Barry� Bonds will not be the first Hall of Famer who cheated on baseball.

With Sports Illustrated having published excerpts from the forthcoming book Game of Shadows, which formally accuses Barry Bonds of having taken steroids, it was inevitable a flurry of Bonds-bashing articles would soon follow.� � Especially now that he is a handful of homeruns away from eclipsing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time homerun list.

Perhaps the most interesting of these articles is one by Doug Gamble, a former speechwriter for President Reagan and the first President Bush.� � The article is titled, “The Bill Clinton of Baseball.”

Gamble argues that Bonds is the Bill Clinton of baseball, “portraying himself as the victim of those out to get him and refusing to take responsibility for his actions.”

If I were to liken Bill Clinton to a baseball player it would not be Barry Bonds.� � It would be Babe Ruth.� � Think about it.� � Both Ruth and Clinton were known for their gluttony. Both men possessed prodigious appetites.� � Neither the Bambino nor Bubba ever met a hot dog they couldn’t eat.� � Neither the Sultan of Swat nor Slick Willie passed up an opportunity to put a little extra cork in their bats when it came time for the ladies.

The only difference between the exploits of the Babe and the 42nd President is that the media hushed up George Herman Ruth’s indiscretions.� � I guess the Babe really did have it better than the President.

Gamble objects to Bonds on three grounds.� � First, he objects to Bonds’ character, describing him “as one of the surliest, most obnoxious athletes in professional sports, foul-mouthed, childish, and arrogant.”� � Gee, don’t beat around the bush Doug.� � Tell us how you really feel.� � Gamble is appalled at the prospect of “this arrogant jerk” becoming the greatest homerun hitter of all time.� � Second, he objects to Bonds’ alleged cheating through the use of steroids.� � Finally, he wonders how Bonds could get better with age.� Gamble writes, “(H)e’s the only athlete I can think of whose performance actually improved as he got older, rather than tailing off.”

Baseball is full of Hall of Fame players who had led less than stellar lives both on and off the field.� � There’s a reason it’s called the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Saints.� � Let us consider the men who have held the Major League record for all time leader in base hits.� � Currently, that honor belongs to Pete Rose, who finished his career with 4,256 hits.� � Charlie Hustle’s story with gambling on baseball is well known — Rose� has been banned for life from Major League Baseball and is ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

The man Rose eclipsed for the all time hit record was Ty Cobb, who had 4,189 hits (for many years it was 4,191 but later research revealed he was credited with two erroneous hits) with the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics.� � Although Cobb would be the first man inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was often the last man his teammates would want to be seen with in public.� � Cobb was notorious for spiking infielders as he slid into second base, often drawing blood.� � He got into fistfights with players both on and off the field.� � During spring training in 1907, Cobb got into an altercation with the Tigers’ groundskeeper, who happened to be black, in Augusta, Georgia.� � When the groundskeeper’s wife intervened, he choked her.� � In a game against the New York Highlanders in 1912, Cobb even went into the stands and pummeled a fan who had heckled him.� � In 1917, during spring training, Cobb fought with New York Giants infielder Buck Herzog during a spring training game and later on in Cobb’s hotel room.� � Would Gamble consider Cobb an arrogant jerk?� � Does it bother Gamble that Cobb held baseball’s all-time hit record for more than 60 years?

Cobb set the all-time record when he obtained his 3,419th hit during the 1923 season with the Detroit Tigers, passing Cap Anson of the Chicago Cubs.� � Anson, who was arguably the best baseball player to ever wear a uniform during the 19th Century, was also a racist who refused to play exhibition games against black ball players.� � It was Anson who was largely credited for bringing segregation to Major League Baseball.� � Would Gamble deem Anson surly, obnoxious and arrogant for his actions?

This past week we lost one of baseball’s modern legends.� � Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died at the age of 45 from a stroke.� � Puckett, who played his entire 12-year career with the Minnesota Twins, was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2001.� � Puckett’s career was cut short because of glaucoma that would soon cause him to lose sight in one eye.� � During his career, Puckett not only became the most popular player to even don a Minnesota Twins uniform, he became the most popular athlete to play in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.� �

Yet Puckett would lose some of that luster after his induction into the Hall of Fame.� � In 2002, Puckett was charged with sexually assaulting a woman at a Minneapolis restaurant.� A year later, Puckett appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the subject of an unflattering profile by Frank Deford titled, “The Rise and Fall of Kirby Puckett.”� � The article covered the incident at the restaurant as well as allegations of spousal abuse� by his ex-wife.� � Deford also alleged that Puckett would perform lewd acts like urinating in public and that he hated to do charity work.� � This despite the fact Puckett was awarded the Branch Rickey and Roberto Clemente awards for community service during and after his playing career in 1993 and 1996, respectively.

