The Hall Of Fame

I've been thinking about this Baseball Hall of Fame stuff pretty hard.  I've been consuming article after article,  replete with people crowing on and on about steroids and narrative and all that.  I've come up with a pretty clear line in the sand when it comes to steroids, which is one of the biggest hot button issues the sport has ever faced...

Look, it wasn't illegal in the sport.  That's all I can say about it.  It's an ex post facto law.  You can't persecute someone after the fact for something that wasn't a crime to begin with.  If Johnny killed a man (a horrid example I know) before murder became illegal, he cannot be punished.  However gruesome and disgusting and chilling his "crime" may be, it was not a crime and therefore is not punishable.  Steroid use in baseball was not illegal.  I'm not entirely sure why MLB was so late to the party - it was banned in the NFL, Olympics, and pretty much every other sport and competition.  But we're not really concerned with the "whys" here.  We must only look at the facts.  And the fact remains that the alleged steroid users (yes, we must still use the word "alleged") did not break any of baseball's rules.  They weren't betting on baseball.  They weren't throwing games.  They weren't beating up catchers with baseball bats.  They weren't throwing spitballs.  They were adhering to the rules of the game, as they were written.  Yes, it sucks that steroids were allowed, but they were and we can't wash it away.  No revisionist history is going to make the slate clear and retroactively apply punishment to the steroid users.  Baseball had no rule in place and the competitiveness of the players called for extreme measures.  To be honest, I don't think they should be judged negatively for that.

One other thing...of the players on this year's ballot, only Rafael Palmeiro has failed a drug test.  Everybody else - Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Bagwell, Piazza - have been thrown in the lump of users because they had guady homerun numbers and suspect back acne.  There is also a bunch of heresay and narrative collusion that is keeping them at bay.  It's so sad.  Until there's a shred of hard evidence, these men must be considered innocent.  That's just the way that the law goes.

For those scoring at home: the "suspect" players on the ballot this year are being excluded because of ex post facto laws (against the law of the United States) and are being presumed guilty instead of innocent (also against the law of the United States.)  Seems pretty bizarre to me.