Quote:
Originally Posted by rpriske
If it isn't clear (yeah, right) this anti-steroid thing really annoys me. I am perfectly happy that they have been made illegal and go ahead and throw the book at anyone who breaks the rules now, but we are talking about players using steroids during a time when they were AT LEAST tacitly encouraged. The league wanted it. The owners wanted it. Yet now that the public perception has shifted, those players are being ostracized. It is absolutely ridiculous.
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I'm with you. My hope is that these are "punishment ballots" and eventually the voters will let these guys through. I don't know why, but for some reason there's sentiment that getting in on your first try matters. Using that logic, it would make sense that the voters would try to make a statement this year with these particular candidates.
The more troubling thing to me is that it would seem some votes were held back based purely on suspicion. I've reached the point where I don't see much sense in arguing whether or not steroid users should be enshrined. We all have our opinions and they're unlikely to change, and even if there is room for a shift, I don't have anything particularly compelling to say that I feel could sway someone. But Piazza and Bagwell, for instance, are completely different from Bonds, Clemens, and McGwire. If someone didn't vote for them because they didn't think the player's merits warranted it, okay. But if steroids was a factor, that's a problem, because now we're punishing guys based on our own assumptions.