Steroid links hurt some, but not all
Remember Mark McGwire?
A’s first baseman. Bash Brother. Hit 49 homers as a rookie. Won a 1989 World Series ring. Dealt to St. Louis. Hit 70 homers in baseball’s summer of love. Had 583 in his career. Testified before Congress. Wasn’t there to talk about the past. Went into seclusion. Admitted to steroid use. Became a coach. Yeah, that Mark McGwire. He spent 10 years on the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, receiving as much as 23.7 percent of the votes, 12.3 percent in his final appearance.
Now, other folks who were linked to steroids or at least were the subjects of unsubstantiated steroid rumors are on the path to Cooperstown.
Could it have been different for the man who broke Roger Maris’ single-season homerun record?
With the electorate softening on players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were on more than 50 percent of ballots this year for the first time, a major step toward the required 75 percent for induction.
Two of the three named to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell, have been dogged by steroid suspicions — and Bagwell admitted using androstenedione before it was banned by baseball. They’ll join Tim Raines at the induction in July.
As will steroid-era Commissioner Bud Selig, who was elected last month by a veterans committee. This comes a year after Mike Piazza, another target of steroid rumors, entered the hallowed grounds.
More and more, key figures in what Alex Rodriguez called “a loosey-goosey era” are Cooperstown bound, and how can that not help Bonds’ and Clemens’ candidacies?
Their momentum spiked as many older voters (10 years out of the business) were booted and new ones didn’t acknowledge the character clause, relying exclusively on statistics. Others started to vote for them because of Selig’s inclusion.
It’s an odd reason considering these voters never had a chance to vote for Selig. Plus, the same veterans committee ignored McGwire, one of 10 men on the ballot.
The 16-member committee included six owners/executives, a Hall of Fame manager, six Hall of Fame players and just three members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
But it’s their right. Just as it’s a voter’s right to submit a blank ballot. Or fill in the maximum 10 names, which I did — something I never imagined doing a few years ago.
While Bonds and Clemens continued to gain ground, Sammy Sosa didn’t. He and McGwire, the featured characters from the so-called great home run race of 1998, are the forgotten contemporaries.
A year after McGwire’s time on the ballot expired, Sosa received just 8.6 percent of the votes. He has been on the ballot as long as Bonds and Clemens, five years, but hasn’t gotten the spike others have and would fall off the ballot with less than 5 percent.
That’s what happened to Rafael Palmeiro, one of four players with 500 homers and 3,000 hits. But he failed a drug test after appearing with McGwire on Capitol Hill and wagging his finger at Congress when saying he never used steroids.
So where is the line drawn? Mine is as wobbly as they come. For the second straight year, I checked the boxes next to Bonds and Clemens, the most intimidating hitter and pitcher of their era. Their first three years on the ballot, I left those boxes blank.
Piazza, for whom I repeatedly voted, was on the verge of being selected last year, and I had a tough time answering this question: How could I not vote for PED users while voting for someone who very well could have been a user?
Ivan Rodriguez, on the ballot for the first time, has no PED paper trail, though he dropped nearly 30 pounds once drug testing arrived, prompting a popular belief that he was off the juice. If he took steroids, he didn’t get busted like Bonds, Clemens and others.
I voted for Rodriguez, who falls in the category of Piazza, a superstar catcher with lots of rumors and no paper trail. Rodriguez was implicated in a 2005 book by Jose Canseco, who also named McGwire and Palmeiro as steroid users, before McGwire’s admission and Palmeiro’s flunked test.
I didn’t vote for Manny Ramirez, who had two PED suspensions and got 23.8 percent on his first year on the ballot. Nor Sosa, who reportedly flunked a survey test. Nor Gary Sheffield, a BALCO customer.
Aside from Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell and Rodriguez, I voted for Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Jeff Kent, Edgar Martinez, Raines and Lee Smith.
It’s possible the Hall has several steroid users, and it’s possible I’ve voted for them. We’re left to guess whether a player did steroids sparingly, routinely, “unknowingly,” to earn a contract, to overcome an injury, to stay in the game or to show off at the pool.
The voting process is a big mess, the ballots full of inconsistencies. Some voters won’t select anyone under suspicion. Others couldn’t care less about possible steroid use when voting. Others pick and choose, and that’s where it gets dicey.
Why do Piazza, Rodriguez and Bagwell get a Hall pass, but not McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro? Or Bonds and Clemens? And if McGwire and Palmeiro were still on the ballot, would they get more love from a more forgiving electorate?
Based on Sosa’s standing, probably not. But it does bring to light how some players under the steroid cloud are more favored than others, and the conversation’s not going away.
Andy Pettitte (admitted to using HGH) is eligible for the Hall in 2019, Jason Giambi (BALCO) in 2020 and David Ortiz (reportedly tested positive in a survey test) and ARod (suspended a full season) in 2022.
In many circles, Ortiz is considered a first-ballot Hall of Famer even though he tested positive in the 2003 survey test that was supposed to be anonymous, according to the New York Times, which also reported that Sosa tested positive.
That’s the lone paper trail to Sosa, who was McGwire’s sidekick in 1998 and finished with 609 homers. Ditto with Ortiz, who hit 541.
While Sosa had the corked bat and forgettable showing in front of Congress, saying through an interpreter he never used “illegal” PEDs, Ortiz was a postseason hero who was glorified throughout his farewell tour last season.
So is Ortiz, a designated hitter, a Hall of Famer and not Sosa? Why is Bagwell heading to Cooperstown but not McGwire? Why is Ramirez getting more votes than Palmeiro, who topped out at 12.6 percent? Why is Piazza in the Hall, but not Bonds and Clemens?
Bonds and Clemens have five more years on the BBWAA ballot. McGwire will be eligible for another vote by a veterans committee in 2018, Palmeiro in 2021.
By then, perhaps Bonds and Clemens will be enshrined. Perhaps the committee will be more open to other players linked to steroids. Perhaps tainted players won’t be considered so tainted.
Perhaps not.