Joe Morgan: Keep steroid users out of baseball Hall of Fame
Joe Morgan sent a letter to Hall of Fame voters Tuesday saying that any players who took steroids should not go into the Hall of Fame.
Morgan, a Hall of Fame second baseman and the vice chairman of the Hall, said his views were held by many other Hall of Famers.
“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame,” he wrote. “They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here.
“Players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League Baseball’s investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report, should not get in. Those are the three criteria that many of the players and I think are right.
“By cheating, they put up huge numbers, and they made great players who didn’t cheat look smaller by comparison, taking away from their achievements and consideration for the Hall of Fame. That’s not right.”
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, two of baseball’s greats, are mentioned in the Mitchell Report. Neither has been elected to the Hall, but their vote percentages have been creeping upward. Both were at 54 percent last year. A player needs 75 percent of the vote of veteran baseball writers to get elected. (New York Times writers do not participate.)
Gary Sheffield, also named in the Mitchell Report, received 13 percent of the vote last year. Manny Ramirez, who got 24 percent, failed a drug test.
Voters received this year’s ballots Monday.
Morgan said the possibility of steroid users getting elected might prompt some veterans to action. “It’s gotten to the point where Hall of Famers are saying that if steroid users get in, they’ll no longer come to Cooperstown for Induction Ceremonies or other events,” he wrote.
Jon Shestakofsky, the Hall of Fame’s vice president for communications, told ESPN that while Morgan was speaking for himself, the Hall was “aware of ” the letter.
Morgan retired in 1984 with 268 home runs and a .392 lifetime on-base average. He had a long career as a broadcaster, where he earned a reputation as an opponent of modern statisticbased baseball analysis.
Baseball writers reacted swiftly to the letter. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports pointed out that many players from Morgan’s era took amphetamines and saw “sanctimony and hypocrisy” in his views.
Others found Morgan’s opinions more reasonable. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network wrote: “is it really an unreasonable position to suggest that someone who cheated shouldn’t be in the hall of fame?”
Joe Posnanski of MLB.com noted that the letter was sent from a Hall of Fame email address and said it probably represented the Hall’s views.
Several writers also pointed out that the letter also came too late, in a way, as it is quite possible some steroid users have already been admitted.