Scottie says: Simmons got it wrong

This question has been thoroughly discussed with respect to Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro. On statistics alone, these players would be shoe-ins for the Hall of Fame: Now that they have been implicated in the steroids scandal, however, it is an open question whether they should go to Cooperstown. But really, what effect should the disclosure of the use of steroids have on whether a player is inducted into baseball’s most hallowed shrine?

Reacting to Alex Rodriguez’ confessional interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, ESPN funny-man Bill Simmons said, “The Hall of Fame is a museum. It is not a morality contest, and it’s not a popularity contest. To not have Pete Rose in there — Bonds and McGwire and all of these people — is so stupid and short-sighted. Just give them a separate wing cheater wing, or the disgraced wing, or a wing painted black.”

I am disappointed in Simmons — my favorite sports columnist — and I completely disagree with his assessment of the issue.

Simmons added that when he brings his child to see the Hall of Fame, he wants him to see those who have doped and what their accomplishments were. While the best athletes of the last 20 years of baseball might have achievements deserving of an induction into Hall of Fame, they still cheated the game.

Bonds has been my favorite baseball player for the last 16 years. Any time I think of baseball, I think of him. Still, I have accepted the fact that he has used steroids, though he claims to have done so unknowingly. His statistics are more impressive than those of any other baseball player. It would have taken me a long time to find his career statistics, however, had I not memorized them. Bonds’ statistics have been removed from the statistics database on espn.com.

The home-run leader in 2001, according to the website, is Luis Gonzalez, not Bonds. The point is that even I, one of the biggest Bonds supporters there is — just ask my roommate — can say that Bonds and all those who do not come clean with when and how they used steroids should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

While the Hall of Fame does have a museum section, it is different from the section of the hall in which inductees are immortalized. I think that there should be a display in the museum section of the Cooperstown establishment that focuses on the steroids era, and the display should include a list of all implicated players and their accomplishments.

These players do not deserve to be immortalized next to the inductees from this era of baseball that have not been implicated: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Derek Jeter and Curt Schilling, among others. While it can never be confirmed that these players did not take steroids, can you imagine that a finesse pitcher like Maddux or Schilling — especially after the latter’s public display of hatred against steroids — ever took steroids? I certainly cannot, and I think that the players who remained drug-free throughout their careers and performed at a Hall-of-Fame level should be respected and rewarded.

But there could be a loophole in my argument. Alex Rodriguez admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs between 2001 and 2003. Now, if that’s the case, and if we fully believe Alex Rodriguez: It is still possible that his statistics outside those three years are good enough for entry into the Hall of Fame. Without his years as a Texas Ranger, he has a .306 batting average, 397 home runs, 1,201 RBI and two MVP awards. With those statistics, he’s on pace to accumulate more than 600 home runs and more than 2,000 RBI over his career. That certainly is Hall-of-Fame material.

I bring up these statistics because I think that every player who ever used steroids needs to come clean and disclose when they used and what they used. If it turns out that Bonds used steroids for two years and only two years, maybe he could be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

MLB — and baseball as a whole — needs to clear up the steroids scandal for good. Baseball has suffered a major loss in popularity and respect as a result of the scandal, and the sport will only heal if the guilty admit to their sins.

Since I’m quite interested in pursuing a profession in the baseball industry and have a love for the game, I have a certain bias toward the situation. But baseball cannot simply forgive the implicated players by letting them into the Hall of Fame. Baseball needs to be firm and resilient, and MLB needs to prove to America and the world that while it has made mistakes, it has changed. Inducting players into the Hall of Fame simply because they had terrific careers, blind to whether they used banned substances, is a shot of blatant disrespect to current and future members.