Peter Abraham changes stance on HOF voting for players accused of PED use
In a column for the Boston Globe that was published on Wednesday, Peter Abraham wrote that in his third year of voting players into the Hall of Fame, he has changed his mind on how he will approach players who have used or been accused of using performance enhancing drugs.
“Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the rest of the scoundrels will get my vote,” Abraham writes. “I’ll look at the players based on their statistical merit, how they compared to other players of their era and to other players in the Hall of Fame. I won’t sit at my desk and do Google searches to decide who is clean and who was cheating.
“If you think that is a cowardly way out, I can’t argue with you. But it beats stabbing around in the dark and hoping to be right.”
While Abraham said he does consider the use of steroids and PEDs cheating, he argues that the Hall of Fame reflects the history of baseball. According to Abraham, the Steroid Era, as a period of time where nearly everyone ignored the signs of PED use by players, has a part in that history.
Furthermore, he writes, while some of the players were caught, others managed to keep their secret hidden.
“The Hall of Fame shouldn’t be determined by who covered up their wrongdoing the most effectively,” Abraham writes. “If so, then what is the point?”
Abraham goes on to bring up the argument of determining when players began using steroids and how that use actually impacted their game. For example, he writes, Clemens was an incredibly solid pitcher for the Boston Red Sox for 13 years. If he did not start using steroids until after that time, do you base your ballot on a moral code or on his performance from those first 13 years of playing?
“Sorry, but I’m in no position to decide all that,” Abraham writes. “The Hall of Fame is a wing in a museum, a place to go learn about the game. PEDs were part of the game and my ballot will reflect that.”
What do you think? Should the Hall of Fame induct players who have used or been accused of using steroids?
