Sports pet peeves.
It could be the overtime rules in college or the NFL (Josh Allen’s #1 gripe at the moment). It could be the constant use of replay, the wave, “America’s Team”, etc. For me, it’s Major League Baseball and the Baseball Hall of Fame’s annual attempt to to completely whitewash the most controversial and most profitable time of the sport: The Steroid Era. `
It happens every year. Guys who should be in the Hall of Fame barely sniff the 75-percent threshold needed to make it to Cooperstown. This year’s lone addition, David Ortiz, raises even more questions to the process. David Ortiz’s addition to the Baseball Hall of Fame is great, don’t get me wrong. But the fact that he was deemed worthy of the Hall of Fame while guys like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and others are not, despite better statistics, is mind-numbing at this point. To label Bonds and Clemens and others as “steroid guys” despite never testing positive or ever being suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs, is absurd. A Scarlet Letter that they bear but somehow didn’t affect Ortiz, who was one of over 100 players to reportedly test positive for PEDs in 2003 when MLB began testing players for them.
So why does Ortiz get a pass and become a first-ballot Hall of Famer but guys like Bonds and Clemens went 10 years without receiving enough votes? It’s a question that even boggles the mind of Big Papi himself.
Asked David Ortiz if he believes Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens belong in the Hall of Fame: “Not having them join me is hard for me to believe, to be honest with you.” He added, “These guys, I did not even compare myself with them.”
— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) January 26, 2022
Is it because Ortiz was a good guy to the media and Bonds and Clemens were notoriously a bit red-assed? If that’s the case then the whole process needs to be blown up. What other reason could there be though? It isn’t a statistical issue because Bonds and Clemens have more success in those categories than Ortiz. Is it because some members of the Baseball Writers Association of America refuse to vote any suspected steroid users into the Hall? That seems to check out as well. But it’s time to stop pretending that era didn’t happened and acting like there is any way of deciphering who was guilty and who was innocent.
Voters cannot have it both ways. You can’t say one guy gets in despite having a PED positive test because he was a good guy while guys who have suspicions of PED use are cast out forever despite their statistical accomplishments. You could argue you could build a better team of players not in the Hall of Fame than guys in the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Curt Schilling, etc. the list goes on an on. Baseball, like all sports, have good guys and bad guys. Yet baseball is the only one that seems to be determined to not allow the full story to be told. As it stands when you go to the Baseball Hall of Fame you will not see the all-time hits leader (Rose), the all-time home run hitter (Bonds) or the pitcher who won the most Cy Young Awards (Clemens). Is it really a Hall of Fame if guys that are the top of some of baseball’s most important categories aren’t allowed in?
The talk of an asterisk on the plaques or some mention of suspected performance-enhancing drug use has been mentioned in the past but fallen on deaf ears. But something needs to change. Major League Baseball benefited greatly from The Steroid Era whether they want to admit it or not. Popularity and attendance was waning after the 1994 strike and guys like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated the nation in their home run battle in the summer of 1998. Fans came back, interest in the sport rose and TV ratings spiked and revenue went way up. All of that happened.
A lot of the alleged PED users during that era are also just that, alleged. While steroids were on the sport’s banned substances list in 1991 they didn’t begin testing for them until 2003. Yet we’ve been conditioned to discount the achievements of some in that era while other have been deemed clean of any wrongdoing. The fact is there is no way we know who was and wasn’t using steroids. Could we assume? Of course. Barry Bonds in San Francisco looks like he ate Barry Bonds from Pittsburgh. Roger Clemens posted a 4.35 ERA at the age of 39 in 2002 and did a 180 and posted a career-best 1.87 ERA in 2005 at the age of 42. Even if they did use performance-enhancing drugs they were still Hall of Famers before them and in an era littered with steroid users they were the best of the lot. To not recognize them and continue to act like their careers didn’t happen calls into questions the merits of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In my opinion, let them all in. Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson. Put an asterisk or whatever you deem suitable but give these guys their due and tell the entire story of baseball. It’s not all blue skies and sunshine and baseball needs to embrace the one thing they claim to be all about: their history. Even the ugly parts.
