Oh boy, this oughtta be good.
"If Selig is responsible for the use of performance-enhancing drugs by some of the most prominent names in baseball history, then so are a lot of us in the media, and not just the baseball media."
Yes. You are totally guilty. This obvious verdict is not even up for discussion.
"If you want to throw the book, and that means the record book, at Selig for not acting sooner, then ask yourself something: Why didn't the same people still prosecuting Selig for baseball's drug past tell us what was going on in the 1990s? What was stopping them?"
Not sure.
Maybe what was stopping them was a lack of complete awareness, hampered by incompetent and holier-than-thou baseball journalists who don't care about researching and disseminating useful information, but instead focus on personal grudges and empty gossip.
Maybe they never pondered Selig's HOF candidacy because it seems so absurd and perverse. Even now, after it's happened. It seems surreal, actually. 2016 has been a very strange year, hasn't it?
It's difficult, however, to answer your rhetorical question because you haven't specifically identified "the people" in question.
"Could Selig have stated his concerns about PEDs earlier than he did? He could have, could have applied common sense before he had actual evidence or proof, taken the high ground from the intractable union leadership of Donald Fehr and Gene Orza. He could have said that if it were up to him -- and this is in the mid-'90s -- he would unilaterally impose drug testing on the spot, even though he knew that was impossible under the sport's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Selig could have said he was doing it in the name of the record book, and clean players."
If the writers truly cared about steroid use (they don't), then they would not even consider Selig.
See, we're complaining about you. We're not really complaining about Selig. You're the hypocrites for voting this guy in. Do you not understand this?
Your defenses of Selig are completely missing the point.
"He could have done better. We all could have done better. I wrote a book about 1998, and the magic of it for my sons. Bob Costas, who started hitting the subject hard around 2000, on his various platforms, says now, 'I wish I'd addressed the issue sooner.'"
"We all could have done better." Speak for yourself.
"Of course, Bud Selig doesn't get a hall pass on the steroids era just because he's in the Hall of Fame now, where he absolutely belongs. No one is suggesting that he should. But Bonds and Clemens don't get to follow him through the doors like Selig's running interference for them, either. It doesn't work that way."
You are suggesting Selig gets a hall pass. In the column which I'm reading right now.
I think I know how it works, by the way. Check it out:
Incompetent and lazy sportswriters refuse to research and disseminate useful baseball information. Instead, they use their columns for empty gossip and personal grudges. So if Selig had refused to return phone calls or if he had worn bespoke suits instead of all of his ridiculous Regular Guy affectations, then the writers would not have liked him and they would not have let him into the HOF.
"Now this is supposed to be all Selig's fault. Only it's not all anybody's fault. There is plenty enough blame to go around. Selig looked the other way, we are now told, because home runs were so good for business ..."
Stop right there. That's exactly what happened. If you deny that, then you haven't learned anything.
Of course Selig profited, and so did you.
It's not all Selig's fault, but he was the Commissioner.
If you want to put the Steroid Commissioner in the HOF, then put in the Steroid Third Basemen and Steroid Left Fielders.
Please get off your high horse once and for all. It will feel good and feel just.
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