Steroids? "HALL NO!"

So for only the eighth time in history, no player will be elected into the baseball Hall of Fame this year. Thanks to the “Steroids Era” in Major League Baseball, no players who would be good enough to enter the Hall are deemed “clean” enough to be enshrined forever. The voters have spoken: if there’s a possibility that you did steroids, then you will not be in Cooperstown. 

The big players this year were Mark McGwire (third year on the ballot) and first year hopefuls Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. Clemens received 37% of the vote, Bonds 36%, and Sosa and McGwire each less than 17%. A player needs votes from at least 75% of the voters to enter the Hall of Fame, so all of these guys fell way short! Others on the ballot this year (vote-leader Craig Biggio 68%, Curt Schilling 38%, Jeff Bagwell 59%, Jack Morris 67%, and others) fared no better, whether in the steroids era or not.

Today's New York Times. The blank
page was quite fitting, I thought!

Even amidst the steroids scandal, it’s tough to see the best pitcher (Roger Clemens) and best hitter (Barry Bonds) in over thirty years to both be shut out of the Hall of Fame. But not only were they left out, they were locked out and kicked to the curb with NO CHANCE of gaining admittance.

One sportswriter with a vote said it was a tough decision for him because he didn’t want to vote for a cheater. I get that. It’s tough to pick somebody (think about Pete Rose) who defied the rules. No matter how talented a player is, if he breaks the rules (especially in performance enhancement) then it’s extremely difficult to cast a vote for him.

The question is…is that the right choice?

If you are comparing Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, or whoever to players over fifty years ago, then I completely understand you saying no *#&@ way! But I’m not sure that’s the best way to analyze these players.

Why’s that?

Because players today are not playing their games against those from fifty years ago. And those from the 1950’s and 1960’s are not facing players from the new millennium. If that were the case, you can certainly argue that Ted Williams’s .400 would have been at least 50 points lower or that Babe Ruth would have only reached 40 homers. 

Would they be equally as good in any era? No. But the reason they are in the Hall of Fame is because they were at the top of their respective eras. They dominated the game while they were in the league.

How is that any different from what Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have done? To me, there is no difference. You can say that they did steroids and that’s the only reason for their success. And guess what, you very well could be correct there.

But let’s be honest: Were Clemens and Bonds playing against “clean” players?  Not even close! EVERYBODY (or maybe 99% at best) was juiced.  Yet still it was Bonds and Clemens who stood out above the rest of the league during their years in the majors. Could a clean Clemens strike out Babe Ruth? Could a clean Bonds hit 762 home runs in the 1940s? Who knows? Who cares? Clemens struck out nearly everybody in HIS era, and Bonds hit bombs against juiced pitchers the same way.

They deserve a spot in the Hall because of their accomplishments as the BEST OF THEIR ERA. Omitting them would be like tearing a chapter out of a novel: eventually people will realize that something is missing. You can’t erase history. Much like the Penn State football scandal and other college teams, just by saying that wins have been vacated does not mean that people will forget about those victories. And just because Barry Bonds does not make it into the Hall of Fame does not mean that people will forget about his home run records.  You cannot erase history – you can only keep it alive so you can learn from it.

The best way to learn from this: enshrine steroids-era players based on how they rank with players of their own era. Let people argue about it. Let people talk about it for the next thirty years. And we will never have another issue like this due to the controversy being stirred over these players.

…all of that being said, I personally won’t lose any sleep if any of these guys don’t make it to Cooperstown. 

What's wrong with sports? The best players in thirty years (who have NOT tested positive for PEDs) won't make it into the Hall of Fame. ...No, that's not what's wrong here. What's wrong is that it is WRITERS who make the decision as to who is worthy. Let the fans decide.