Here the writer has already proven he is not willing to go by the criteria provided by the HOF and therefore ought to be the one investigated or come before the committee because he is now the one who is compromizing the integrity of the HOF.

Now, if there were even a smidgen of evidence, the writer may have at least a little to go on but there is absolutely nothing on the borderline HOFer Bagwell.

It’s important for baseball writers to get off thier high horse and vote in deserving players anyway because too many players don’t get in based on unrealistic made up criteria by writers who really have just a bird’s eye view of the game and what players go thru to be successful. They are just not objective enough.

The guy is obviously in a good place in his life and while he’d like to be honored he isn’t going to judge himself by it. Good for him.

So that was baseball. Every player from the steroid era either a) used steroids, b) knew about steroid use and said nothing, or c) was dumb as dirt.

As far as “clearing his name,” not that it’s necessary, if a player who did use were to come forward and corroborate Bagwell’s denial by saying, “Yeah, I used, but I don’t think Bagwell did. He was just a beast in the weight room,” it would be something. But outside of players who need money from book deals, no former player is talking candidly about the steroid era. But I can see how a writer would be hopeful that more would come to light in the future.

Again, though, I don’t think it matters. The game involved PEDs in that era. It did. And everyone, by their participation or silence, gave their tacit approval of baseball in that format.

I don’t know (or particularly care) if Bagwell used but a denial doesn’t change the equation one bit.

But cheating is a part of baseball. Baseball writers who don’t understand that are intentionally ignorant.