Hall of Fames: Baseball, Rock, etc.

OK. I'm not a baseball sports writer. I do not get to vote on who should get into the baseball hall of fame.

But here's my ballot anyway:

1. Roger Clemens
2. Barry Bonds
3. Scott Rolen
4. Chipper Jones
5. Lou Whitaker
6. Jim Thome
7. Mike Mussina
8. Manny Ramirez
9. Fred McGriff
10. Vlad Guerrero

(Yes, I realize Sweet Lou Whitaker is not on the ballot this year. He was only on the official ballot one year, received less than 5% of the vote and was immediately excluded from future ballots. My ballot doesn't count anyway, so there's no harm in including him.)

I will let others discuss the merit of each player on the 2018 ballot. I'm not that interested in making cases for each of my picks.

However, I will say this about Barry Bonds: 

I didn't become a fan until 2005, well after he had broken the all-time Home Run record. He had been injured most of 2005, and really had no obvious reason to continue playing at that point. He was 40. He was feeling beat up. He had nothing to prove. His team was out of playoff contention. And yet, to me, he proved something very important that year: that he loved baseball enough to come back and play out 2005.

He then went on to play well in 2006 and 2007! 

I mean, if I could have played just two seasons of major league ball and tallied WAR scores of 4.0 and 3.4, I would consider that a pretty decent career. I would hear whispers at parties for THE REST OF MY LIFE of people saying "there goes so-and-so; he played in the majors and had a 7.2 Career WAR."

The thing is, Bonds did that after he turned 40! He already had over 150 WAR, nevermind all the home runs, RBIs, walks, doubles and so on.

By the way, this is intended to be a music blog. So when it comes to the rock hall of fame, who would I vote for? 

I would not vote for anyone, even if I had a vote. I was in the grocery store not long ago when I saw two men a little older than me wearing T-shirts for their favorite classic rock bands. Both bands were on their 3rd or 4th "final" tour, by my count. One claimed the band on his shirt was the "Best Rock and Roll Band of All Time!" They other smiled. I don't think he agreed, but it wasn't worth arguing about.

I find that I am less into bands and more into songs. There are songs that I love. I make a playlist and share it with others. People listen, and either enjoy the songs or they don't. The end. 

Or maybe, just maybe, they don't like a song the first time they hear it, but they listen again and start liking it. 

Or maybe there's music that's very important to me at one time in my life, but I have moved on and now when I hear that song, it doesn't have the same emotional effect. 

But the memory is still there of when that song got me though a tough time. 

How does something that sublte fit into a hall of fame? That's why I wouldn't vote for anyone.