| Welcome to the Cooperstown Crier |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
1-03-2007 From Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, to Roger Maris's 61 home runs, to Pete Rose's 4,256 hits, there have always been numbers that fans could talk about. But now there's another number baseball fans are discussing - 88. That's the number of former players named in December's Mitchell Report, the culmination of a two-year investigation into baseball's steroid era by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. The report was released last week, with the Yankees' Roger Clemens the biggest name listed among the 88. All-time home run leader Barry Bonds was named too, but to no one's surprise. But surely the 88 are just the tip of the iceberg. In his book "Juiced" Jose Canseco estimated that 80 percent of major league players were using steroids during his playing days in the late 1980s and 1990s. Former Most Valuable Player and admitted steroid user Ken Caminiti had a more conservative estimate of 50 percent. So what will be the ramifications? Will Commissioner Bid Selig put an asterisk by Bonds' home run totals, or Clemens' 350 plus pitching wins? Doubtful. It's more likely that Hall of Fame caliber players will be punished by baseball writers when they become eligible for election. There's already evidence to support this as last year Mark McGwire received less than 25 percent of the vote despite having surefire Hall of Fame credentials. Many writers believed McGwire took steroids after his refusal to answer questions during a Congressional hearing a few years ago. But is it fair for only future Hall of Famers to be punished? If Selig does not punish them, why should writers, especially when the whole truth about how many players took steroids and for how long will never be known. If all the numbers accumulated by Bonds, Clemens and McGwire are going to stand forever in baseball's record books, then the writers should vote them into the Hall of Fame. They shouldn't base their votes on hunches and guesses or even the Mitchell Report. When they are voted in, their plaques should note that their statistics were accumulated during baseball's steroid era. The results of the 2008 ballot will be announced on Jan. 8. |
Copyright 2007, Cooperstown Crier, Cooperstown, NY All rights reserved