Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez could represent an inaugural class should a Baseball Hall of Shame ever open.
You want to throw in Joe Jackson and the Black Sox or Pete Rose or Sammy Sosa or Rafael Palmeiro wagging his finger or Roger Clemens mangling the language — fine. You want to find an out-of-the-way strip mall like the ones that housed BALCO and Biogenesis to hang the rogue’s gallery of plaques, go for it.
But the initial four are a representative snapshot of baseball infamy over the past two decades — their names forever linked to steroid disgrace.
However, I think we have to come to peace with this strange incongruity: The members of this quartet that brought such dishonor to the game also love it. I know we live in an age when we want black hats and white hats, and the only shades of gray are supposed to be in sophomoric novels.
I hear all the time that players who cheated the game like this can’t also love it. I think that reduces them to two-dimensional characters. Plenty of spouses have infidelities, and I do not think that means they hate their spouses.
Players cheated for many reasons — greed, insecurity, vanity, a fear of falling behind those they were competing against. But I don’t think a single one cheated because they hated baseball or wanted to bring ruin to the game.
I believe all of them were arrogant, thinking they were above the rules. I believe each has paid a significant price for his transgression in reputation and/or finances and/or a currently closed door to the actual Hall of Fame. But I also believe this: Each has passion for the sport. Each has enough money to disappear without taking the zings associated with returning, often in coaching jobs whose pay is a pittance compared to their past.
I am jaded enough to believe they are trying to spruce up their reputations, maybe enough to some day get into the actual Hall of Fame.
But I also think they love the game, feel if they have something to offer — do have something to offer — it would be closed-minded not to take advantage of their expertise and maybe also their example for others of what not to do.
In some ways, this reminds me of “Catch Me If You Can,” the Tom Hanks-Leonardo DiCaprio movie about the real-life Frank Abagnale, who was so good at check fraud that when he was caught, the FBI used his expertise to nab other forgers.
Ramirez is the closest to Abagnale — hired by Cubs officials who had previously seen him as enemy No. 1 when they were employed by the Red Sox. Now, Ramirez is so appreciated by these same executives, he works with Chicago’s most impressionable youngsters and Cubs officials rave about the work he has done with players such as Javier Baez, Starlin Castro and Jorge Soler.
Rodriguez’s work with young Yankees such as Nathan Eovaldi and Didi Gregorius last season was praised by the very executives who had hoped he would never return. His postseason work with FOX accentuated how much ardor and insight he has for the game.
Now, Bonds is mulling an offer to be a Marlins hitting coach — as first reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman. Rodriguez and free-agent outfielder Dexter Fowler have worked in the offseason with Bonds, who also has been a guest spring coach for the Giants.
“You know how much I think of Barry,” Rodriguez told The Post. “He has a brilliant baseball mind. I think he’ll be good for the team, the hitters. I’ll be really excited to see what [Giancarlo] Stanton will do with Barry there to develop [him].”
Bonds does not have a public soft side and his possession of what were once cherished records — the single-season and all-time homer marks — is viewed unfavorably.
But he is a member in good standing with the Commissioner’s Office. And while those tinged by steroids have been barred from Cooperstown immortality, that ban has not gone for employment. McGwire is going to be the Padres bench coach, his third coaching job. Matt Williams, named in the Mitchell Report, was fired as Nationals manager and hired as the Diamondbacks’ third-base coach. Jason Giambi had a shot at the Rockies managing job. Andy Pettitte had his number retired by the Yankees.
What is the downside here for an attention-starved organization such as the Marlins? If this is a publicity stunt that goes rotten, well, no organization is more versed at being a laughingstock already.
But what if it goes right? What if, like Ramirez and A-Rod and McGwire, Bonds really does have something positive to offer after all the negative? What if, like them, he is a student of the game ready to teach the next generation?
Nothing will scrub the past. But why can’t we see if something better could come from all of this in the present and future?