Common sense is gone with Baseball Hall of Fame voting

By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor

Late in 2016, I released my IBWAA 2017 Hall of Fame ballot, giving in-depth reasoning for all five of my selections and many of the players I chose not to select. While I think the IBWAA has often had a better voting record than the BBWAA — the men and women whose votes actual determine who gets into the Hall — the fact is our votes are more symbolic than anything. So I feel it is important to hold the BBWAA accountable when necessary. 

While the former athlete in me probably won't ever change my mind on not voting on PED connected players for the Hall of Fame, I hold a uniquely nuanced position. No, I won't vote for PED connected players, but I also see the argument in the Hall of Fame being a museum, and the Steroid Era being part of baseball's history that shouldn't be ignored. So my stance is that writers should either altogether abstain from voting from players connected to PEDs — not players who played in the era, just ones substantively connected to PEDs — or vote for all players connected that they believe have Hall of Fame resumes. 

Right now, that's not what is happening. 

My goal is not to call out individual writers, because I think for the most part those who have votes on the Hall of Fame are very good writers. My goal is instead to point out the insanity that has led to a mindset where some writers have decided that Manny Ramirez isn't going to get their vote, but Barry Bonds, Ivan Rodriguez and Roger Clemens are. 

Many have pointed out that Ramirez was twice suspended for PEDs, something that never happened to Bonds, Rodriguez or Clemens. That's true, but it's a really lousy reason not to vote for someone connected to PEDs if you are going to vote for the others. There's not a person on the planet that doesn't think Bonds used steroids, and a positive test for anabolic steroids was founed as part of the seized evidence from BALCO in 2000 under his name. As Sports Illustrated noted, Roger Clemens was named over 80 times in the Mitchell Report. Rodriguez was linked to steroids in former teammate Jose Canseco's 2005 book "Juiced," which in itself turned out to be an accurate source. "Pudge" was eventually asked in 2009 if he was one of many stars who failed the league's anonymous testing in 2003 — Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez were first linked to PEDs when parts of this list leaked — and responded by saying "only God knows." I don't know about you, but if I knew I didn't do something that would taint my legacy to that degree, I wouldn't have been able to scream no quickly enough. Rodriguez instead did the speaking version of pleading the fifth. 

So maybe Bonds, Clemens and Rodriguez didn't technically fail a test, but in the end they all appear to be guilty of the same crime as Ramirez. Perhaps Ramirez was a less sly cheater, but he cheated. So did the other three. Even if they used the performance-enhancing drugs prior to the league officially beginning testing for PEDs in 2003, they knew what they were doing. 

The other argument often used is that Bonds and Clemens had Hall of Fame type careers prior to using performance-enhancing drugs, so it's wrong to keep them out of the Hall of Fame. First of all, we don't know when exactly any started using PEDs, but both appear to have in the late-1990s. My thought on this is that if you are going to ban anyone for cheating, it's a really slippery slope to make exceptions based on specifics that we don't know. By that same logic, Alex Rodriguez was on-pace to be an all-time great before admittedly failing a drug test in 2003. He failed more tests later, but that's beside the point. Also, by the same logic, David Ortiz shouldn't be a Hall of Famer. He failed a test in 2003, and though some have attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the test, all we know is he failed. And 2003 was when Ortiz first broke out as a major leaguer. And 2003 is also the first time that Ramirez was linked to PEDs, and he had 929 RBIs and a 41.2 career WAR by then. Was he juicing for any of that time? Probably, but we don't know. 

It feels like voters have tried to get too cute in this process, attempting to give Ortiz and Rodriguez (Ivan, not Alex) the benefit of the doubt, while simultaneously penalizing Jeff Bagwell for having big arms. Bonds and Clemens annually get votes from people who think they would have been Hall of Famers even without steroid use, but somehow that logic won't be applied to Ramirez. 

If I had a vote on the BWAA's ballot this year, I would vote for Trevor Hoffman, Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, Curt Schilling, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Larry Walker and Vladimir Guerrero. But if I planned to vote for Bonds, there would be no excuse not to also vote for Clemens, Ramirez, Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa or even Gary Sheffield. The BBWAA would have to adjust their ballot to allow you to vote for more than 10 candidates, but that's another discussion for another time. The point is, if you choose to vote for one PED connected player, you shouldn't exclude any other PED connected players unless you believe that their resume as a player doesn't warrant them being a Hall of Famer.