The illustrious gates of baseball’s sacred shrine are about to be stormed by the game’s demons.
Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens headline next year’s potential Hall of Fame inductees. These men also have been the big names of the steroid era in baseball and its blackened legacy.
The question of what to do with the poster children of cheating has to be answered by 25 to 40 baseball writers. They can no longer bury the steroid issue, for it has now resurfaced in front of the game’s holy shrine.
Whether baseball’s electoral college likes it or not, the Hall of Fame class of 2013 will set a precedent for what to do with players from the steroid era.
There are realistically three roads that the Baseball Writers Association of America can take. Yet none of these options will satisfy everybody.
The first road would be to bar everyone from the hall who is guilty in the court of public opinion. This way, Bonds, Sosa, and Clemens all get turned away and the cheaters stay out.
However, denying everyone who is suspicious is the most dangerous precedent to set. If the BWAA can deny suspected steroid users, this could lead to the indirect punishment of clean athletes. For example, Jim Thome and his 611 home runs could be left out of Cooperstown because some writers could think ‘there is no way he hit 600 homers without the juice.’ Even though Thome was not listed in the Mitchell Report, Jose Canseco's book, or the 2003 leaked list.
The second option would be to let everyone in and count potentially tainted numbers in the record books. This way, Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Garry Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez and others all go toCooperstown based on their career numbers. Yet, the asterisk will forever be linked to the substances these players abused to achieve statistical immortality.
Still, letting everyone in does not solve the problem either. Writers like Bill Plaschke, and Woody Paige have denounced steroid users and the idea of letting them set foot within 16 blocks of Cooperstown . Besides, the concept of rewarding cheaters in baseball is enough to send the already rabid internet culture into frenzy.
The consequences of the third road are the least fruitful, yet the fairest. Baseball’s journalists could let people in based on the burden of proof. However, if that is their determining method, Andy Pettitte gets punished for being honest. Meanwhile, Sosa gets enshrined for forgetting how to speak English in front of Congress.
No matter what the BWAA elects to do their yay or nay vote will be scrutinized. However, they have to vote and determine the precedent for when the rest of the steroid era.
One thing is for sure, the job of Hall of Fame voter will be one of the least desirable positions this time next year.
