Joe Morgan was preaching to the choir Tuesday morning when he emailed me his plea to keep PED users out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Even though I agree with Morgan, the vice chairman of the Hall, and applaud him for being willing to put his name behind his beliefs, he's a little late on this one.
Morgan, through a Baseball Hall of Fame email address, sent out a mass missive to all Baseball Writers Association of America voters asking them not to vote for "known" cheaters.
In it, Morgan wrote that times change, "and a day we all knew was coming has now arrived. Players who played during the steroid era have become eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame."
Actually that day arrived about a decade ago, and there could be someone in already who got away with using PEDs.
Morgan doesn't assume that's the case, at least according to his letter.
"We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame," he wrote. "They cheated. Steroid users don't belong here. Players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League Baseball's investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report, should not get in. Those are the three criteria that many of the players and I think are right."
So is the message directed at the Big Two -- Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens -- who slowly have crept up in Hall of Fame voting the past few years and may yet get in before their eligibility is up in 2022?
Seems likely. That would be the first domino, and if Bonds and Clemens get in, how could any voter deny Alex Rodriguez, who has been allowed to rewrite his PED-tainted image through the courtesy of a Fox Sports analyst job and is eligible in four years?
Some writers already vote for even the most glaring cheaters because it's impossible to know for sure who did and didn't take PEDs during the era.
Some vote for players who may have looked like they juiced, but never got busted if they did. Some vote for players they believed compiled Hall of Fame numbers before they began using, and some just vote for those they think were clean, even if it's really just an educated guess.
Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez -- three Hall of Famers who overcame PED rumors -- were helped by recent rules changes that disqualified many former baseball writers, a group that skewed older and was more conservative. Younger voters may help Bonds and Clemens reach the necessary 75 percent vote as well.
Either way, the debate won't end soon. The next big decision may be what to do with David "Big Papi" Ortiz, who was named in a leaked report for failing a drug test in 2003, when the results were supposed to remain anonymous. Ortiz, who denied using PEDs, should be a first-ballot choice when he's eligible in four years, and unlike A-Rod he didn't need an image makeover. His popularity grew over the final years of his career.
So does Big Papi pass the Joe Morgan litmus test?
Morgan pointed out numbers put up by steroid users hurt the chances of some clean players whose career numbers "look smaller by comparison." He then added: "And that's why I, and other Hall of Famers, feel so strongly about this."
That's all well and good, but the other Hall of Famers who "feel so strongly" about PED users in the Hall should speak out as well. Morgan said it's "gotten to the point where Hall of Famers are saying that if steroid users get in, they'll no longer come to Cooperstown for induction ceremonies or other events. Some feel they can't share a stage with players who did steroids."
A boycott by the current Hall members would be an impressive statement that could change the way the voting is conducted. But that's a few years down the road.
If this issue is that important to the Hall of Famers, let's hear from the rest of them now.
Sports on 11/22/2017