Roger Clemens was acquitted of lying to Congress about whether he used steroids. If you read the reactions of some sports writers it is as if John Dillinger got a Get Out Of Jail Free card. I really don’t care that Clemens got off and I care even less whether or not he used steroids.

 

It wasn’t too many years ago that all you could hear on a baseball broadcast was whether the ball they were using now was wound differently thereby causing it to be hit out of the ballpark in propitious numbers. Ooops, that wasn’t it, players were taking fortified Fred Flintstone vitamins known as steroids. To say that all the great players were juicing is probably not fair. But to say that only those that have either been identified or who have owned up were the only ones to dabble in PEDs is also not fair to say. So then what should we do? I opt to watch baseball and root for my team without worrying about it. I don’t care.

 

For some reason, some sports writers just can’t let the story wind down. Now that the big names have been acquitted of lying about PED use, the only thing they can write about is how these players will not and should not be admitted to the Hall of Fame

 

The sports writers are the ones that keep the gate of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I am not sure why that is. Most, if not all, sports writers never played baseball. When was the last time they even paid the price of admission to a baseball game? Do they live and die with a team or a player? How much do they gear up with caps and shirts and bobble heads? Then why is their opinion on greatness above review? Why do they get to bar the Hall of Fame door to Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Pete Rose? Why can’t the fans decide?

 

Major League Baseball should allow the fans to have a role in the Hall of Fame selection process just as they have turned to the fans to decide who is an all star. It is, after all, a Hall of Fame and it is the fan who has relegated fame onto the specific baseball players, not the hack sports writer. It is not a Hall of Greatest Stats or Great Guys.

 

In New York, we are always told that the New York sports fan is sophisticated when it comes to knowing the game. I am guessing the same is said in every city. If you are a fan, there is a good chance that you know something about the game. You know your team and you know something about the opposing teams as well. A fan doesn’t need a sports writer to convince them that a particular game is important or a good match up. Fans follow their team and know when things are heating up.

 

I can understand how sports writers were relegated the task of selecting players to the Hall of Fame. Back in the days before television when radio was still a novelty, sports writers were the only ones who saw baseball on a day to day basis. That is not the case today. A baseball fan today will watch his team over one hundred times a year and maybe get to the ballpark for five or more games. With dedicated sports networks, even out of town games are accessible on TV. Now the fan sees as much as most sports writers. They just don’t get to ask the inane questions after the game.

 

 

Therefore, I call upon Major League Baseball to rewrite the rules for selecting players into the Hall of Fame and eliminate the sportswriters from the process.

 

While we are eliminating the sports writers from the Hall of Fame selection committee, can we all agree to shut off the stupid clapping machine at the ballparks? I’ll clap when I want to!