Roger Clemens Is More Popular Than Rickey Henderson

So much for Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice getting to bask in their Baseball Hall of Fame selection glory.

A quick and unscientific study of a popular search engine’s news stories for the past week reveals:

• 2,505 results for Roger Clemens
• 2,183 results for Rickey Henderson
• 2,112 results for Jim Rice
• 1,312 results for Barry Bonds
• 1,028 results for Mark McGwire

On a more encouraging note, stories related to baseball + Hall of Fame are more prevalent than articles on baseball + steroids or HGH or human growth hormone or performance enhancing drugs – by a tally of 4,797 to 2,758 results.

The debate about whether Mark McGwire should be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame – or whether he is even stat-worthy for it – is bound to rage on, but if the percentages garnered by McGwire during the last three years of voting are any indication, that verdict has effectively been decided.

Some writers are suggesting (a little self-righteously, no?) that McGwire (like Pete Rose) owes “us” an apology – and only then will he be properly considered for the Hall. Bunk, I say.

Regardless of what Big Red and Major League Baseball did (or did not do) or how the performance-enhancing drug issue should have been (and should be) handled, Mark McGwire’s inclusion on the Hall of Fame ballot for the next 12 years (assuming he continues to get at least five percent of the votes) is going to set the precedent for how Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds will be treated.

And you can count on the news stories focusing more on what happened in the dark corners of the locker room than what happened between the lines.