Although Puckett would be acquitted of the sexual assault charge the damage was done.� The backlash against him was substantial enough for Puckett to move from Minnesota to Arizona where he would spend the last 2½ years of his life.� Despite the Deford article, it did not prevent Minnesotans from voting Puckett the greatest athlete in their state’s history in a 2004 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Doug Gamble might not like Barry Bonds’ disposition.� � But if Bonds is inducted into the Hall of Fame he won’t be the first person in Cooperstown with questionable conduct both on and off the field and he won’t be the last.

If Bonds is inducted into Cooperstown — and, assuming he used steroids –� he will also not be the first person to have been enshrined who cheated to get in there.� � Gamble questions the authenticity of Bonds possibly setting the all-time homerun record because of alleged steroid use.� � Yet, if Bonds indeed did use steroids then Gamble must surely object to the achievements of other Hall of Famers.

Hall of Fame pitchers Gaylord Perry, Whitey Ford and Don Sutton were well known for doctoring the baseball either by scuffing the ball with sandpaper or a ring or putting Vaseline on it to give the ball an extra break.� � This is known as the spitball, which was outlawed in baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1920 right after the Chicago Black Sox were banished from the game.� � Perry actually openly bragged about the practice in a book he wrote in 1974 called Me and the Spitter.� � The well-traveled pitcher, who was the first to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues, was never sanctioned for the book.

When Sammy Sosa was caught with a corked bat while playing with the Chicago Cubs in 2003, former major league pitcher Jim Kaat (who should be in the Hall of Fame) penned an article for Popular Mechanics titled “Corked Bats and Foul Balls” which can be found here.� � Kaat argued that corked bats and spitballs are a part of the game:

Although scuffing balls and corking bats are called cheating, I really don’t agree with the term.� � Professional baseball players are more or less evenly matched.� � Everyone knows what’s at stake, so I don’t believe that taking the edge is cheating in the moral sense.� � Ballplayers call it gamesmanship.

All things being equal, I really think trick pitches and freak bats ought to be legal.� � After all, let’s look at some practices that are never questioned, or just winked at, but which nonetheless give someone an edge.

Home teams routinely groom the field to give themselves an advantage or put the visitors at a disadvantage.� � The baselines get beveled to make bunts go fair or foul.� � The area in front of the plate can be watered down to favor a sinkerball pitcher (which Kaat was), or hardened to cause Baltimore chop-type infield hits.� � Teams regularly soak the basepaths or dump sand around first base to slow down base stealers.� � There are no strictures against any of this in the rulebook.

At the time when I played for the Twins, the Chicago White Sox used to store baseballs in a freezer to deaden the ball.� � When our power hitters made contact, it was like hitting a rock and the ball didn’t go anywhere.� � While we’re at it, let’s not forget about stealing the signs or the way hitters stand behind the boundary of the batter’s box to get a longer look at the pitch, or how first basemen plant a foot in foul territory when setting up for a pickoff throw.� � And most recently, the Detroit Tigers moved the fences of the newly built Comerica Park closer to its batters.

I believe that I can state with near absolute certainty that every player ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame has partaken in or was aware that these activities occurred.� � Does Gamble believe Perry should be removed from Cooperstown because he threw the spitball?� � Does Gamble believe that Richie Ashburn’s plaque should be taken down because the Philadelphia Phillies groundskeepers made sure that his bunts went fair with the construction of Ashburn’s cliff.� � Does Gamble believe the baseball establishment should shun Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher because he stole the Brooklyn Dodgers’ signs, possibly leading to Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World 1951?� Ralph Kiner, a Hall of Fame homerun hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1940s and early 1950s, recently admitted to using amphetamines throughout his playing career.� � Does Gamble think that Kiner, who still broadcasts games for the New York Mets, should be expunged from Cooperstown for his admission?� � If he does, then one can at least respect the consistency of Gamble’s position.� � However, if he does not, why single out Bonds for the ages?

Gamble is mystified at Bonds’ performance as he gets older and cannot think of another athlete who got better with age.� � OK, how about the man who is the king of the homerun?� � None other than Hank Aaron.

