A Giants player accused of cheating is already in the Hall of Fame.
Now, Gaylord Perry says he’d welcome Barry Bonds into Cooperstown, too.
“When you have a player like that, pretty soon you have to forgive him and put him in,” Perry said Wednesday in advance of next week’s announcement regarding the Cooperstown class of 2017.
Perry’s alleged sin was applying foreign substances to baseballs as a right-handed pitcher from 1962-1983. He went 314-265 with a 3.11 ERA and won a Cy Young Award in each league.
Perry made a career out of winking at the rules. Long after retirement, he said “I reckon I tried everything on the old apple but salt and pepper and chocolate sauce topping.”
The cloud surrounding Bonds — and other steroid-era players — is much more controversial. But the former Giants slugger is trending up in Hall of Fame voting as the Jan. 18 announcement draws near.
Ryan Thibodaux, who tracks the ballots writers have made public, has Bonds polling at 65 percent through 187 ballots. (Thibodaux is expecting 435 total ballots this year).
It takes 75 percent to earn election, but early returns represent a big jump from Bonds’ previous totals, which topped out at 44.3 percent a year ago.
To date, 21 writers who did not vote for Bonds last year have already flipped and cast a vote in his favor this year. (One has flipped on the other direction.)
Perry, 78, expects the tide to turn eventually on steroid-era players. The five-time All-Star was on a conference call Wednesday with former major leaguers John Smoltz and Kevin Millar to promote the second annual Diamond Resorts Invitational golf tournament that opens Friday in Orlando.
“I think the writers maybe will change their minds and, a few years down the road, some of them will get in,” Perry said. “(Steroids are) something they got caught into and I guess it took a while to get out of it. They’re paying the price right now. But I can forget and forgive.”
Over 10 seasons with the Giants, Perry went 134-109 with a 2.96 ERA. He ranks second to Juan Marichal in San Francisco history for wins, ERA, complete games (125) and shutouts (21).
Perry learned the greaseball from Giants teammate Bob Shaw in 1964. Late in 1965, Giants pitching coach Larry Jansen helped Perry refine one of his legal pitches — a hard slider — and the right-hander was soon one of the best pitchers in baseball.
Hitters weren’t swallowing it, however. Pete Rose once barked at Perry on the mound after a strikeout.
“Hey, Perry, where do you keep your dipstick?” Rose said.
“What do you mean,” the pitcher replied.
“How else will you know when your cap needs an oil change?”
But asked on Wednesday to explain the difference between cheating with a spitball and cheating with steroids, Perry played coy.
“I never spit on the ball,” answered Perry, the author of “Me and the Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession.”
Well, then, how about a greaseball?
“Oh, OK, that’s a different story,” Perry said, chuckling. “Sometimes you get a new glove and it’s greased up, so why not use it?
“It was something you put in the opposing hitter’s mind to make him look for certain things. And then you make a pitch that isn’t good enough and can still get him out.”
Perry draws a hard line on one rule, at least. He opposes Rose as a candidate for the Hall of Fame because the all-time hits leader bet on baseball while with the Cincinnati Reds. Rose remains banned for life from Major League Baseball.
“I think he did the worst thing possible. Worse than steroids,” Perry said. “When you put money on a game to win or lose, it doesn’t matter what it is. (The rule) is something that you see when you come into the clubhouse and you see it when you go out.
“He’s paying the price right now. I love Pete. I loved to see him play, and he got many a hit off of me. I hate that he’s in the position that he’s in.”
