the players: Bobby Mathews, 1871-1887; Kid Nichols, 1890-1906; Pete Alexander, 1911-1930; Warren Spahn, 1942-1965; Gaylord Perry, 1962-1983; Greg Maddux, 1986-2008

I assume by they you mean writers and perhaps you are reasoning that they didn’t call out players for PED use during their playing careers and then used it later to keep them out of HOF. Correct me if I’m misstating your point. If that’s it I disagree.

No, but it is a good point (your assumption)*. I’m saying that throughout the history of the game, the players have been cheating in some form or another, and that never prevented their induction into the HoF. Guys threw spit balls, guys corked bats, guys tried taking sheep testicle extract for testosterone purposes, guys took federally banned amphetamines, etc. The writers never cared then as there was no hand wringing over whether Mays/Aaron should get in the HoF, or whether Babe Ruth should be allowed in**.

So why do they care now? What has changed?

*I also think it’s a bit hypocritical for writers, like Howard Bryant of ESPN, to absolve the writers of all responsibility for the steroid mess and place it solely on the players. MLB and the Writers were just as complicit in not caring about PEDs as the players and fans were. If you are going to care now, and say taking PEDs is bad, you better have a reason as to why it’s bad and it better not be “because of the children”.

**Interesting factoid, Ty Cobb received more HoF votes than Babe Ruth did (courtesy of JoePos); however, they were inducted before the character clause was included (also courtesy of JoePos).

http://animalslook.com/bold-monkey/

“So, you guys think the manager is gonna head out there and yank Hiscock?”

“Hiscock is really getting knocked around out there”

“The pitching coach should sit down between innings and talk to Hiscock for a while”

And so on.

Juvenile, sure. But man, we just couldn’t stop laughing. Poor Steve.

Forget about the deadball era, maybe it was really just the monkeyballs era.

//csb

It would have been nice if the writers had done their jobs and followed leads on PED use and exposed it for what it was, when it was. But just because that didn’t happen doesn’t mean that the players that used should be given a free pass into the HOF. They are separate incidences, and players don’t deserve to be patted on the back just because they weren’t the only wrongdoers of the steroid era.

There is nothing wrong with voters deciding it is a disqualifier and nothing wrong with “judging” players for it

They never cared before, so why care now?

There are more than 500 writers that vote for the HOF and that is a sufficient safeguard against a few writers hijacking the results. Keeping out certain players doesn’t erase them from the record books, but it does deny them an honor, and there is nothing wrong with exacting that type of punishment for using PEDs. I don’t care if others were “looking the other way” the HOF is for exemplars and most writers felt they were undeserving. I would hope certain managers, owners, and administrators would be dealt the same blow for being enablers.

Never even got a Cy Young vote. Of course, he started pitching when Cy Young himself was 12. But the great ones find a way.