There are a lot of people that are arguing about the induction of guys like Mike Piazza (2016) and the recent selection of Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell. The argument surrounds everyone’s favorite lightning bolt conversation – performance enhancing drugs. Well I say shame on baseball, and more importantly the BBWAA for the hypocritical approach to these players.
Circa 1994 and the baseball strike. This was the eighth stoppage in baseball history and the fourth since the 1972 season. While the game repaired itself in each of the previous instances, the ’94 stoppage destroyed much of the fan base and many decided to never come back.
In 1995 MLB attendance was low, averaging around 8,000 less fans per game than before the strike. Small market team’s were seeing even greater drops in attendance, and put many teams in a dire financial crisis.
The the steroid era began. Baseball was exciting, fun, and who could resist 475 foot home runs which seemed to happen every night.
Come 2000, baseball was back. Teams began to see profits while players like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire assaulted the record books. Players were getting better at older ages. Bonds and Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro. Even the scrawny short stop and second baseman were launching balls out of parks at record pace.
In fact, baseball has experienced 13 consecutive years of record growth (2016 numbers yet to be announced). That growth was set in place by the players the game has tried to hold out of the Hall of Fame.
It is shameful that baseball went on the witch hunt that they did, had public hangings of certain player’s careers, while cashing checks on the backend. The cherry on top was when, via a special session, former commissioner Bud Selig was elected into the Hall.
The man that orchestrated the blind eye to the cheating of the 90’s, then to be the one that kicked the pedastool from underneath Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro, and others.
Selig didn’t act alone. No no no. Baseball owners, managers, coaches, general managers, the whole lot of them contributed. The each took turns nailing the coffin of their dirty little secret while padding their bank accounts.
Oh, and not to mention the media. Sports media turned their heads just the same. Walking in locker rooms they saw the changes in bodies. A small chubby right fielder turns into a Greek Adonis in one offseason, then proceeds to put 60 balls over the fence.
These guys weren’t just coming into their own. This wasn’t a reflection of poor pitching. This wasn’t because joined balls or shorter fences, or increased pitch velocity. This was enhancement on every level of the game, and they watched and turned their heads.
Now they all want credit for writing that one story that called someone out. They all want to be the guy that said they questioned what was in those needles and was told to be quiet. They all want to be on the right side of history, if that means keeping their cash cows out of the very museum they hold the keys to.
Not specific enough? I’m looking at you Pedro Gomez. You and the many others that followed the game’s biggest cheaters (Bonds, Canseco, McGwire) and personally gained. Pedro went from a beat guy in Oakland, to a national baseball job in Arizona, to the damned SportsCenter desk covering baseball for ESPN.
But every year he fills out a ballot and has vowed to never vote for a PED guy. YOU PERSONALLY BENEFITED FROM THEM AND NOW YOU’RE BETTER THAN THEY ARE!?!?
This isn’t a personal attack at Pedro though, and honestly I respect the fact that he defends his ballot publicly on Twitter every year. What this is about is the double crossing these guys have done. Using the players to benefit, and now holding them back while dangling the Hall in their noses.
With a couple of players, who have never been guilty but have certainly had their names drug in the PED mud, earning enshrinment, perhaps baseball is nearing the end of this war. This would benefit us all. The Hall will be able to honestly tell the story of this era. Fans 30 years from now won’t be left with glaring holes in the history of a sport, that is nothing without its history.
I don’t want to reward guys for cheating, but if only one third of the guilty is punished there’s something wrong. Let’s hope this year’s results are a sign of what’s to come.
