The baseball Hall of Fame vote will continue to be unpredictable over the next several seasons. With the refusal to select a single player on this past year's ballot, it seems to have started a trend that could continue for a long time. First time eligible players Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas could pay the same price for playing in the time they did. It begs to question, where is the line drawn? Craig Biggio fell short last year, as did Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell. All three are Hall of Famers, in my opinion. Is it fair to assume that Biggio, Piazza and Bagwell did steroids, while Maddux, Glavine and Thomas did not? How do any of us know? For those who want the Hall of Fame to be so clean, how does it feel knowing that there is at least one Hall of Fame player (as many as three) that used steroids throughout his career? I think the whole witch hunt is a joke and it is time to move on from what happened.
With the drug testing in MLB right now, we are in a better position to determine which players are using and which are not. Obviously, those who fail tests are users, but now with the Biogenesis anti aging clinic closing down and being raided, players who had never failed a drug test have been caught purchasing performance enhancing drugs. It is likely other such clinics exist throughout the country, and other players will be implicated in a similar fashion. But, unless players from the 1990s and early 2000s want to start ratting each other out, there will be no evidence to prove which players were using and which were not. And while many think it is justice for a player who did not use PEDs to be kept out of the Hall because of the era he played, how do you feel if I told you there are more than three HOFers who used PEDs. How about the fact that all players used "greenies" or amphetamines, which is a form of speed. It was ok to use speed, but lets get up in arms over steroids. Enough to say we can tell by the naked eye who used and who did not.
I'd like to see the PEDs gradually taken out of the game myself, but I understand it will not happen so easily. I have stated all along that the amount of money these players make allow them to use the best doctors, who develop the best chemicals. Many players who are on PEDs simply have to take the correct doses and will pass any test. People are too naive when they think the process of eliminating these drugs will be so simple. How about the player who has played so long and never got caught? How does he get a free pass while the player who looks like he did may not have at all? There is no way to tell who did and who did not do steroids.
So, we have the drug tests, Biogenesis and the players asked to testify by Congress. We also have Jose Canseco, who inspite of becoming a low life on twitter was correct in almost all players he called out for using. The bottom line is that many players either have used or do use and just have not gotten caught yet. There are also some players who we assume are using because they hit more home runs now, but are clean. There is no way we will ever know. I will say this, there will be more clean players held out of Baseball's Hall of Fame because of suspicion than dirty players allowed in. However, I think that will change over the next 20-30 years. I will start a series of articles of potential Hall of Fame players with Jim Thome and make the best case I can for each player I profile.
With the drug testing in MLB right now, we are in a better position to determine which players are using and which are not. Obviously, those who fail tests are users, but now with the Biogenesis anti aging clinic closing down and being raided, players who had never failed a drug test have been caught purchasing performance enhancing drugs. It is likely other such clinics exist throughout the country, and other players will be implicated in a similar fashion. But, unless players from the 1990s and early 2000s want to start ratting each other out, there will be no evidence to prove which players were using and which were not. And while many think it is justice for a player who did not use PEDs to be kept out of the Hall because of the era he played, how do you feel if I told you there are more than three HOFers who used PEDs. How about the fact that all players used "greenies" or amphetamines, which is a form of speed. It was ok to use speed, but lets get up in arms over steroids. Enough to say we can tell by the naked eye who used and who did not.
I'd like to see the PEDs gradually taken out of the game myself, but I understand it will not happen so easily. I have stated all along that the amount of money these players make allow them to use the best doctors, who develop the best chemicals. Many players who are on PEDs simply have to take the correct doses and will pass any test. People are too naive when they think the process of eliminating these drugs will be so simple. How about the player who has played so long and never got caught? How does he get a free pass while the player who looks like he did may not have at all? There is no way to tell who did and who did not do steroids.
So, we have the drug tests, Biogenesis and the players asked to testify by Congress. We also have Jose Canseco, who inspite of becoming a low life on twitter was correct in almost all players he called out for using. The bottom line is that many players either have used or do use and just have not gotten caught yet. There are also some players who we assume are using because they hit more home runs now, but are clean. There is no way we will ever know. I will say this, there will be more clean players held out of Baseball's Hall of Fame because of suspicion than dirty players allowed in. However, I think that will change over the next 20-30 years. I will start a series of articles of potential Hall of Fame players with Jim Thome and make the best case I can for each player I profile.
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