- January 10th, 2013, 9:51 am
#417120
I've waivered on this issue for several years now. At this point I'm in favor of putting players into the Hall of Fame even if they have ties to PED use. It's hard to quantify the advantage these guys got from using steroids and HGH. It's also hard to ignore the fact that amphetamine use was rampant in MLB from the 1960s until at least the mid 2000s. While I believe the steroid users gained a larger advantage than the amphetamine users, I think it's fair to say that both groups were using performance enhancing drugs to some degree.
My view is that the guys who have the numbers should get in, even if it means adjusting the baseline to accommodate the advantages they gained. There should be an educational portion of the Hall which informs future generations that specific guys played during the so called "Steroid Era." It's a shame that the Hall of Fame will not include the all-time home run king, the guy with the most Cy Young awards, the greatest hitting catcher of all time and many other great players from the era who may or may not have used performance enhancing drugs.
I believe a huge portion of the players were using. The problem is, you can't prove any of them weren't cheating. To say that one player was absolutely clean is naive. There is no way of knowing. Just because a guy isn't huge doesn't mean he didn't use. Do I believe that Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter, Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, etc. were clean? Yes. Do I know this for a fact? Absolutely not. Let them all in and link them to the era during which they played.