Quote:
Originally Posted by free2131
Personally, I don't care about PED use, especially when it involves something like HGH that is mostly just used to help heal faster and get stronger from injury (I'm aware Colon's PED was testosterone). Jeremy Giambi and Jason Grimsley were never going to be elite players with or without them. You still have to have talent. Colon is firmly in the inner circle of the Hall of Very Good based on his talent and numbers.
I also find that a good many of those who are adamantly against PED users getting into the HOF due to the "morality clause" also think Pete Rose should be let in. I will be happy to entertain using the morality clause to keep out PED users as soon as we kick out all the bigots, abusers, racists, and actual cheaters. You'd have more of an argument with me for keeping Sammy Sosa out of the HOF due to his corked bat than his PED use.
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I agree that Colon is in the Hall of Very Good and I don't know enough about the lifetime ban on Pete Rose to have an opinion on it. I have to say, however, that in my opinion PED use is definitely a subset of the category which is "actual cheaters." I think the integrity/character clause is there for a reason and it needs to mean something.
I agree with you that there should be no place in the HOF for the bigots, abusers, racists, and actual cheaters. There appears to be some evidence that more than one 20th century baseball HOF inductee was in the KKK, and that is a sad and very problematic reflection on the HOF and this country, to be sure. It raises some important questions about America's history and how we deal with it in 2023, and I'm not sure what the answers are.
If I had a BBWAA ballot and had to think about how the integrity clause would affect my vote, I would be a lot more distressed about an actual member of a domestic terrorist hate group getting to Cooperstown than a PED user getting there.