MLB Hall of Fame: Pedro Gomez ironically excludes Barry Bonds
This is always an interesting time of year for baseball fans. It is an interesting purgatory between the “hot stove” session and when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Random events happen, such as the Cubs visiting the White House and the Cardinals hosting an event where fans get to pay hundreds of dollars to have their foot signed by Yadier Molina.
But the one thing that is worthy of the discussion this time of year is the revealing of Hall of Fame ballots. Generally, the individual ballots of voters are made public and ridicule and scorn soon follow. Generally, I keep pretty to myself on these things. Each “writer” is entitled to their own opinion. But when I saw the ballot of ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, a fit of rage boiled inside me that made this post inevitable.
Ballot #208 is Pedro Gomez's. No adds or drops. No first-time candidates. In the Tracker: bit.ly/tracker17
As you can see, Gomez only voted for four candidates (allowed up 10) and left off names such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jeff Bagwell, among others.
Now, I get the sentiment of voters who refuse to vote for a player who either has been proven to use PEDs, or it has been speculated that they have. I believe the “character clause” to be of merit.
But think about the irony here that Gomez, who was ESPN’s personal reporter on Barry Bonds, did not even vote for the player that helped make him famous.
From Bonds breaking Mark McGwire’s (or Roger Maris’, depending on your personal stance) single season home run record, to Bonds doing the same to Hank Aaron’s career record, Gomez was on the beat. From the famous dress press conference to the numerous reporter beat downs Bonds dished, Gomez was on the beat, reporting live from San Francisco. He was constantly on ESPN’s SportsCenter as one of the lead stories because of whatever superhero heroics Bonds was doing, and every story ended with a head shot of Gomez himself that seemed to last 15 seconds longer than necessary.
When Barry Bonds became a hitting instructor for the San Francisco Giants in 2014, there was Pedro Gomez.
When Barry Bonds became the actual hitting coach of the Miami Marlins in 2016, there was Pedro Gomez.
Yet, despite being there every step of the way with Barry Bonds, you never heard a peep from Gomez in regards to PED speculation. There were not any scoops and no investigative reporting that I am aware of (I did about 14 different Google searches to try and find something)(maybe I should try Bing?).
Yes, Gomez did the interview where he got Bonds to admit that did not “knowingly” take PEDs in 2004.
But being so close to Bonds, you would have thought that Gomez would have had access to more and uncovered more info, especially considering how staunchly against PED use the reporter seems to be today.
Oh, Bonds wasn’t the only blatantly obvious ballplayer that Gomez covered. The reporter also covered the Oakland A’s during the famous “Bash Brothers” era for the Mercury News and Sacramento Bee, according to an interview with Jeff Pearlman.
Now, years after the fact, Gomez is drawing the line.
Based on his most recent Hall of Fame ballot, Gomez believes that PED users should not be in the Hall even though he personally gained from the success of those same PED users and never was able to report or uncover any of the corruption that has him in a tizzy today.
Forgive me if this doesn’t make me raise just an eyebrow or two and the irony is just too much to handle.
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