2013 Hall of Fame - NO INDUCTEES

[Chris - D-Town Diamond Dusters]

I am curious what you all think about the lack of an inductee into the Hall this year, and more specifically your thoughts on the "steroid era" guys on the ballot.

I tend to be more lenient than most, as I have the mindset of "innocent until PROVEN guilty" on this stuff. I also firmly believe that steroids are a performance enhancer, not a performance creator. Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, etc would have put up Hall-worthy numbers without the juice (Assuming they took it), IMO.

It will be interesting to see how their respective numbers look on next years ballot. And, if Maddux doesn't get in unanimously, whoever left him off of their ballot should be set up in front of the firing squad!

[Kenny - Carolina Mud Cats]

What bothers me most is it just gives the writers another avenue to screw up HOF inductions more than they already have. With half the writers refusing to vote for any of these players and the other half willing to vote for them it only takes away votes from guys like Jack Morris whose eligibility is almost up. I know Morris is a Tiger but he ia a good example of this. These guy's like Clemens and Bonds have 14 more years of eligibilty which is plenty of time for all of this to sort out. But it screws things up for a lot of other players.

[Mike - N.C. Pine Tar Sluggers]

I have to agree with Kenny. It seems you have half the voters who will not vote for steroids tainted players at all. The second half will (I would fall in the second group under most circumstances although I can see the "nor first year" argument.

The tough issue is then defining what stats a non-steroid HOF hitter/pitcher from the 90s must have. Biggio is definitely a "maybe" player (although just because he is the #1 all-time in "hit by pitch" gets my vote) when compared with all of the steroids era players. If you eliminate the steroids tainted players though, he would definitely be near the top during his era for stats. What we seem to need is either a two-tiered system which will only make a mockery of the HOF eventually.

In my opinion, the HOF should be for the best players. When stats stop mattering the game loses a lot. How long until MLB starts doing like the NCAA and taking away wins and championships from past years. That is similar to what is happening when you deny the stats and greatness of the steroids players.