With all the steroid and Hall of Fame controversies involving baseball players, the Chicago chapter of Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Friday discussed whether there should be any guidelines for voting regarding drug scandal that has haunted the world of baseball for more than a decade. The most popular players including those six of the top 20 career home run hitters have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Sammy Sosa is the latest casualty in the said controversy.

The New York Times reported last week that Sosa was one of the 104 players who tested positive during the controversial drug testing conducted in 2003 where the list was not revealed to the public. Alex Rodriguez also admitted in February that he used steroids and followed by the 50-game suspension of Manny Ramirez for violating baseball’s drug policy.

Paul Sullivan, the Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Tribune and president of Chicago BBWAA chapter said that the association is going to “spend the next decade or so voting for guys who have been implicated or rumored” in steroid scandals. “We’re debating it in press boxes anyway, so it’s a good idea we all get together and discuss it. We’re just going to see what people have to say about it,” he added.

However, the national BBWAA and the Hall of Fame are not aware of the Chicago chapter’s plan to meet and any decisions they can come up will have no bearing on voting. But the representatives from the BBWAA and the Hall can look at some of the recommendations. “We’ve been pleased with (the BBWAA’s) capabilities to interpret the criteria presented and to elect accordingly,” said Brad Horn, Hall spokesman. “They’ve had that privilege for a long time, and they’ve done a very good job.”

Voting in the Hall of Fame is open to writers who are members of the BBWAA for 10 consecutive years. The only listed criteria are a player’s “record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, contributions to the team(s), on which the player played.”

But with today’s present controversies regarding the steroid mess, writers have struggled with their votes. A California writer even said in 2006 that he’d turned in his card so he would not have to vote on the cheaters. Some writers even suggested that there should be a separate wing in the Hall of Fame for drug cheats.

After the Times’ report on Sosa, the Tribune asked its Hall of Fame voters if they would vote for the slugger. Six writers said no, one said yes and one is still unsure of his vote. “The ‘yes’ vote has changed to a question mark, to an I-don’t-know-what-to-do-about-the-entire-era vote,” Dave Van Dyck wrote. “Thank goodness we have four or five years to clear the air on what was done by whom. Maybe. Allegedly.”

Writers are not the only ones who struggle with the issue as even Hall of Famers do. Ryne Sandberg, who was elected in 2005, said that he had been “blinded” to alleged doping by Sosa, a fellow Cub. Now that Sosa has been implicated, Sandberg said that Sosa does not deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame. “They use the word integrity in describing a Hall of Famer, in the logo of the Hall of Fame,” Sandberg told ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago, “and I think there are going to be quite a few players that are not going to get in.”

Trackback URI | Comments RSS