Hall of Integrity

For the baseball purest, cheating is cheating. With what seems to be the only thing still held to the highest ethical standard is admission to the most sacred town in upstate New York, Cooperstown (sorry, Buffalo). As the 2013 class is filled with more steroid era players, the question that persist will the voters cave to the pressures of numbers over whatever ethos is left in baseball.

I am all for keeping Pete Rose, the all time hit leader out of the Hall of Fame as long as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez remain out as well. Pete Rose bet on the very team he was managing. Of course, it took him til 2004, 15 years after, to admit to all the gambling he had done. " I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team." The admission by Rose that he bet on his team to win does not make it any better. He disregarded the integrity of the game for his own gain ,(which was not significant if at all) was hubris to say the least. My question is though, how is what he did any different from what the steroid laden era did any different?

 Mark McGwire gave baseball fans the feeling of raw power and jubilation while him and Sammy Sosa went home run for home run in the summer of '98. I remember watching as a 12 year old love struck boy in awe of the raw power those two displayed. It was not until Mark McGwire was hired by the Cardinals for 2010 as a hitting coach, that he felt compelled to confess to his use. He did not feel obligated in March 2005 at a congressional hearing(our tax dollars hard at work), "I'm not hear to talk about the past." Interesting.... only after you are beginning to collect a paycheck again from the MLB do you "owe" to come clean. It does not make much sense how we watched Pete Rose go into a hole(rightfully dug by himself) selling his autograph  and coming out with an autobiography in 2004 to make some scratch.

While Mark McGwire remains in baseball making a few hundred thousand dollars, Alex Rodriguez continues to chase the home run record while making a cool 27.5 million a year, renegotiated by the New York Yankees in 2007. While Alex was comfortable telling Katie Couric and the rest of national television a bold faced lie in December 2007.

It was not until February 2009 that Alex felt compelled to come clean about his use of steroids. The worst part of the situation is A-Rod will continue to make hundreds of millions of dollars to chase records he is suppose to "break". His current contract is filled with incentives of 6 million dollars each  Home Run milestone of 660(Mays), 714(Ruth), 755(Aaron), 762(Balco.. I mean Bonds) and another 6 million for breaking it. Obviously the Yankees still see these records as profit making venues. One can only hope that Cooperstown does not acknowledge these "achievements".

I fear for the millennium generation that has grown up in such as era of baseball where it is simply a 50 game suspension for Peformance Enhancement Drugs. Nothing more than a slap on the wrist to not get caught again. Our only hope is for the Hall of Fame to keep the cheats out because the MLB certainly does not seem to.