The Hammer played in the major leagues for 23 seasons, making his debut with the 1954 Milwaukee Braves at the age of 20.� � He hit homeruns early and often.� � Before he turned 30, Aaron had hit 342 homeruns.� � His pace would slow down in his early thirties.� � Between 1964 and 1968 (the year Aaron hit his 500th career homerun) Aaron swatted 158 homeruns.� � If Aaron had called it quits after the 1968 season he would have been a first ballot Hall of Famer.� � But the best was yet to come.� � Between 1969 and 1973 (or from the time Aaron was 35 until he was 39) Aaron hit 203 more homeruns� that would put him within striking distance of Ruth at the beginning of the 1974 season.� � From 1959 through 1963, Aaron hit 202 homeruns.� � Aaron hit nearly as many homeruns at the age of 39 as he did at 29.

Now certainly one has to consider the caliber of pitching that Aaron faced in the mid to late 1960s.� � On any given night one might have to face Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver or Ferguson Jenkins.� � In 1968, the year Denny McLain won 31 games for the Detroit Tigers, Gibson recorded a 1.12 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals and Marichal won 26 games for the San Francisco Giants.� � The following season, in an effort to generate more offense, Major League Baseball lowered the pitching mound and narrowed the strike zone.� � This, in part, would account for Aaron’s increased production after he turned 35.� � Still, there is a difference between a merely good player and a great player for the ages and Aaron was firmly in the latter category.� � If not for the fact that Aaron had the best years of his career after the age of 35 we would certainly not be speaking of him as the greatest homerun hitter who donned a baseball uniform.

When Aaron hit 40 homeruns for the Atlanta Braves in 1973, two of his teammates, Davey Johnson and Darrell Evans, also hit more than 40 dingers with 44 and 41, respectively.� � Johnson never approached those numbers again and his playing career would be over by 1978.� � Although Evans enjoyed many fine seasons with the Braves and later the San Francisco Giants, it also appeared that Evans would never again approach those numbers.� � Evans joined the Detroit Tigers in 1984 and was part of the team that won 35 of its first 40 games.� � That year would be morning again for the Tigers as they won 104 regular season games plus the World Series over the San Diego Padres in five games.� Yet Evans had a modest season, hitting only .232 with 16 homeruns and driving in 63 runs.

But for Evans, the sun would rise the following season.� � Although he only hit .248, he slammed 40 homeruns and knocked in 94 runs.� � It was the first time Evans had hit 40 homeruns in a season in twelve years.� � He led the American League in homeruns in 1985 and would become the oldest player to lead either league in homeruns at the age of 38 (that is until Barry Bonds shattered that record, hitting 45 homeruns at the ages of 38 and 39).� � But Evans proved that effort to be no fluke, hitting 29, 34 and 22 homeruns during the 1986 through 1988 seasons with the Tigers, until he finished his playing career back with the Braves in 1989.� � Although it is uncommon for major league baseball players to put up their best statistics as they get older, it is certainly not unheard of.

Barry Bonds might very well not be nicest man in the world.� � However, considering the other characters whose images adorn the halls of Cooperstown it is insufficient grounds for his exclusion.� � Barry Bonds might very well have used drugs — if not to enhance his performance, then� to� prolong his career.� � However, considering that other Hall of Famers have ingested their fair share of chemical substances and/or have utilized other means to bend the rules in their favor, it is insufficient grounds to single Bonds out for exclusion from taking his spot on a roster where he deserves to be.� � Barry Bonds might have taken a drink from the fountain of youth.� � However, other players have taken a sip of its juices and have similarly benefited, putting up their best statistics after the age of 35.� � Again, there is no reason to punish Bonds for achieving success in his advanced years if others have been rewarded for so doing.� � �

For Doug Gamble to liken Barry Bonds to Bill Clinton is to swing and miss.� � Bonds cannot run with the swiftness with which he once could.� � Bonds’ defensive abilities in left field have also declined precipitously.� � But Bonds can hit a baseball like no other man.� � Not so much because of how he hits the ball, but how he does not hit the ball.� � He is baseball’s all-time walks leader and is so in great part because he almost never swings at a bad pitch.� � This takes discipline and mental focus — something Clinton lacked in many critical areas (except possibly for getting elected).� � Doug Gamble ought to sit on the bench and watch what is going on the field.