Earlier today, three overqualified Hall of Fame caliber first basemen were denied entry into Cooperstown.
The first two, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, committed their steroid sins and, right or wrong, are serving their time as the first official martyrs of Bud Selig’s “Steroid Era.”
The third player, Jeff Bagwell, committed an egregious crime of his own.
He had the audacity to be born in 1968.
By having the nerve to play baseball in the 1990s, and playing it quite well, Bagwell has eliminated any hopes of receiving a copper plaque. His 449 home runs and 1,529 RBI mean nothing. Getting on base over 40 percent of the time becomes irrelevant. A career 149 OPS+, that ranks 19th out of all players in MLB history with 8,000 PA, goes forgotten.
All because he played baseball in the 1990s.
In any other era, Bagwell is a Hall of Famer. (I do not designate between first-ballot and thereafter. If a player was not worthy of the Hall in his first year on the ballot, why would he be worthy from then on? Players do not get better during retirement.)
A 1970s version of Jeff Bagwell is voted in easily, all while chewing amphetamines during his acceptance speech. The 1980s version may have done a line of coke off the podium. But the real Jeff Bagwell’s accomplishments are looked upon negatively because many of his peers used performance enhancing drugs.
Keep in mind, this is one of the few players who have NEVER been involved in any steroid scandal or implications. Bagwell is being kept out of Cooperstown because he suffers from a case of HisStatsWereALittleTooGood-itis. A disease that Roberto Alomar somehow survived in spite of his suspect 1998-2001 peak and subsequent fall from the face of the earth.
And therein lies the Hall of Fame’s major problem: There is no way for any good player to prove that he never used steroids.
As far as I know, Frank Thomas and Curt Schilling are the only two players who spoke out against steroids during their playing careers. Are we to penalize everyone else? Or are we going to open Pandora’s Box and pick and choose who we think used?
(I don’t know about you but Ryan Franklin never really looked like a steroid user to me. In fact, at 6’3’’, 190 lbs., he has a very similar build to Derek Jeter. A Jeter whose best power numbers came in 1999, right before signing a massive 10-year contract for those of you interested in red flags. #jussayin)
No. We are to accept the past and move on.
The best players of this generation should be in the Hall of Fame regardless of what substances they may or may not have used to assist them. What is the BBWAA accomplishing by keeping them out? They are simply trying to make up for the fact that they failed to report on steroids in baseball as it was happening.
Too late, folks. What’s done is done. The retroactive moral punishment of our game’s biggest stars is diminishing the quality of baseball's most sacred museum.
When Baby Nicholas takes his first trip to Cooperstown, and he asks me where the great players from back in the Stone Age when I grew up are, what am I going to tell him?
Me: Well son, um, here’s Ken Griffey Jr.’s plaque.
Baby Nicholas: Cool! Who did he play against, Dad?
Me: Oh look! Right here! Greg Maddux!
Baby Nicholas: That’s it? Just two players?
Me: Uhhh…Did I ever tell you about when Eli Manning marched the Giants downfield to ruin the New England Patriots’ perfect season and win the first of his three Super Bowls?
Baby Nicholas: Yes Dad. About a thousand times.
Me: Oh. So are you ready to head home yet?
*Note: Baseball writers must have special powers. Somehow, they know for a fact that Griffey and Maddux never used steroids.*
It is just foolish.
In an article documenting the indifference that teams show towards failed steroid tests, my favorite writer, Joe Sheehan, discusses how players like Guillermo Mota and J.C. Romero have failed steroid tests yet continued their careers, received multi-million dollar contracts, and in some cases, went on to win championships—while their sin of steroid use has all but been forgotten.
Sheehan writes, “Players, management and owners have had six years to express their opinion about players who are caught using PEDs, and they have done so in a very clear fashion. No matter your status, you can be caught and come back to a very lucrative job so long as you keep your mouth shut and take your medicine, and as long as we think you can help us win a championship.”
For all I know, Bagwell may very well have used steroids. But if major league teams don’t care who uses, why do we? Let’s not try to rewrite history just because we are unable to rewrite history.
Vote Bagwell, McGwire, and Palmeiro in 2012.
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