Wednesday 9 January 2013

Keri on the Baseball Hall of Fame

The results of this year's voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame were released today, with no one elected. This is a story, of course, because Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds both were on the ballot for the first time. So along with Mark McGwire (who came up the first time last year) and others, we are in the throes of of the BBWAA trying to figure out what to do (or not do) with the great players from the steroid era.

Jonah Keri at Grantland and Jayson Stark on ESPN both have strong take downs of the writers for their voting and the overall process. I especially like and share Keri's argument that no one has ever come up with a good explanation why alleged steroid users should be kept out, but not the players who used amphetamines (which is to say everyone up to and into the 1980s) or corked bats or spitballs or other things that have always been done with the intent of "enhancing performance."

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