Nightengale: Hall of Fame PED hypocrisy must end

Bob Nightengale | USA TODAY Sports

It has been nearly three decades since the whispers and innuendo began of pervasive steroid use in every baseball clubhouse, and somehow, we continue to remain clueless this time of year.

We've had 113 current or former major league players suspended since 2005 for using performance-enhancing drugs.

There were 103 players who tested positive for steroid use in anonymous survey testing of major-league players in 2003.

And 89 major league players were publicly identified as using performance-enhancing drugs in the 409-page Mitchell Report released in 2007.

Here we are on the brink of baseball's Hall of Fame election, with the announcement of new inductees Tuesday, and we still don't get it.

What the last 30 years should have taught us, and the Biogenesis scandal reminded us, is that we have absolutely no idea who was clean, and who was dirty.

Yet we, the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, somehow keep trying to make that judgment.

What we've accomplished is turning the Hall of Fame voting into a travesty.

Just 35% of us voted for Barry Bonds last year, far short of the required 75% necessary for induction. Yet, many more had no trouble supporting Mike Piazza (62% last year) or Jeff Bagwell (54%). Both admitted using the now-banned androstenedione, and their bodies and power also swelled to enormous proportions.

We don't vote for Roger Clemens, but accept at face value the accomplishments of other power pitchers in that era.

Oh, and even though Clemens spent millions in court to prove to prove he didn't commit perjury when he says he didn't use steroids, it's OK to blatantly disregard the federal criminal justice system.

I can't wait until two years from now and watch writers snub Bonds and Clemens, but turn around and vote for catcher Pudge Rodriguez in his first appearance on the ballot. Yep, just pretend the 30 pounds he lost over the winter of 2004 was a magical weight-loss program, and not a coincidence it occurred at the exact time steroid testing with penalties was implemented.

It's become a farce.

There are 34 players on this year's BBWAA ballot. Just a handful were firmly linked to PED use via the the anonymous 2003 test, the Mitchell Report, federal court testimony or their own admitted use.

Yet 30 of the 34 played the prime of their careers in the heart of the steroid era. Even if the estimates of players using PEDs made by former MVP Jose Canseco (85%) and Cy Young winner Eric Gagne (80% of his Dodgers teammates) are well on the high side, we'd be fooling ourselves to think these Hall candidates are that much cleaner than the norm.

We act as if Bonds and Clemens tried to ruin our game and everyone else on the ballot was clean.

It's time for us to wake up and knock off this absurdity.

Look, it was the steroid era, and until drug testing was implemented in 2004, nobody really cared. Union leadership went too far to protect players' ability to juice, with some officials even offering advice to beat the test. Management quietly admired, and reaped the benefits from steroid guys' willingness to bulk up, hire personal trainers, spend hours in the gym and enhance their performance.

The only thing they were cheating were perhaps their own bodies, taking the risk of potential health problems later in life.

These same guys are now managers and coaches, scouts and team-employed announcers, widely accepted by baseball establishment.

Enough is enough.

I vote for the players who had Hall of Fame careers, regardless of their connections to steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.

I will always vote for them providing they never tested positive after baseball introduced penalties for positive tests.

The widespread cheating actually created a level playing field, harming only those like Fred McGriff and other Hall of Fame candidates whose numbers were dwarfed by those whose bodies and statistics grew at grotesque proportions.

If you're one of the privileged voters for the Hall of Fame, it's time to simply vote for the players who you believe were the best of their era.

It just happened to be the steroid era.

Come on, this isn't the Sistine Chapel. We've let murderers, racists, and abusers in the Hall of Fame.

If you wanted to kick out every Hall of Fame player who ever illegally used amphetamines, you'd be able to fit the remaining players in an airplane bathroom.

Check out the number of writers who adamantly won't vote for Bonds or Clemens, but will vote for Tim Raines, the same guy who admitted to cocaine use during his career, even snorting it during games.

Let me ask, did Bonds or Clemens ever once hurt his team?

If Bonds wasn't breaking Hank Aaron's home run record, and considered the greatest player in the game since Babe Ruth, we would have already moved on from his role in the BALCO scandal.

If Clemens wasn't winning 354 games and seven Cy Young awards people would have ignored trainer Brian McNamee.

Yet, we punish them by keeping them out of the Hall of Fame because of their links to steroids, despite no real drug testing until 2005.

Please, don't use that weak excuse you're punishing Bonds and Clemens, but refuse to do the same against anyone else because they were never formally charged or had their trainer testify in court.

We are reporters. We saw the bizarre muscles, the drastic weight gains, the back acne, the mood swings, and the freakish muscle tears.

We had players, friends, coaches, and trainers telling us about some of the biggest PED users in the game. Several players used to brag to everyone who listened how he was doing it right.

Steroid users have been - and will be - elected to the Hall of Fame. Yet we, the Baseball Writers Association of America voters, are picking and choosing who we want to protect.

We're supposed to forget everything we saw and heard, and act now like it didn't happen because we didn't see the syringe go into the body.

We have to stop making a mockery out of the ballot by pretending that we really know who was clean, who cheated, and what it means.

Sure, it's not easy these days to select only 10 players who you believe were Hall of Famers, but it's supposed to be difficult. There's no reason to sweat it. This will be the first time since 1954-55 that at least three players will be elected in back-to-back years. Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez are locks; Craig Biggio and John Smoltz could make it a foursome. Considering that Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman will be on the ballot next year, it could turn into three consecutive years. The logjam will start to clear.

With apologies to Jeff Kent, Mike Mussina and Raines, all who will receive my votes in the future, here is my Hall of Fame ballot:

Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Fred McGriff, Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield and John Smoltz.

Go ahead, take a close look.

There are more players linked or suspected of PED use than those who haven't.

This is a ballot simply identifying who I believed were the best players of their era.

It was the steroid era.

It's time to deal with it.​

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