The Case Against Steroid Users in the Hall of Fame

 

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.