Cooperstown at the Bat

Baseball has a problem.  Well, to be accurate baseball has several problems, an aging fan base, slow play, and the ever-changing “unwritten code” among them.  However, the Hall of Fame enshrinement highlighted another problem.  Cooperstown is not the idyllic baseball sanctuary that a Hall of Fame should be for players and fans.  Controversy from the field has bled into the balloting process.

Changes made to the balloting process by the Hall of Fame, the first such changes since 1991, have resurrected the baseball story that never fades away, steroids.  Previously, recently retired players were eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot for fifteen years.  That number is now ten years.  The timing of this decision raised eyebrows.

 

Officially, this move eases the glut of ballot eligible players.  The bonus for some voters is that they have shortened the immediate Hall of Fame eligibility of notable steroid users.  Mark McGuire has been on the ballot seven times and needed the additional five years to have any hope of raising his balloting percentage from this 2013’s 16.9 percent to the 75 percent required for induction.  Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have only appeared on two ballots apiece.  This means that the two best natural talents implicated by steroids have eight years to crack Cooperstown.

            It is a natural conclusion to believe that an extra five years of eligibility would have provided the distance from the steroid controversy, and the voter turnover, to allow some of the tainted talents to enter the Hall.  The new process will likely saddle the veteran’s committee with the decision making process.  The advocates for banning and the advocates for allowing steroid users into the Hall of Fame each have compelling arguments.  That is not the issue.  Steroid debate fatigue among casual fans is the problem.  The Hall of Fame already has the tedious “tradition” of never inducting a player unanimously.  The Hall of Fame is now also responsible for passing the steroid question onto another committee.