And if I used the wrong one out of capital/capitol, go F yourself.

Using steroids was against the rules of being within the boundaries of the United States, and therefore implicitly against the rules of MLB.

Devil’s Advocate here, but doesn’t that open up a whole new issue though? If I walk down the street and flip off cur68, and he throws a baseball at my head, he’ll be arrested for assault. But if I’m on the baseball field, I just take first base? (yes this is absurd, but it logically follows if we are discussing laws).

And again, if you are using illegality of something based on the US fed/state laws, then you have to be consistent and argue against people like LaRussa for DUIs.

I agree with everything you said. Basically my position is that if you have a problem with steroids, then you HAVE to have a problem with amphetamines. My personal opinion is that, since you can’t prove what the benefits of these things are, and you can’t prove who was clean, you basically have to wash your hands of it and say either “Everybody’s out” which isn’t fair to players who were actually clean, or “Everybody’s in” which sucks but is the only fair thing to do.

But it makes no sense to argue that steroids weren’t against the rules of baseball. Using steroids was against the rules of being within the boundaries of the United States, and therefore implicitly against the rules of MLB.

The only caveat would be if they weren’

Ortiz will retire with fewer than 450 homeruns and a heroic postseason on his resume, and literally nothing else to his credit. It is impossible to make a plausible case for Ortiz over, say, Edgar Martinez or — for that matter — Carlos Delgado, Jason Giambi or Paul Korneko.

The idea that Abraham’s one vote will be the difference for these two is preposterous. I love Papi. He deserves to be in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, or whatever they have. But he’s not a Cooperstown quality player, while Manny obviously is.

Surprising that a Boston writer all of a sudden doesn’t want to judge people that have tested positive all of a sudden.

Pete Abraham bio:
A Massachusetts native, Abraham covers the Red Sox. He joined the staff in 2009 after spending nearly 10 years in New York covering the Mets and Yankees for The Journal News.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/staff/abrahamp

They were illegal, for everyone, in the whole damn country.

Except there doesn’t seem to be any consistency in this line of thinking. For one, amphetamines have been a Schedule II drug so where’s the outrage about Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and the many others who played in the 60s/70s who used? Shouldn’t they fall under the same “doctrine”? Also, if character is important, where’s the outrage for people who get busted for DUIs which are far more dangerous to the population than PEDs? Or spousal abuse? Or cheating on your taxes?

Tom Tango made a great argument vis a vis the MVP each year. Pick whatever method you want in determining the MVP, but you should be consistent each year. If it’s using the Triple Crown for ’12, it better be for ’13 and ’14 and ’15. Can’t do Triple Crown one year, then highest fWAR the following, then most perfect games or whatever the third year. HoF voting should be similar. If you didn’t care about character then, you shouldn’t care about it now.

All we know for sure is what actually happened on the field, and that is supposed to be the point of the HoF: to recognize greatness on the field of play.

That kind of obstinateness is what allowed PED’s to be a problem in the league for as long as it was.

In many ways a microcosm of the whole electoral process we just went through.

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201111/another-era-and-another-sport-sex-abuse-scandal-still-inflicting-pain-today

Also, he owed the team for a zillion years and still never won a World Series. He was bad at his job. And he was a monster.

That being said, my apologies. I’m sitting home and bored, and didn’t mean to pick on you. It just struck me as funny that you would do one and not the other.