A-Rod Just Got Other Great Players Into the Hall of Fame
There is exactly one thing, in the long run, that A-Rod's having done steroids will ultimately mean for the history of baseball.
He just got Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and all the other steroid users who would otherwise have been worthy into the Hall of Fame.*
That is ... as long as McGuire is still on the ballot when Rodriguez retires. It's tough to predict these things.
People have decided to be up in arms against steroids users, doing whatever possible to keep them out of the increasingly-stupid Hall of Fame. Well, nobody who votes against Alex Rodriguez for the Hall of Fame deserves to vote for the Hall of Fame. It's like not voting for Rickey Henderson, except with HOME RUNS instead of STOLEN BASES. Are you kidding me?
But if you vote for A-Rod, you have to vote for Bonds. He was probably better than A-Rod. You also have to vote for McGuire, who was the best pure home run hitter since Babe Ruth ... possibly ever.
This revelation about A-Rod means that people have to dismiss the notion that the best player was untainted. And they have to embrace the fact that you have to compare players to their contemporaries -- and their contemporaries this time around were probably on drugs. Normalize for the era and see how the players compare. You mean Rodriguez and Bonds were waaaay better than everyone else doing drugs? And they still would have been better if nobody had been using drugs?
Then it's time to get over yourselves and let these guys get into the Hall of Fame with all the rest of the amphetamine-abusing, coke-head, alcoholic, racist, wife-beaters that are in there.
You can't let A-Rod in and keep Bonds out. And you can't keep A-Rod out. Thus Bonds is in. And McGuire is in. And steroids are no longer a consideration when it comes to Hall of Fame voting.
Posted by Sean Schulte at 2009-02-13 23:46:02
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