John Besanko

I don’t disagree with much of this, but … I think what really hurts the players from the steroid era (like Bonds and Clemens) is that their physical appearance changed dramatically and yet they loudly and repeatedly denied the obvious (sometimes under oath). It’s hard for the voters to forget that.

Sam Dannaway

We all loved the summer of 1998 (including the owners, sports media and other parasites) when McGwire and Sosa singlehandedly saved baseball from its imminent demise. And now they spit on them. I was at Wrigley when the Cards came to town. McGwire hit one out, Sosa answered, and then McGwire hit another. The crowd, including me, went nuts each time. Baseball can never repay them, it is they who should spit on the “honored” HOF voters. If it is a Hall of Morality it definitely is very selective when it is applied. Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose also deserve to be in.

Jake

I think you left out the Hall of the Asterisk. There are quite a few players you mentioned that would not have gotten near the Hall if it were not for steroids, such as Bonds, Clements, Sosa and McGuire. They all might have had great careers, but do you really think Barry Bonds would have hit 500 homers? I understand that there were some bad people who did great things for baseball, but they didn’t cheat. So my opinion is that anyone found guilty of using PEDs should have an asterisk explaining how they got in. LOVE THE BLOG!!

LSomerbyCooke

hanks, Jake. I don’t often comment on comments, but I wanted to answer your direct question about Bonds. In short, yes, I believe he would have easily hit 500 HRs and, I believe. also crack the 600 level. He averaged 32 HRs from 1986-99, putting him at 445 before suspicion of PEDs. He played another seven years for SF. Even if he averaged 25 HRs during those years, he would have ended with around 620 HRs for his career. To me, a clear HOFer. Again, thanks for your opinion and for taking a read of my stuff! Much appreciated!

Jake

I do admit you are correct that Bonds would have made the Hall without PEDs. He was a great hitter and did a fine job at the family business. So then why? I can think of a lot of reasons, some good some bad, but he didn’t use steroids to heal; he used them to compete at a higher level than he was able. Asterisk, HOF career till 99? Your thoughts?

Ric Joyner

As usual, it was jammed pack with such interesting reading, I had to go back twice to finish it. It was great. I don’t have the intellectual background skills like you but I can say as usual it was a good read and a great writing epitaph of your skills.

Tim Thomas

A fascinating and insightful perspective. As usual, thoroughly entertaining and educational.

Gary “Count” McCorkle

Lee, I have taken this long to respond because I am all over the place on this one. Maybe by the conclusion of my reply I’ll have a definitive position. Let me say first that most friends know me as a basketball man but baseball was the sport of my youth and remains my favorite. Yes, baseball – the sport where catchers “framing” of over 90% of pitches per game (an attempt to cheat), the sport where the “phantom” touching (cheating) of second base on an infield double play is accepted but a player must always touch home, first base, or third base, and the sport where an umpire usually expands his strike zone on 3-0 pitches (cheating) to avoid walks because even though the pitch was a ball, it was “too close to take.” The ole hand grenades and horseshoes philosophies. My beloved baseball has always struggled with a sense of morality, inconsistent with what’s acceptable and unacceptable, permissible and not, encouraged and not. I guess I’m a purist who desires the black and white versus the gray, or dare I say, balls and strikes?

I went to Merriam Webster and saw this:
Definition of Hall of Fame
1 : a structure housing memorials to famous or illustrious individuals usually chosen by a group of electors
2 : a group of individuals in a particular category (such as a sport) who have been selected as particularly illustrious
Definition of fame (Entry 1 of 2)
1a : public estimation : REPUTATION
b : popular acclaim : RENOWN
Definition of renown (Entry 1 of 2)
1 : a state of being widely acclaimed and highly honored : FAME

