Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire will forever be linked by the 1998 homerun chase that brought Major League Baseball back after the 1994 strike and resulted in Big Mac breaking Roger Maris' single season homerun record. Now, the two former sluggers are also going to be linked by another common bond - guys who aren't getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame any time soon. For only the eighth time ever, the the Baseball Writers Association of America didn't vote anyone in to the Hall of Fame this past Wednesday, leaving guys who once looked like shoe-ins - Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sosa included - on the outside looking in. Like many current Hall of Famers, including Goose Gossage, I applaud the decision - these guys cheated, and they should never be rewarded for breaking their sport's rules.
I do think there is an interesting Hall of Fame debate brewing that doesn't feature names like Bonds, Clemens or McGwire, though. There are a number of steroids-era players with excellent career numbers that will be fringe Hall of Famers in the coming years - some of whom have never (or at least rarely) been even accused of using PEDs. From Craig Biggio to Fred McGriff to Edgar Martinez, there are a number of supposedly-clean guys that I grew up watching with credentials that are borderline worthy of the Hall of Fame. Will we get to listen to a Biggio or a McGriff make a Cooperstown induction speech some time down the road? This is where an interesting debate is beginning to crop up.
On one hand, if the Hall of Fame is supposed to be reserved for the best players of a given era, then someone like the Crime Dog probably comes up short. As impressive as his career totals are, and as badly as I want to argue otherwise because I loved him when he played for Atlanta from 1993-1997, I wouldn't say that McGriff was ever really among baseball's best. On the other hand, the guys who were the best during McGriff's prime were being powered by bovine hormones - it's not really fair that the Crime Dog played first base at the same time at McGwire, Rafael Palmiero and Jeff Bagwell. So what are the Hall of Fame voters to do? Even if we agree that the steroid users shouldn't get in, does that necessarily mean that we should reclassify McGriff as the best first baseman of the 1990s?
The other issue with McGriff's candidacy is even more unfortunate. Even though no one has ever really accused McGriff of any wrongdoing, just the fact that he played at the same time as McGwire, Sosa and Clemens casts a huge shadow of a doubt over the legitimacy of his career. The same can be said for Griffey Jr. and even Derek Jeter - we'll just never really know who was clean and who wasn't, and baseball's steroids era was so significant that most players are treated as guilty until proven innocent. I know the Hall of Fame would absolutely hate to induct a guy like McGriff only later to discover than he was using PEDs during his career. As a result, will the BBWAA play it safe and leave all 1990s-era power hitters off of their ballots?
The last time the BBWAA didn't elect anyone (1996), the top three vote-getters were elected within a few years (Phil Niekro in 1997, Don Sutton in 1998 and Tony Perez in 2000) - clearly there's still hope for this year's top vote-getters Biggio, Jack Morris, Bagwell and Mike Piazza. As the accused in this group continue to fade away, though, will spots open for guys like McGriff and Martinez, currently further down on the 2013 list with less than 40% of the vote? Or will the votes for any steroids-era player continue to drop until we're all forced to pretend like the 1990s and early 2000s never happened? Let the debate continue in the comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment