Do cheaters belong in the hall of fame?
I’m a huge fan of baseball, and I hate cheating, but Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, and Craig Biggio belong in the hall of fame.
Not because I think they are innocent.
First, take a look at the saga of Lance Armstrong before buying that “never failed a drug test” crap. – Hampton Stevens
For all I know, they all used PEDs. I’m sure about it in some cases.
Not because “everyone does it.”
“Curt Schilling made a good point. Everyone was guilty. Either you used PEDs, or you did nothing to stop their use,” Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt said in an email to The Associated Press. – Ronald Blum, Associated Press
Ubiquitous use doesn’t make it okay.
Not because it’s inevitable.
(And now for the really bad news: All the voters did was kick the can down the road again. Bonds and Clemens have 14 more years on the ballot. Sigh.) – Lynn Zinser, New York Times
There is one little problem with the heroic stand taken by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to keep the Hall of Fame steroid-free.
It came too late. You can be virtually certain that there already are Hall of Famers who used performance-enhancing drugs. You can be even more positive that PED users will be enshrined in the future. -Phil Sheridan, Inquirer
I just think cheaters belong in the hall of fame. The hall of fame already enshrines womanizers, dirty players, wife-beaters, racists, criminals, and all manner of scum – even guys who bet on baseball!!! As a matter of fact, there are already cheaters in the hall of fame, and there will be again.
Jason Stark at ESPN.com describes best what I think about the wholes mess.
The votes are in. The earth is still rumbling. Now let’s try to digest the magnitude of what just happened here:
A man who hit 762 home runs wasn’t elected to the Hall of Fame.
A pitcher who won seven Cy Young Awards wasn’t elected to the Hall of Fame.
A man who hit 609 home runs only got 12.5 percent of the vote.
A catcher who made 12 All-Star teams missed election by 98 votes.
Even a guy who got 3,060 hits found out Wednesday he didn’t do enough to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
It boggles the mind. Doesn’t it? We were just presented the most star-studded Hall of Fame ballot in maybe 75 years. And NOBODY got elected?
It’s enough to make you wonder: What kind of Hall of Fame are we building here?
I’m not sure Stark falls on the same side of the issue I do, but his observations are spot on. Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, who has been saying the same thing for weeks, asks the right question – “Where does the Baseball Hall of Fame go from here?”
Where, indeed?
NOTES:
- I’m not necessarily against the stand the writers took with this year’s ballot. Something needs to be done about the cheating. I’m just making the point that these guys belong in the hall of fame. I am not sure when. I’m not sure how they get in, and I’m certainly not a fan of throwing them a big party to celebrate their induction. That’s a separate issue.
- While we are on the subject, Pete Rose belongs in the hall of fame too!