Posnanski: The three PED arguments for the Hall of Fame
From Joe Posnanski at Joe Blog on November 29, 2012:
There will plenty to say about the Baseball Hall of Fame this year. Predictions. Arguments. Laments. Challenges. Before Jan. 9, the day the Hall of Fame class is announced, and for days afterward, I imagine a half billion words will be spilled on the subject, probably half of them right here.
But before getting into specifics, I’m thinking we should try to simplify the PED discussion just a little bit.
First: It seems to me that there are three major philosophical reasons why someone would not vote for a player who used (or probably used) performance-enhancing drugs. Maybe you can think of another, but I’m stuck at three:
1. Because using PEDs is cheating, and cheaters do not belong in the Hall of Fame.
2. Because using PEDs turned non-Hall of Famers into Hall of Famers.
3. Because those players who used PEDs irreparably soiled the game and, as such, have no business being in a museum that is meant to celebrate those who brought glory and honor to baseball.
I’ve read and listened to 10 bajillion-shmillion PED/Hall of Fame arguments, and it seems to me that the argument always comes down to one (or more) of these three. This is good. This is manageable. One thing that made the Trout-Cabrera arguments so frustrating, I think, was that it was a constantly moving target.
Read the full article here: http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-three-ped-arguments.html
Related link: Joe Posnanski will be a featured speaker at the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference; learn more at SABR.org/analytics
Originally published: November 30, 2012. Last Updated: November 30, 2012.