Baseball’s annual Hall of Fame ballots must be cast by tonight, which now seems only fitting. As 2006 was drawing to a close, after all, baseball’s past and its future were forcefully slamming into one another.
At this stage, of course, we are all tired of talking about steroids. Yet the fact remains that Mark Mc-Gwire’s appearance on the latest ballot has only ensured that the steroids scandal will continue for years to come. Barry Bonds will not be on a Hall of Fame ballot until after the 2012 season, at the earliest, and we can state with certainty that the storm will not end as long as Bonds is out there.
So, for all that baseball accomplished in 2006, the end of this year is arriving with a clamor. On Wednesday, a United States Circuit Court of Appeals granted federal investigators with the right to steroid testing records from 2003 that were previously confidential. An estimated 100 players tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs based on those tests, and it’s a good bet that some of those 100 are better players than Alex Sanchez, the first player even identified as a steroid user by Major League Baseball.
Now, again, we wonder: How many of those players, like McGwire, will be on Hall of Fame ballots in years to come? How many will forever have their reputations ruined? How many more will we come to identify as a frauds during a time when baseball committed the sin of gluttony?
Going forward, one can only hope that players like McGwire truly understand their sins against the game. When the newest inductees into the Hall of Fame are identified next month, they will all have to answer questions about why McGwire is not among them. That is something neither Cal Ripken nor Tony Gwynn should need to answer, and it not something Jim Rice deserves to answer, either, if and when he ever gets in.
As for McGwire, let there be no doubt. He’s not getting in this time and he may not get in ever. The current sentiment against him is just far too strong. A lot can change during the 15 years that McGwire will be on the ballot, but he was hardly a multidimensional player during his big league career. Take away those incremental home runs that made McGwire a Hall of Fame slugger and what you’re left with is a better version of Dave Kingman.
What all of this means, going forward, is that the impact of baseball’s steroids era is just starting to be felt. The game may be getting cleaner on the field, but the damage has been done. And as time goes on, as we turn the page from one calendar year to another and another beyond that, the game that has so often celebrated its past will be in a most curious position.
For a while, at least, baseball won’t be capable of letting the past go.
