Navigating Hall for the PED era
It is the most often-asked question among baseball writers these days with just two weeks remaining before the deadline.
“Hey, how you planning to handle the steroid guys this year on your ballot?”
It’s the most controversial, provocative and perhaps even scandalous ballot in Hall of Fame voting history.
There are 30 players on the ballot, with nearly a third of them publicly linked to steroid use.
You know the names: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettitte plus newcomers Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz.
Do you vote for all of them?
Do you vote for none of them?
How do you separate them?
To me, it’s rather easy because of my definitive line of demarcation.
If you were punished or suspended when Major League Baseball implemented its drug policy after the 2004 season, you’re automatically out. You not only embarrassed yourself, but you hurt your team with your absence.
If you were never punished or suspended, you are judged on your own merits like everyone else.
I won’t reveal my entire ballot until close to the Jan. 25 election, but here’s how I’ll be voting on the performance-enhancing drug class.
YES: Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Sheffield and Ortiz.
NO: Rodriguez, Ramirez and Pettitte. Rodriguez, one of the greatest players in history, also received the largest drug suspension in baseball, missing the entire 2014 season. Ramirez, one of the finest right-handed hitters of his era, was suspended three times. Pettitte is a different case. He admitted to using humangrowth hormone, but was never punished. He falls short simply for his Hall of Fame credentials regardless of being outed in George Mitchell’s investigation on PED use.
Simply, there were rules in place that Rodriguez and Ramirez intentionally violated. They were caught, and, in turn, their teams suffered the consequences. The Yankees, for the first time in 20 years, missed the playoffs in back-toback years without Rodriguez. Ramirez, who had signed a two-year, $45 million contract with the Dodgers, was never the same after being popped in 2009.
Bonds and Clemens, along with Sosa, Sheffield and Ortiz, in contrast, greatly enhanced their teams. Bonds, a record seven-time MVP and all-time home run leader, is one of the greatest five players who ever lived. He resuscitated the Giants, kept them in San Francisco with a new ballpark and helped them become one of baseball’s marquee franchises. Clemens, who won 354 games and seven Cy Young awards, helped lead his teams to 12 postseason berths and six World Series.
Sosa, the 1998 NL MVP with six other top-10 finishes, hit 609 home runs and kept the Wrigley Field stands filled. Sheffield was perhaps the most feared hitter outside of Bonds in all of baseball, hitting 509 homers with a .907 OPS without striking out more than 83 times in a
season. Ortiz hit 541 home runs, led the Boston Red Sox to three World Series championships while becoming perhaps the greatest DH in history.
Did any executive, manager, coach or teammate approach any of these players to ask if they used steroids, and if they did, to please stop?
Please.
While covering baseball throughout the steroid era, the only time a GM or manager became angry that one of their players used steroids is if they were caught. If anything, they were offended if they didn’t have enough players using PEDs. And GMs were absolutely infuriated if they signed or traded for a player and he suddenly stopped using PEDs.
It was the worst-kept secret in baseball. Virtually everyone knew what was going on. And nobody in the world cared.
Now, after encouraging these players to use performance-enhancing drugs, rewarding these players, and lionizing them, we’re suddenly supposed to act incensed and keep them from attaining baseball’s greatest honor?
Please, stop.
The argument is just as silly for those who justify voting for Bonds and Clemens saying they were Hall of Famers before they were suspected of PED use. What does that matter? If you spent your adult life without getting a speeding ticket, and suddenly get caught going 125-mph, do you get a free pass?
If you don’t want to vote for any player with any links or suspicions at all of steroid use, that’s fine. But don’t try to determine when they started or stopped using.
We have elected at least a half-dozen steroid users into the Hall of Fame since 2015 pretending they were clean, but the two greatest players of the steroid era, are being kept out.
If Bonds doesn’t break Hank Aaron’s home run record, or Clemens isn’t winning Cy Young awards at the age of 42, are they already in the Hall of Fame? Are they being punished because they were too damn good?
This is the 10th and final year of Bonds’ and Clemens’ eligibility on the BBWAA ballot. If they don’t get in, it would be the ultimate in hypocrisy to ever vote for A-Rod, no matter how much the ESPN and FOX-TV analyst has changed his image.
If Bonds and Clemens don’t get in, don’t you have to at least pause before voting for Ortiz?
If they don’t get in, it all but ends the candidacies of Sheffield and Sosa. And down the road, don’t even think about Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz or any other player who is ever caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
This is the final chance to make sure that Bonds and Clemens are remembered in baseball history. You don’t have to celebrate their arrival. You can request that an asterisk or a notation be put on their plaque telling Hall of Fame visitors why they nearly were kept out.
But if Bonds and Clemens don’t make it, let’s see how many Hall of Famers with steroid ties would submit to a lie detector test in court?
Simply, Bonds and Clemens were the greatest players of their era, which just happens to be the steroid era.
And if we’re going to elect other players who blatantly used steroids into the Hall of Fame, what sense does it make keeping these two legends out?
Let’s end the hypocrisy.