At 1pm central time today, the BBWAA made their annual Hall Of Fame announcement, typically the moment that launches a superstar player into the realm of immortality. The announcement begins a long press tour for the inductee(s) as they tour the country, meet with media and are graced with highlight reels reminding America just how good this player was. The entire event builds to induction day, right smack in the middle of summer – baseball’s prime time – and ends with another player or players being forever enshrined amongst the game’s best.
The only problem? The writers didn’t vote anyone in this year.
2013’s ballot was a controversial one for sure, as it marked the first appearance of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, the two most high profile and highly volatile players of the "Steroid Era". It’s not even an argument that Bonds and Clemens were not the best players of their generations. The argument on their Hall of Fame worthiness came to the issue of steroids and how to punish those with connections to baseball’s tainted era.
Some writers felt that Clemens and Bonds were Hall of Fame players regardless of any performance enhancing drugs they may or may not have used. Others argued that if these players were already Hall of Fame worthy or all time greats – why did they feel the need to cheat the system?
Both sides have valid points, and I can understand why a divided group of writers would struggle to elect players of Bonds, Clemens, Sosa or even McGuire’s ilk.
My 2 cents on this is simple: The Hall of Fame is a museum for baseball. It is supposed to tell baseball’s story, from beginning to end, good to bad. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens – heck, even Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire made largely positive impacts on the game. Bonds and Clemens were all time great players – once in a generation guys. Leaving them out of the Hall as some form of righteous "punishment" for perceived misdeeds does a disservice to baseball and the fans of the game. It’s not up to the BBWAA to impose their own morality code upon the game’s greatest players. Instead, let the fan decide how to view these players.
Put Bonds and Clemens in the Hall (Sosa wasn’t good enough for long enough to warrant entry nor was McGuire anything more than a one dimensional player – so I feel neither of them should be enshrined, PED use or not) but put all of the information we have on the walls around them. A simple plaque reading:
"In the 1990’s Baseball had not yet established a testing policy for performance enhancing drugs or other competitive aides. Players during this era may have seen their numbers aided by the use of substances that are today deemed illegal."
Put information from "Game Of Shadows" next to Bond’s displays – put the Federal trial against Clemens next to his display. Display all of the question marks surrounding these great players, but don’t keep out an all time great simply because you think some non-existent morality clause that the Hall of Fame holds has been broken.
There are all time greats currently enshrined in the Hall who have been revealed to be racist, drug abusers, violent or otherwise unsavory. That’s human nature – talented people make poor decisions too. This isn’t the Hall of the well behaved. This is baseball’s Hall of Fame – a place to enshrine the best PLAYERS – not the best citizens.
Bonds / Clemens debate aside, the BBWAA committed a bigger travesty than leaving out those two controversial players.
By not electing ANYONE they essentially cast a vote for "guilty by association".
Players from the 1990’s whose resumes warrant entry to the Hall of Fame, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza – were (erroneously) left out in the cold. Piazza’s name was thrown into the "he MIGHT have used" discussion over the past few months, which is irritating. Without concrete evidence or even any real accusations, it’s simply unfair to hold out a great player because of assumed notions.
Jeff Bagwell has famously voiced his pro-steroid user views (essentially saying all the wrong things regarding steroids – according to baseball writers) and is a bulky guy, thereby placing him in the "Well, he probably used but we can’t prove it category" Again, without anything to connect Bagwell to PED use, holding him out on a hunch is asinine.
Craig Biggio was a great all around player with Hall of Fame numbers and nothing in the way of PEDs being tied to his name. His omission from the Hall is simply ridiculous.
It’s entirely possible that enough writers within the BBWAA hold on to the archaic notion of "First Ballot Hall of Famers". In their minds, some players deserve to go into the Hall on their first try (IE – first ballot) while others, despite being Hall of Fame caliber – aren’t quite "Hall of Fame caliber enough" to be a first ballot guy.
Bullshit.
What changes between year 1 of eligibility and year 2? Do a guy’s numbers suddenly improve? Did statisticians find another 50 home runs that were somehow not allocated to said player? No – of course they didn’t. A player’s resume doesn’t change from year 1 to year 2. If you feel said player was good enough to be in the Hall in year 5 then they sure as hell were good enough in year 1.
(Some may question why guys are given multiple tries on the ballot – wouldn’t the simple fix be a one and done policy? IE this is your eligibility year, if you’re not elected, you don’t make it? In a word – no. The BBWAA are restricted to 10 names on a ballot, so in years where an abundance of quality players hit the ballot, it’s entirely feasible that someone will be the 11th guy on a 10 man ballot. The easy fix would be to remove the 10 name restriction – but that is as likely to happen as a complete over hall to the voting system.)
In the end, the BBWAA decided that steroid users, or assumed steroid users, are not worthy of enshrinement. I can understand their reasoning, and while I don’t necessarily agree with their thinking, I can respect their opinion.
The travesty is that in all of their bellowing and argument regarding steroid users, players who have never been firmly linked to cheating where left out in the cold. This summer, there won’t be any grand inductions or celebrations of great players – just a sorry reminder that the greatest sport’s museum is in a period of turmoil.
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