Just abolish the entire practice.

"I love voting for the Hall of Fame. I relish the rigor of it, along with the inevitable criticism that follows. If anything, the ethical dilemmas make the experience more worthwhile. As judgments become more nuanced and complex, I'm honored to be part of an organization that wields profound influence on the way baseball history is remembered in Cooperstown."

I suppose I can't blame you for sounding so consumed with your self-absorbed importance ... the baseball Hall of Fame has a way of doing that to people.


"First, I'll state my position on performance-enhancing drugs: I draw a sharp line at the 2005 season, when Major League Baseball began suspending players for PED use. To me, Rafael Palmeiro (no longer on the ballot), Manny Ramirez (eligible for the first time), Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun have disqualified themselves from consideration.

There is substantial evidence that Bonds and Clemens used PEDs. Steroid suspicion has followed Bagwell and Rodriguez. But rather than surmise who used -- because an educated guess is all we have in some cases -- it's most reasonable to vote for the players who truly excelled in a flawed era. Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez did that."

I must say, that's auite nuanced, just like you said.


"Sammy Sosa, by contrast, ranked ninth among position players on this year's ballot with an OPS+ of 128, just ahead of J.D. Drew and Magglio Ordoñez. Yes, Sosa hit 609 home runs. But he did so during a PED-tainted era, in which the skill of hitting home runs became less historically significant.

Rodriguez won 13 Gold Glove Awards at catcher. Bagwell won one. Sosa? Zero. And Bagwell's OPS+ (149) was much higher than Sosa's."

I actually can't wait for Ivan Rodriguez to get in.

This is the first of an avalanche of ridiculous justifications.

"I draw a sharp line at the 2005 season" because that makes no sense whatsoever, but that way I can justify voting for Ivan Rodriguez, who won 13 gold gloves as a catcher and stuff.


By the way, reviewing the people you voted for?:

• Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriguez, Curt Schilling

I'll bet they all took steroids. Not sure about Mussina, Schilling, or Hoffman ... it's not as easy to tell with pitchers, is it? Quite sure about all the others ... and if Raines is not guilty of taking steroids, he's guilty of worse.

I don't really think it's a bad list at all. You'd probably be better off leaving your nuanced reasoning out of it and just letting the list speak for itself.

Because the 2005 criteria doesn't make much sense.