<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" It&amp;#039;s been five years since Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who somehow only faced off eight times in their overlapping forty-six years of playing professional baseball, last stepped onto the field. Both bitterly retired before they believed their time was up. And now the two men find themselves side-by-side again, listed together on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year. Ballots are due on on December 31, and in the time we&amp;#039;ve been forced to wait for the voting sportswriters to decide the fate of these two athletes, we&amp;#039;ve seen the perception of performance-enhancing drug use in America slowly turn. Baseball now has a defined &amp;quot;steroid era,&amp;quot; which no longer seems like a derisive term meant to tarnish the period, but rather the best way we can all understand and quarantine it. We now know who took the drugs, we think we know why, and we&amp;#039;ve mostly forgiven those who have admitted their sins, including All-Stars, Cy Young winners, and MVPs. It&amp;#039;s the ones who refuse to come clean we can&amp;#039;t stand because, to the American public, it&amp;#039;s never the offense that matters as much as the lie. Mark McGwire wasn&amp;#039;t willing to &amp;quot;talk about the past,&amp;quot; Rafael Palmeiro offered a Clinton-esque finger wag to Congress when he denied doping, and Sammy Sosa, also on the ballot for the first time in 2012, suddenly forgot how to speak English. All have since been found guilty, and for their actions will likely never make it to the Hall. But Bonds, who was already a shoe-in for the honor before ever touching the stuff, finally &amp;quot;admitted&amp;quot; last year to being tricked into taking steroids by his trainer and the boys at BALCO; for using the cream and the clear despite not knowing what either one was. He did it at a time when the public was already used to the narrative, whether it was entirely true. That Bonds has still never apologized for his steroid use is irrelevant, because Bonds is an asshole. And in that way, he&amp;#039;s always come across as genuine. The same can&amp;#039;t be said for Clemens, who seems to have concocted his defense out of stammering through statements he thinks we want to hear. Much like Palmeiro&amp;#039;s finger wag, Clemens&amp;#039;s awkward opener in front of Congress in 2008 was the singular moment when we all decided he was guilty. Bonds has his inflated form and the stats to go with it, but he was never forced to testify on camera, and so he doesn&amp;#039;t have that &amp;quot;aha&amp;quot; moment for us to point to. He just has his 762 home runs, live and in stunning HD on ESPN, and he&amp;#039;ll eventually get in the Hall of Fame. Just maybe not this year. Bonds will get in when baseball has once again wrung its use out of him, like it did during his chase of Hank Aaron&amp;#039;s home-run record. He&amp;#039;ll get in when sportswriters feel like they&amp;#039;ve gained control of his legacy, and when they feel like they&amp;#039;ve beaten down the old ballplayer and won the righteous fight against steroids. Then maybe we&amp;#039;ll all stop punishing Bonds, forgive him, and graciously open the door. As for Clemens, he&amp;#039;s spent his time since retirement denying his drug use and throwing his best friend, his trainer, and even his wife under every bus he can find. So maybe we&amp;#039;ll just let him rot for a while.  Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/a17028/barry-bonds-roger-clemens-baseball-hall-of-fame-14799497/?click=news>