Here is what I see: Neither Bonds nor Clemens have been charged with using or possessing PEDs. As the Times reported in 2007, the Mitchell Report “linked 89 Major League Baseball players” to “illegal performance enhancing drug use.” Bonds and Clemens were mentioned in the report, but they were far from alone. As The Times reported in 2008, US attorneys had “documents linking over 100 Major League Baseball players to positive steroid tests in 2003”. I’ve had a lot of conversations with MLB players around that time, and based on those conversations, as well as those numbers, I think a lot of MLB players used PEDs before the league. and the players’ union will not agree to present their now-credible anti-PED program. For a long time, PED abuse was not as much of an aberration as it was part of a larger culture within the sport.
Have MLB officials finally taken the necessary steps to clean up their sport? Yes. But along the way, it took 10 baseball players and officers to testify under oath before the House Committee on Government Reform in March 2005, in a one-day hearing that increased pressure on the government. league to seriously engage in the fight against the use of PED. Before that, from my point of view as a federal investigator, there was not enough proactivity. As the leader of a sports league today, I believe it is incumbent on management and player representatives to set standards and remove ambiguities so that athletes can focus on creating and performing. maintaining an example for current and future competitors.
The Mitchell Report concludes that “the use of steroids in Major League Baseball was very widespread. Baseball’s response has been slow to develop and was initially ineffective, ”and goes on to say,“ Obviously, players who have illegally used performance enhancing substances are responsible for their actions. But they did not act in a vacuum. Everyone involved in baseball for the past two decades – commissioners, club officials, the Players’ Association and players – share some responsibility for the age of steroids.
I would add many of us to this list – we have relished every home run and shutout like a vice.
Yes, the Hall of Fame, MLB, and Baseball Writers’ Association are separate organizations. And yes, Hall of Fame’s selection criteria include “integrity,” “sportsmanship,” and “character,” not just stats and abilities – no doubt some baseball writers give it a high. great importance. But if we’re going to turn Bonds and Clemens away, then there is something wrong with the integrity of the entire Hall of Fame process and the record of a time when baseball itself was not. not up to Hall of Fame standards. Bonds and Clemens represented the best baseball players on the field and represented the era in which they played. When you add that up, they should be in Cooperstown, enshrined in the Hall alongside the other greats in the game.