Without my 2 cents on the controversy with the electors (no, I’m not related to Dick Allen or Gary Sheffield who never met a sportswriter they met), to me all of the players mentioned in your post and in the comments of posters deserve HOF status or at least serious consideration. I think a concern might be is “fame” the only criteria to be included in the HOF or does “morality” need to be factored in as you so aptly addressed? Perhaps if criteria is clearly stated before players start a MLB career, that would help. 10-12 year career minimum; if a batter, .310 lifetime batting avg. or 500 HRs, 400 stolen bases, 150 outfield assists, etc. would be automatics. As a pitcher, 250 wins, 3,000 Ks, .700 winning %age, 450 saves, .630 winning %age, etc. Criteria like the record industry uses – 500k sales = Gold certification; 1M = Platinum; 2M = Multiplatinum; 10M+ = Diamond. Takes all the subjectivity out of the equation. 499K sales? Sorry, that’s not Gold! Wanna add morals clauses? No felonies, 3 or less DUI/DWI convictions, 0 rapes/sexual assault convictions, 0 child pornography convictions, 0 drug charges, etc. Struggling with convictions versus allegations, make criteria for allegations, too (OJ, Cosby, etc.) [Side bar: how was the late Steve Howe ABLE to earn 7, count ’em 7, MLB suspensions for drug-policy violations???)]. The HOF should make a clear decision on the type of Hall it wants to be. As much as I did not like Pete Rose (the way his Big Red Machine demolished my Yankees), I’ve NEVER seen a player play as hard as that Ray Fosse career-ender did. A switch-hitter at that (partial for obvious reasons!! 🙂 Our buddy and former classmate Sam Dannaway raised a great point about the salvation of baseball during the Sosa-McGwire seasons. Clemens, Bonds, A. Rod, Palmeiro, Pettite – I watched play, some in person, and they excited me as great ballplayers. But how much of their greatness was legit, from a level playing field?

Bear with me as I share my points of consternation. First, as a parent if I set boundaries or limitations or expectations for my children and if they willingly violate them, do I administer consequences? Yes I do; some of the consequences they know ahead of time, others I surprise them, usually based on any repeat “violations” or exceptionally egregious ones. When I was a principal, I often told my students, “For every action you do, there is a reward or a consequence.” I still believe that.

Secondly, as a Christian I immediately thought of 2 bible characters as I read your wonderful article; Moses and David. Both were great men of God who achieved much “fame.” As humans, as we all are, they also messed up as we do. Both suffered major exclusions due to their “morality.” David was a stalker and an adulterer, got a married woman pregnant, made arrangements for her husband to come home from war to sleep with his own wife so everyone would think the husband impregnated his wife whom David slept with. When the husband refused to sleep with his own wife because he felt he shouldn’t enjoy the sexual pleasures of his wife when his fellow soldiers were denied similarly pleasures from their wives because they were on the battlefield and not in the bedroom. David then had him killed on purpose. Top that Clemens and Bonds!! Moses did great things in leading the Israelites out of captivity yet he also murdered a man and hid his body in the desert and while leading the people in the wilderness he disobeyed God and took credit for himself and did not give it to God by striking the rock that provided water. Top that Sosa and A. Rod! Their consequences — David was forbidden to build God the Temple (“bloody hands”) yet his son was. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land; his AAA understudy and replacement Joshua was! Those must have been heart-breaking consequences, but get this – BOTH Moses and David are mentioned prominently in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11 known as … the HALL OF FAITH!!!! Generations after their “disqualifying behaviors,” they made it in!

So my conclusion is this: if the Baseball Writer’s Association of America does not want to modify its Hall of Fame eligible candidates requirements with some of my aforementioned suggestions, after a generation from the players “sin” that led to the player’s exclusion, players whose stats and career clearly warrant inclusion by the very definition (above) of “fame” should be let in. Mr. Rose, Mr. Bonds, et al.

Lee, I apologize for the length of my reply but now you know of my struggle to come to a conclusion. But then again, my verbosity and long-windedness is YOUR fault; you were my sports editor when we both wrote for our high school newspaper!!! 🙂

LSomerbyCooke

Thanks for your excellent, thought-provoking comment, Gary. For us lifetime baseball devotees, this is a confounding subject, indeed. It took me a looonnnggg time to take a stand — i.e., history is all-encompassing, not pick and choose, especially in gray areas. You have offered elegant, intriguing ways to confront this particular dilemma, and I appreciate your thoughts. You should know that when I came up with my Mantle-focused conclusion, I thought, “Gary will like that.” 🙂 Again, thanks, my friend.

Jake

WOW!! I like that. Like Gary, I’m going to have to read that again before responding.
P.S. Did Lee know this piece would bring such responses?!?

