Outside Looking In

🔥 THE SHORT HOP

⚾️ Outside Looking In

Jeff Kent got the Cooperstown call.

Good for him.

But the real story Sunday was who got shoved back into the shadows.

Barry Bonds — the home run king.
Roger Clemens — seven Cy Young awards and 354 wins.

Both pulled fewer than five votes.

That’s not “try again later.”
That’s beat it.

They’re frozen out until 2031.
Miss again?
Curtains. Done. Gone.

The players who defined a generation — erased.
No more votes. No more chances.

The stain of the PED era.

But wait — the plot thickens.

Because 2027 is coming.
And with it?

Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson are on the ballot.

And if they get rejected?

Picture this:

Baseball’s all-time hits leader.
Baseball’s home-run king.
One of the greatest pitchers who ever breathed.

All staring through the gates like kids outside a candy store.

MLB made billions off the Steroid Era.
Sold newspapers on Rose’s chase for Cobb.

Now baseball clutches its pearls like it’s above the mess?
Please.

Bonds, Clemens, Rose — they made choices.
They aren’t victims.
I’m fine with them never making it to Cooperstown.

But baseball was an accomplice — now pretending it wasn’t even in the room.

But is compromise really impossible?
A plaque that acknowledges their greatness and their sins…
So fans 100 years from now understand the complete story of Bonds, Clemens
and Rose?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Maybe Cooperstown isn’t where all of baseball’s legends go.
Maybe it’s where baseball’s acceptable legends go.

John Boxley
High N Tight