Quote:
Originally Posted by abailey3313
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.
|
I think a lot of it is not wanting to reward guys just because they didn't get caught. That's how tainted that era was. I get the line of thinking and I know it's not really fair, but it is a reality since this is not a court of law.
I think some of the writer's solution to the problem is to just keep everyone out. That I think is wrong. I instead choose to look purely at the numbers. Take Sosa for example. Sure 600 homeruns was great but for his entire career was he significantly better than his peers? To me the answer is no. is Bonds? Yes.
Bottomline, I believe the burden of policing the game is on baseball itself. If baseball didn't want these players to gather these numbers they should have done something about it earlier and stopped it. Baseball has the power to keep players off the ballot. I don't think it is for the writers to suddenly come in and be judge and jury in terms of policing the game. I understand not everyone feels that way but that's how I feel about it.