The much hyped Mitchell Report was released yesterday and everyone has had some time to chew on it. My first thought was that Roger Clemens was a pretty, pretty, pretty big name. However, to give credit where it is due, Sean has been saying Roger’s name for some time. Kudos to Sean. The first question has to be about the Hall of Fame. This is where I think it will get heated in the years to come since most of the big names on the list have not retired (they won’t be eligible until 5 years after they retire).
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte (possibly) and Mark McGuire were all names that at one point were a lock as first ballot Hall of Famers. Mark McGuire then had his infamous Congressional hearing where he mysteriously forgot anything and everything that led up to him smashing the single season homerun record. He said to the panel,
“I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject.”
His name will forever be linked to steroids and he is currently paying the price. When his name came up for voting in 2006 he only received 23.5% of the vote (just missed the 75% threshold to be inducted into the Hall).
Mark’s future is pretty secure…he will not be in the Hall of Fame anytime soon. However, how about the other guys? The guys that were named on this list or are linked to steroids. Should everyone be “mcguired” (oh yeah…I just made up that verb; its catchy)? Should voters overlook the steroid use since it was so predominant? Should we elect anyone from this era? I have an opinion (believe it or not) but I could be swayed to think something different.
I think there should be punishment for these players. I know that steroids were not banned in baseball until 2002 but they were illegal (anabolic steroids) in America for sometime. That these players may have broke the law to gain an unfair advantage is a disgrace. A disgrace to the game, a disgrace to the fans and a disgrace to the kids that look up to these players. If baseball were to enshrine them into the Hall of Fame for being frauds then the Hall of Fame looses credibility and its looses the prestige that it once had.
People will make the argument that steroids can’t help you hit a baseball. B1 always says, “Hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is the hardest thing to do in sports.” I agree and it takes a crap load of athleticism to accomplish this. However steroids will enable you to hit 73 homers in a single season when before that you had never hit 50 (Barry Bonds). I heard someone yesterday say that steroids cant help you locate a pitch but it will help you pitch 100 mph when you are collecting Social Security (Roger Clemens). It is possible that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were Hall of Fame players before the steroids but we will never know. We won’t know what their numbers would have been because they did not give us the opportunity to know. They robbed us of that opportunity.
If Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe will never be in the Hall of Fame then Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and anyone else who took steroids should not even be sold a ticket. The Hall of Fame is for players like Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn and Sid Bream (ok…maybe not Sid, but he is awesome).
Hopefully this will start to close an ugly chapter in baseball. I think Bug Selig needs to step down since this happened on his watch and pretty sure that this would not have been as pervasive if the union was not as powerful as it is. Maybe we can get some changes now.