Gary “Count” McCorkle

Jake, from our high school Echo days, we knew Lee was a talented writer. He’s only gotten better now!! I’ve never known Lee to be controversial; he’s a peacemaker at heart. He’s always been one to politely cause us to look introspectively at tough issues. So many more could benefit from his style and approach. It’s sickening and heartbreaking to read so many vitriolic comments on social media platforms today. Be it politics, racial issues, etc., people spew such hatred. It’s the Lee Cooke’s of the world who can lead us to a point of mutual respect and even admiration!!

Reed Sprague

What he said.

David Wolf

Someone very wise once wrote, “Character Counts, First, Last, and Always”. I couldn’t agree more. While there are plenty in the Hall who I do not think are worthy, we shouldn’t lower our future measure stick because of it. If it makes the Hall smaller and more elite, what would be wrong with that?

I’d support an actual Hall of Morality, where we could celebrate those who lived up to high character ideals and contributed to society. That’s a place I’d love take my kids and show them people to look up to.

Debbie Cooke

David, I happen to know that your children don’t have to “go somewhere” to see the one of the best examples of morality I know…they live with him every day. Keep living your life, Sweetie…and they will grow up knowing exactly who to look up to. oxoxox

Reed Sprague

Thank you, Lee, for another well-written, thought-provoking and interesting blog post. I really appreciate your writing. You are fair and objective. Few writers are.

Here’s my problem with MLB HOF PED and so on: I do not blame the juiced players at all, and I realize that the vast majority of people (probably ninety-eight percent plus) who have an opinion about this problem do blame them. I place all of the blame on the managers, coaches, owners, team executives and, especially, the commissioner, who served just prior to and during the PED era. I realize my take on this is waaaay outside the norm, so I put it out there with the risk that all who read this will rip and tear into me (probably a tad too much drama, but man did it feel good).

It’s easy to blame young, over-confident – even arrogant – over-paid players. I get it. Who among us has not secretly wished for A-Rod to “get the karma he deserves” for making so much money for doing so little for society and for acting deserving, or even cocky, while doing it? And what about Bonds, the guy who insisted on being treated like royalty (literally) just because he was capable of hammering a baseball with a bat like few others could hammer a baseball with a bat? And just who does The Rocket think he is, taking PEDs just so he could continue to throw a fastball 95 mph well into his late thirties, and even into his early forties, while arrogantly throwing a broken bat at a well-loved catcher? And, is it not human nature to want Mark McGwire to be knocked down several hundred pegs for his display of arrogance when he worked out with two-hundred-pound dumbbells for all the world to see — publicly displaying his bloated (and artificially made) muscles? These players, and others similar to them, are our scapegoats. What a bunch of rogues! So, get the whips and let’s get to whipping, and whatever you do, do not bring up our sacred Hall of Fame for these miscreants!

Or maybe not …

Just as we have a group of imperfect human beings involved in this mess — the players — who are easy to identify as deserving of our wrath for the staggering and inexcusable baseball PED nightmare, if we look closer, we quickly find that we also have some old guys who are much sneakier than the young bucks. And sneaky is what brought us the PED era in baseball.

So, let’s look closer at sneaky …

Is it sneaky to change the rules of baseball without writing the changes into the rule book? Yes, it is. Is it wrong if the players play by the new rules even though the bosses do not write the new rules into the rule book? No, it is not wrong. Baseball players, as well as practitioners from all professions, conduct themselves by many unwritten rules, and that practice will continue (although it really should not continue in any professional sport). Was it sneaky when managers, coaches, owners, executives and, yes, the commissioner, all said they “didn’t know” about PEDs in baseball when there is zero chance that they didn’t know? Those players who eventually told us about “the secret” through their books, interviews and articles, told us that for nearly a decade (some say longer), the PEDs were piled on the tables in every clubhouse in every MBL stadium for players to take as desired. A decade! In all clubhouses! Was it some miracle that the bosses did not see the PEDs sitting openly on the clubhouse tables? Is that really possible? No, it is not. The total of all the bosses combined — say, around 5,000 people or so over a ten-year span — did not know? For ten years? Seriously?! So, let’s not be silly and say the bosses “didn’t know.” Of course, they knew.

