Next weekend in Cooperstown, Hall of Famers and baseball fans will gather to honor Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice, the two newest members.
There will be talk of Henderson’s speed and Rice’s long wait for induction, and inevitably there will be talk of steroids. It has become as much a part of Hall of Fame inductions as long speeches and Pete Rose signing autographs down the street.
And it’s not going away any time soon. It’s about to get much, much worse. Mark McGwire is the only current steroid pariah on the ballot, but Rafael Palmeiro will be on the ballot in 2011.
Then the mother of all steroid classes arrives in 2013 with Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa all on the ballot for the first time (as long as each stays retired). Steroids has become a troubling issue for the Hall of Fame voters — members of the Baseball Writers Association of America for at least 10 years — wrought with dilemmas of morality, fair play and legality.
The Post took a poll of 30 eligible Hall voters to see where they stood on Clemens, Bonds and Sosa with the understanding that the voters still had four years to change their minds.
The early numbers don’t look good for the trio. A player needs to receive 75 percent of the votes to be elected. In our informal poll, Clemens and Bonds both received 10 votes (33 percent) and Sosa got five (17 percent). There were eight undecided votes on Clemens and Sosa and seven for Bonds. Even if all those undecided votes became yes votes, the three still would fall short.
Some voters said they would elect the players because there’s no way to know every player who cheated in this era.
“Our information is too incomplete,” said ESPN’s Jayson Stark. “We can’t possibly keep every player out of the Hall who used PEDs because we have no idea who did and who didn’t. We talk about the same 15 or 20 names all the time in this discussion. Yet don’t we believe hundreds of players were using or trying some thing or other? I do. So how do we know who did and didn’t? How do we feel good about even voting for the ‘clean’ players? I have no idea.”
Voters are instructed to consider six elements when they get their ballot. Two of those are character and integrity. For many voters, that means ruling out anyone linked to steroids.
“I will not vote for those three,” said Hal McCoy, who covers the Reds for the Dayton Daily News. “They are HGH users and to me they are cheaters and don’t belong in the Hall of Fame. Ken Griffey Jr. has competed against these guys and held his own doing it the right way on an uneven playing field.”
At the All-Star Game last week, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander introduced a proposal to the BBWAA to form a committee to deal with the steroid issue and voting. The measure was voted down 30-25.
“There has never been a mitigating circumstance like performance enhancing drugs,” Telander said. “Amphetamines may give you energy; they don’t give you two inches on your biceps, 200 pounds on your bench press. With many former steroid users playing now — 102 unnamed from 2003 tests, the era still open-ended — we voters will be voting for Steroid Era players for up to 20 more years. When Bonds, Clemens, [Alex] Rodriguez, [Manny] Ramirez, and many others come up, what do we do? Punish all? None? Only those for whom steroids seemed to work?”
The current poster boy for this debate is McGwire. He has been on the ballot for three years with his percentage dropping from 23.5 in 2007 to 21.9 in 2009. McGwire received five votes (17 percent) in our poll and many voters indicated they would not vote for him because he was one-dimensional, not because of suspected steroid use.
McGwire supporters point out he’s never been caught in an investigation such as BALCO or the Mitchell Report. The most damning evidence against him was his poor performance before Congress in 2005 when he clammed up.
“The reason I have continued to vote for McGwire is a feeling that steroid use was so widespread that it has become next to impossible to determine who was using and who wasn’t,” said Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. “In the case of anyone who has failed a steroid test, there is no more question. To me, it is much, much easier to eliminate someone who has failed a test than someone who is just suspected of using.”
Mike Piazza also will be on the ballot in 2013 and he is an interesting comparison for Bonds, Clemens and Sosa. There has been speculation Piazza used steroids but never any evidence to back it up.
“I find it absurd that so many writers who say they won’t vote for Bonds or Clemens, have no problem voting for Piazza and others,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale said. “Piazza says he never used steroids. Clemens says he never used steroids. Bonds says he never used steroids. Palmeiro says he never used steroids (but got a bad B-12 shot). Do some guys get a free pass just because they were nice to the media?”
One argument in support of Bonds and Clemens is they were Hall of Fame players before they were accused of using performance enhancers. Bonds won three MVPs and Clemens had four CY Young awards before they were alleged to juice.
“For me, that argument doesn’t mow the lawn,” said Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jim Salisbury. “It’s like a golfer playing a great round and cheating on the 17th hole. You still get DQed.”
Ray Ratto, a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle, said he believes too much is made of the steroid issue when compared with other problems in baseball’s past.
“The Hall of Fame isn’t church, but a building that houses the history of baseball,” Ratto said, “including segregationists who gave us and staunchly preserved the color line for 70 years. Since I regard the color line as having done worse damage to the game, the Hall of Fame has clearly set a base line for inclusion that allows for PED use. If you want to make some sort of drug notation on the users’ plaques, all the better.”