The National
Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the 2021 inductees on January 26, 2021. The
new candidates are pitchers Tim Hudson, Marl Buehrle, Dan Haren, Barry Zito, AJ
Burnett, LaTroy Hawkins, infielder Aramis Ramirez, and outfielders Torii Hunter,
Shane Victorino, Nick Swisher and Michael Cuddyer.
Returning
candidates are pitchers Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Billy Wagner and Andy
Pettitte, infielders Omar Visquel, Scott Rolen, Todd Helton and Jeff Kent, and
outfielders Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Andrew Jones, Sammy
Sosa and Bobby Abreu.
Candidates are
elected by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The
voters are supposed to consider the candidate’s “record, ability, integrity,
sportsmanship, character and contribution to the game.”
Ironically,
baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (inducted in the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1944), a segregationist who opposed the integration of
baseball, introduced the character clause. Judge Landis lobbied for Eddie
Grant, a good fielding but light hitting infielder, who played in the Major
Leagues from 1905 to 1915. He played in less than one thousand games and had a
career batting average of .249.
Statistically Mr. Grant does not belong in the Hall of Fame. But Judge Landis wanted to reward Grant because
Grant, after retiring, was one of the first former major leaguers to enlist in
the Army when the United States entered World War I. He was killed in action on October 5, 1918.
Every year,
members of the BBWAA debate whether suspected steroid users should be inducted
into the Hall of Fame.
Starting in 2015, Ken
Rosenthal voted for suspected steroid users when he voted for Bonds and Clemens
believing other suspected steroid users were already elected to the Hall Fame.
In a column in The
Athletic, Mr. Rosenthal pointed out there are other candidates with “character”
flaws who are on the ballot. Bonds, Omar Vizquel and Andrew Jones have faced
allegations of domestic abuse. Clemens
had a “questionable” relationship with the late Mindy McCready, whom he originally
met when he was 28 and a married father of two and she was 15. Curt Schilling has a history of offensive
comments and actions, including the sharing of a meme advocating the lynching
of journalists.” Most recently,
Schilling endorsed the insurrection and overthrow of the 2020 presidential
election. Todd Helton was arrested twice
for drunk driving.
New York Daily
News baseball columnist and J. T. Taylor Spinks Award Winner Bill Madden has
not voted for a Hall of Fame candidate suspected of steroid use.
ESPN baseball
columnist Buster Olney posted on Twitter, “This needs to be said again and
again. The Hall of Fame is a baseball museum. A baseball museum. It’s not a
house of the holy.” (1/3/2021)
Mr. Olney is
correct, there are a few inductees who are gamblers, domestic abusers, drunks,
and racists in the Hall of Fame.
Barry Bonds, Roger
Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire and Rafael
Palmeiro are not Lord Voldemort, names that cannot be mentioned inside the Hall
of Fame. They are part of baseball
history. Their accomplishments are
cited in the Hall of Fame. Denying steroid users induction into the Hall of
Fame is not meant to erase baseball history.
Bonds is the career home run leader with 762. Clemens has 354 career wins and 4672 career
strikeouts. Their only deprivation is immortalization
on a plaque.
The pro
Bonds/Clemens et al voters argue steroids use was not legislated out of
baseball until 2005. Players who used
steroids prior to 2005 should not be denied induction into the Hall Fame.
However, taking
steroids without a doctor’s prescription is illegal, therefore baseball players
who took steroids without a doctor’s prescription committed a federal
crime. The absence of prosecution/conviction
does not absolve the steroid users of sportsmanship and integrity clause of the
Hall of Fame criteria.
The Hall of Fame
is a museum. But would you knowingly
hang a forgery of the Mona Lisa in a museum?
If you elect a steroid user in the Hall of Fame, you are electing a
forgery, not a genuine level of integrity and sportsmanship. Steroid users violated the character clause
as well as the integrity and sportsmanship clause.
The Hall of Fame is
more than a museum that chronicles baseball history. The Hall of Fame rewards
excellence. Individual achievement aided
by steroids is not individual excellence.
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