If we were challenged the same way …

If any of us mortals were offered (either directly or indirectly) millions of dollars by our bosses to take PEDs for a few years in order to make our profession “more exciting” (although I personally do not believe power makes the game of baseball more exciting) and at the same time extend our career by another very productive four to eight years, probably ninety percent of us would take PEDs. It’s human nature, and human nature always wins out. Would we be wrong to partake? No, we would not (unless the behavior were illegal). Would we be cheaters if we partook? No, we would not. We would simply be following the rules set forth by our bosses, even though our bosses didn’t write down the new rules and even though our bosses told all who asked that they “didn’t know” what we were up to.

Hall of Fame or of Hall of Shame …

Baseball writers should formally place blame for PEDs squarely where it belongs, with the BBB (baseball’s big bosses). Players should be voted into the BBHOF based on their level of play during all eras of play. Sammy Sosa played elite baseball during the steroid era and throughout his career. As did Barry Bonds. And A-Rod. Mark McGwire, and the others on such a list. You know who they are. In my opinion, all of them should be in the Hall of Fame. No asterisk.

Scapegoating helps no one, hurts many, and, worst of all, it always lets the guilty off the hook. We humans are simple-minded. We will place blame on the group that the “experts” point to, and write endless narratives about, while ignoring all other groups. The narrative takes over. Reason and objective analyses are nowhere to be found. The elephant in the room is ignored. But this ain’t smart to do. Because, sometimes the experts are sneaky. Sometimes they not only point away from the elephant, they also tell you that there is no elephant to ignore. Additionally: “The best defense is a good offense.” A better way of putting it might be: “The best defense is a good first offense.” Whatever you do, start the narrative. Then control it. “I didn’t know” again and again is a great way to gently steer the narrative. Don’t wait for someone else to gain that insurmountable advantage!

Baseball writers have the opportunity to do a much greater good for us all by refusing to honor the inexcusable actions of the baseball bosses with regard to PEDs. They can and should send a clear message: Do not scapegoat even an unpopular group of imperfect human beings in order to deflect blame from yourselves. We all should place blame on the guilty (PED-Era baseball bosses placed into the Hall of Shame, maybe?) and honor on the achievers (PED-Era elite players placed into the Hall of Fame). It really can, and should, be that simple, except that we can’t do it if we’re fooled by the sneaky people.

Sam Dannaway

The HOF voters seem to have no problem allowing alcoholics and racists to enter the Hall.

Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose should be in the Hall.

Also, players like Ron Santo.

Frank Farley

Lee, I think your assessment is spot-on along with a solution that seems reasonable. It seems any system will bring out those who want to rig the system and install their own vision of equity. Ugh. The HOF deserves better from those entrusted with its legacy.

Reed Sprague

Hi Lee. Very serious for one moment before I get snarky: Great blog post. Thank you for sharing. As usual, you cause your readers to contemplate, to think much deeper. That ain’t easy to do. You accomplish that routinely. I love reading your blog.

Unfortunately, the MLB HOF can’t be changed. It’s too far gone. Many players who should be in are not in, and many players who are in should not be in. Too many players who did not play defense at an elite level are in and can’t be removed, and too many players who played defense at an elite level are not in but should be in. Too many popular average players are in and too many unpopular elite players are not in. We (including HOF voters) are still obsessed with homeruns (I believe it was Earl Weaver who, when asked about his “offensive ‘strategy,’” said something like, “I just wait for the three-run homerun.”) and with big market team players. A baseball player who is an elite offensive strategist at the plate is seen as “a pesky little swat hitter” and is “swatted” aside in favor of a vote for a homerun hitter who couldn’t throw a runner out at home from second base but has the best launch angle (whatever that is) outside of Cape Kennedy. Sacrifices don’t seem to enter into the picture at all. Don’t even get me started on relief pitchers who are in or players with sterling defensive skills who are not in (too late). And then there’s elite base running – or lack thereof (nearly completely ignored by HOF voters).

So … yes to everything you wrote, but add: Change the name of “The Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame” to “The Major League Baseball Hall Of The At Least Nearly Good, The Morally Upright, The Popular, The Big Market Team Players And The Relief Pitchers Who Play An Average Of Forty Innings Per Year Out Of 1,450 Innings Per Year (2.76%)”.

Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist.