It pains me to say this, but today I am ashamed to be a
baseball fan. Today the final votes for
this year’s Hall of Fame class will be announced, and early projections
indicate no player currently on the ballot will be voted into the Hall. I find this to be a travesty and an absolute
sham for several reasons.
First, let us look at a couple of names on the ballot.
Jack Morris belongs
in, and not just because of the basic stats.
Morris gave us many shining moments over his career, but none more than
Game 7 of the 1991 World Series and his 1-0 10-inning shutout. The 2012 vote had him at 66%. With 254 wins, a 3.90 career ERA, and
legendary moments such as the one mentioned above, not having Morris in the
Hall is ridiculous.
Mike Piazza also belongs in without question. .308 career batting average, 427 career home
runs, and career OPS of .922 put him among the best catchers of all-time. The sole reason for keeping him out at this
point is the SUSPICION of PED use. He
was never linked to such use, he was never even suspected of it until now, and
his career exhibits a standard shift in performance as he aged.
Craig Biggio is another player from the era that has never
been officially linked to PED use but will be painted with the same broad,
indiscriminate brush. If he is not
elected, he would be the first member of the 3,000-hit club to NOT get in on
the first ballot. He is the only player
in history to earn All-Star recognition at catcher and second base, and capably
played in center and left field. The
only players with 3,000 hits that are NOT in the Hall are Pete Rose and Rafael
Palmeiro, both of whom have other CONFIRMED issues that kept them out. Biggio has NONE, and should not be excluded
solely on baseless suspicion.
Now we come to my primary reason for my disappointment and
shame. The BBWAA members have decided,
to one degree or another, to exclude candidates for the Hall based simply on
the suspicion of PED use. Some candidates,
such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, have been
confirmed as users. Now, one can argue
the finer points of the era; steroids were not against the rules, no one can
conclusively say who did or did not use them, MLB as a whole turned a blind eye
so long as it benefited from the “chicks dig the longball” era. That is a healthy debate that SHOULD take
place. What should NOT be occurring is
the exclusion of Hall-worthy players simply because they played in that
particular era. Players were not
excluded from the Hall during the amphetamine or cocaine eras, despite
widespread use of both drugs. I absolutely
do not want to hear arguments that PEDs had a greater effect on the game than
amphetamines. While PEDs help one See
Ball, Hit Ball Farther, amphetamine use helped players keep their energy up for
long road trips or the infamous day/night doubleheader.
I think the larger point is NO ONE had a problem with
steroid use while it was bringing baseball back from the brink of collapse
after the 1995 strike, LEAST of all the baseball writers. Now they want to sit in judgment of the players
they willingly and knowingly abetted in their steroid use. In short, they knew all along what was
happening and did NOTHING. Said
NOTHING. Cared NOT ONE BIT about the
effect of steroids on the game, or the youth who were watching. Now, after having been caught with their
pants down, they find themselves in a unique position of power, able to mete
out punishment as they see fit while avoiding any repercussions
themselves. Instead of taking the high
road and coming to a conclusion, the writers have instead chosen to use their
position to club us over the head with how terrible this era was and how every
record is tainted. Unfortunately, it has
become akin to being arrested for drug possession because you live in the same
apartment complex as a drug dealer. If
you played baseball between 1996 and 2004 and have Hall of Fame credentials,
your candidacy will be in question. Players
from this era will be judged by a group whose sole purpose is to assuage their
own consciences, which is extraordinarily unfair to every player of my
generation. Save your sanctimony for the
players who are actually KNOWN to have used steroids. For once, it is time for the press to step
down from the pedestal of judgment and recuse itself from any judgments that
involve whether a player did or did not use PEDs. Judge them on their merits. It should be as simple as that.
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