Mixed reaction to Morgan’s letter
Former pitcher Tom Glavine said Thursday that he heard from fellow Hall of Famers that “a lot of guys” support Joe Morgan’s Cooperstown crusade to exclude players linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
“They feel very strongly about it,” Glavine said. “I don’t know that I can sit here and tell you that I’m one of those guys. I’m kind of indifferent to it, and I think in large part it’s because it was such a big part of my era of baseball that when I played, you knew guys were doing stuff.”
Morgan, the Hall of Fame’s vice chairman and a board member, wrote a letter to voters that was emailed by the museum in November, encouraging them not to vote for steroid-linked players and suggesting Hall of Famers would shun induction ceremonies “if steroid users get in.”
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who haven’t been elected because of substantial evidence they used PEDs, are on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for a sixth year.
Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry, who retired in 1983, said he would continue attending the ceremonies: “I just wish all of them the best. If they get in there, I’ll be right beside them.”
On the other hand, Perry, who pitched his first 10 years for the Giants and admitted he threw a spitball, said of the Morgan letter, “I kind of agree with Joe because of how important the Hall of Fame is. It’s very, very special.”
Glavine, Perry and another Hall of Famer, Ivan Rodriguez, appeared on a conference call to promote next week’s Diamond Resorts Invitational celebrity golf tournament in Orlando.
“I don’t want to say this like I don’t care, but I think it probably desensitized me because it was such a part of my era,” Glavine said. “So I think that’s why I’m kind of indifferent to it, whereas the older generation is a little bit more adamant about how they feel about it.
“Again, I think it’s because it was a part of our era. It wasn’t a part of their era, so maybe we look at it differently. I just don’t have a strong feeling one way or the other, but I understand that guys do.”
On Bonds and Clemens, Glavine said, “If it happens that those two guys get in, in particular, then that’s a bridge we’ll have to cross, and we’ll have to figure out how guys react to it.”
In a story published in Sunday’s Chronicle, Giants Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey took exception to the Morgan letter and said it was aimed at Bonds, adding, “It’s a sin he’s not in there. If anybody deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, it’s Barry.”
McCovey contacted Morgan, his friend and a Hall of Fame second baseman, to contest what’s in the letter.
Others on the ballot linked to PEDs include Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa and Gary Sheffield.
“Playing against Joe Morgan, I know how he loved the game of baseball,” Perry said, “and he’s in the position that he has to keep it No. 1, and that’s what we want him to do. The Hall of Fame is so important. I don’t want to take it away from anybody.”
Rodriguez, who entered the Hall amid suspicions of PED use, didn’t seem to offer a take either way.
“For me, I’m the rookie, I just got in,” he said. “All of the decisions we make in the Hall of Fame are good and well-respected decisions for all of us and all the guys coming into the Hall of Fame . ...
“What Joe said, he has been there for a long time, and he respects the game very much.”