterans' committee -- including Feller -- are the two groups that can elect members to the Hall of Fame.
ASTERISK IN THE RECORD BOOKS
The allegations surrounding Bonds have divided fans and Hall of Famers, with former San Francisco Giant Willie McCovey backing Bonds, and former Minnesota Twin Harmon Killebrew saying cheaters should not be in the Hall.
Feller, who recorded 266 victories in a career interrupted by World War II, said record books should also indicate which players used steroids. "I think that should be noted, the same as Pete Rose," he said. "An asterisk might be needed."
One of the oldest living Hall of Fame members, Feller said cheating was not unique to recent years.
"There has always been cheating going on in pitching and hitting," he said. "As far as cheating, using a wooden bat and flattening the hitting surface, that has always been going on. ... It is usually discovered in pretty good time."
Feller also lamented the glorification of home runs in the game today. "There used to be a stigma in striking out. If you struck out, that used to be an embarrassment. Not anymore," he said.
"They go up there and swing hard three times, with a lot of intent on hitting the ball out of the ball park, because that's where the money is. There is not much money in hitting singles, is there?"
Feller a racist? Please document...
I see..... You must be a fan of freakball...
Baseball is a different game, than that played by freaks on drugs...
I also see you've adopted the Bond's SOP to answering challenges or charges -- scream RACIST!...
Semper Fi
Willie Mays is Bonds' godfather, not McCovey.
By the way, McCovey is one of the true gentlemen who played the game.
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