The On
by Sean Thornton
In just two days we will find out who will be part of the
2013 class of inductees to the baseball Hall of Fame. Normally, I would go over
who I think should be inducted, and why I would leave anyone off. But voting
for this prestige honor is no longer about what happens on the field. What
should be an easy task has become a pain to a lot of the voters of the BBWAA. No,
what was once a fun honor for many a writer has now become an arduous task of
deciding how to look at the “Steroid Era”. It shouldn’t be this difficult to
decide who was and wasn’t the best of the best throughout the history of the
game. Unfortunately, the rules in the voting for Cooperstown leave a lot of
leeway when it comes to personal judgment, which has never been much of an
issue before this recent era of the game. Well, besides the voters who think no
one should get in unanimously. That is just ridiculous. Let’s call a spade a
spade; steroids were allowed in the late 90’s-early 2000’s. The hierarchy of
baseball turned a blind eye to what was going on. They knew t
hat
players were getting bigger, homerun numbers were larger, and most pitchers
looked like they were throwing batting practice. The game had suffered from the
strike of 1994, and needed a literal shot in the arm to elevate them back to
where they had once proudly stood in the fan’s eyes. Mark McGwire and Sammy
Sosa’s chase of Roger Maris’ single season homerun record did just that in
1998, bringing the fans back to the ballpark. Baseball management saw the
bigger dollar signs and rode that cash cow as far as they could. So no testing
was done for PED use back then. In fact, nothing really was put into place
until congress stepped in, telling baseball if they didn’t police the game,
they would. After all that, baseball now wants to act disgusted that players
took illegal substances. Some writers have even decided to become judge, jury
and executioner. Apparently you don’t even to have a link to PED use. If you
look the part, that is good enough for some writers. There are also writers who
don’t even cover baseball anymore receiving ballots in the mail, while others
have flat out said they didn’t vote this year because of the mess it has
become. No matter where you stand on this topic, the real issue is that the
Hall of Fame has not adjusted the rules to voting. What needs to be done is to
decide how they feel about the subject, and let the writers vote accordingly.
We are already at a point where the writers’ limit of ten votes is sometimes
not enough. If someone doesn’t step up and take the reigns soon, voting will
become even more of a numbers crunch than it is now. You can’t just ignore that
era and act like it didn’t happen, especially when you don’t know who did what.
Both Pete Rose and the 1919 Black Sox are acknowledged in Cooperstown. If they
are, there is no reason the “Steroid Era” isn’t recognized as well. I’m Sean
Thornton in the On Deck Circle.
Sean Thornton is 14
KVOE’s evening on-air personality
and host of Saturday’s Morning
Show. Sean also compiles the KVOE Auto Race Update.
Listen to “The On Deck Circle” at
10:06 am on the Monday Morning Quarterback on 14 KVOE. Also catch Sean’s
baseball musings on mudshvlst.wordpress.com.
Reach Sean at thorntons@kvoe.com.