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Jayson Stark had an article this week about the arrival of the baseball Hall of Fame ballots. He thinks that there is the possibility that once again no one will be elected. He mentioned Scott Rolen and Todd Helton as guys who will eventually be elected, but probably not this year.
He mentions David Ortiz as the guy most likely to be elected this year if there is to be one. The mention of David Ortiz always causes me to ask why he gets a pass when it comes to PED use. Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens and A-Rod are all vilified because of alleged PED use, but good old "Big Papi" seems to be given a pass by the public.
But there have been a number of articles over the years that point out that Ortiz likely was a PED user. I have linked a 2016 article that lays out the case against Ortiz pretty well. A couple of excerpts:
If you are one of the Steroid Truthers who believe that anyone with a smoking-gun-level of circumstantial connection to PED’s should be blacklisted forever, you’ve probably already marked players like Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell with a scarlet “S”. If so, I’m here to tell you that you need to add one more name to your list: David Ortiz.
Even Ortiz’s most ardent supporters must admit that his career arc has been nothing short of improbable. He broke into the majors with Minnesota in 1997 and played sporadically and unspectacularly for parts of the subsequent six seasons. Through 2002, he had accumulated 58 career home runs at a solid but hardly noteworthy rate of one per 25.5 at bats. That winter – shortly after turning 27 – he signed a free agent contract with the Boston Red Sox. Ever since, he’s been one of the best power hitters in baseball history.
Ortiz’s sudden and seismic shift from platoon player to first ballot Hall of Fame slugger isn’t just unusual. It’s completely unprecedented......Not only is Ortiz the most back-of-career-heavy 500-home run hitter of all-time, he’s in some pretty dubious company. The next three names on the list—Palmeiro, Bonds, and Sosa—speak for themselves.
But the part of the linked article that I found most interesting was the very first paragraph of the article:
Let me get this out of the way upfront: I don’t have a moral vendetta against steroids in baseball. I think they should be illegal, but only because of the serious negative health effects. As far as performance enhancement goes, I’m not convinced that they confer a greater benefit than laser eye or Tommy John surgery – perfectly legal procedures that are far less “natural” than juicing up. If I had a Hall of Fame vote, I’d happily cast a ballot for Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, and the rest of the top “Steroid Era” sluggers.
I agree that fans have to get over the "keep the PED users out of the Hall of Fame" mind set. The fact of the matter is that there likely are already PED users in the Hall of Fame. There are also qualified Hall of Fame candidates who have been excluded because voters "feel or think" they used PEDs without any proof that they were users.
Until there is someway to guarantee that a player was or was not a PED user, they players should simply be evaluated based on the back of their baseball card.
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