It’s probably better that we just let all players into the Hall. I don’t mean all players accused of PED’s; I mean ALL players who ever played the game. I mean, I don’t want to judge anyone. That’s all. It’s going to make the induction ceremonies a bit long-ish, but I think it’s the only safe route to take. Plus, I really want to see which hat Mike Morgan chooses for his hat.

Want more proof? We don’t need no stinking proof, we are the keepers of the game, the morality police.

A Hall of Fame vote is the highest endorsement of a career. There is a difference between understanding steroid use and endorsing it.

And therein lies his fundamental mistake. A vote for Cap Anson was note a vote for segregation. And vote for Ty Cobb was not a vote for prejudice or crazed violence or whatever. Instead they were merely recognitions of their extraordinary records, abilities, and contributions to their teams.

Similarly, a vote for a Bonds or a Clemens is not an endorsement of steroid use. (For crying out loud, we don’t even have definitive knowledge that Bonds used anything classified as a steroid at the time, even after all the articles, books, pre-trial disclosures, and volumes upon volumes of comment!)

A vote is merely an assessment of the total value of a player’s record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played. And you can say for any particular vote that the value is primarily derived from only a subset of these.

Again, what in tarnation is so hard about this?

I don’t get it. You’re attacking sportswriters for following the rules. They essentially have free will to vote whomever they want (limited to the names on the ballot) based on an incredibly subjective set of guidelines. Its not up to you to decide if they’re “right” or “wrong”. If you think the voting conditions should be changed, fair enough. But don’t go crying everytime you disagree with someone’s vote. Their reasoning is irrelevant.

This is a classic case of, “don’t hate the player, hate the game”.

Florio really does where a toupee, and therefore should be removed from consideration for the Jimmy Johnson-Donald Trump Hair Hall of Fame.

Hey, maybe I’m wrong, but I think Verducci can be “tied” to any and all of O.J.’s atrocious acts.

Look, if you want to punish someone by withholding a Hall of Fame vote based on innuendo and unfounded speculation, go for it, particularly if you think the BBWAA standards for voting allow for it. But don’t punish a guy for having a different opinion on the issue than you. Plenty of people involved with baseball have concluded the same thing as Bagwell — who gives a crap if these guys used PEDs? If you read through to Bagwell’s interview, you can actually see him reference Andy Pettitte’s desire to recover from injury and play without pain, and wonder what’s wrong with that view. That’s a valid point of view, even if you disagree with it. Punishing him for holding that point of view is, for lack of a better term, un-American.

Heck, if that’s all it takes, I could have fun with this. Let’s see, who’s reputation should I smear first……….

Wait, we’re witch hunting right…

But now we have a writer who uses someone defending himself against accusations of steroid use–a defense only offered because sportswriters suddenly decided to make those accusations–against that person.

Classy.