Joy, great players beginning or ending careers. Or you may have memories that are ambivalent. Mark mcgwire and sammy sosa combining for 136 round trippers in one season. Baseball trying to wrap its head around a new normal only very late in the game. Today the decisions of the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of america were announced who among eligible players would be honored with the plaque on the walls of the Baseball Hall of fame in cooperstown, new york. They are greg maddoux, the winner the cubs and braves fame, and the great Chicago White Sox Greg Thomas with 521 career home runs. What to do with the players whose careers are in the shadow of the tainted era . The writers have decided not to decide. Barring the gates of cooperstown glory to the most heavily rumored names and allowing players who had reputations for playing clean to emerge from their arcane balloting. Reporter players are voted in by members of the Baseball Writers Association of america, a player must get 75 of the vote to be inducted. You need at least 5 to stay on the ballot the following year, and can only be on the ballot 15 years. Last year was the first that players from the socalled steroid era were on the ballot, and no one was voted in. Again this year two baseball legends, home run leader barry bonds and pitching ace Roger Clemens got support. More votes than last year but not enough. For the baseball writers americas pastime hit a low point in what is known as steroids era beginning in the late 80s. Many players were suspected of using performanceenhancing drugs shattering longstanding records. Steroid use was banned by Major League Baseball in 1991, but testing didnt begin until 2003, so remarkable players using p. E. D. S were never caught. Rumors of drug use pit player against player. During the period discussed in my report the use of steroids in Major League Baseball was widespread. Reporter the culmination of twoyear investigation led by a former u. S. Senator from maine the 400page report pulled back the veil and named over 80 players who used steroids or other p. E. D. S including superstars barry bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield and jason giambi. They found that the Baseball Association was largely incorporative despite concluding that least one player from each of the teams used illegal substances. The minority o players who used these substances were wrong, they distorted the fairness of competition by trying to gain an unfair advantage over the majority of players who followed the law and the rules. Reporter Congress Held hearings. Player after player either didnt answer pointed questions or pinned the blame on others. Best known doping allegation center on San Francisco giants outfielder home run king barry bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2011 surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory cooperative or balco. He didnt serve prison time. In 2012 Roger Clemens was found not guilty of lying to congress when he testified he never took steroids. Although both bonds and clemens were named in the mitchell report neither was proven to have taken steroids. Coming off the strike year of 1994 baseball took a big Public Relations hit but was revived in 1998 as the nation watched in amazement as a home run chase between power hitters mark mcgwire and sammy sosa stretched through the summer. Maguire since admitted he used steroids that year. With sosa suspicion of steroid use had never been proven. Both players had slugging records worthy of hall of fame, theyre on the balance a lot but never have been voted in. Baseball is not the only sport fighting the use of steroids. American sprinter marion jones went to jail for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use. And after years of denial Lance Armstrong finally admitted he used drugs and blood dope to go win the cycling prize Tour De France a Record Number of times. How do sports restore their image and regain the trust of fans . Are athletes who didnt take drugs smeared by association . The hall of fame, do they have to decide . Do they have to have a policy . Or through the voting formula and the gut check over time do we get Something Like a verdict . For now the suspected cheaters have to wait. Joining us to talk about the hall of fame announcement from denver jonah cary, writer , and author of up up and away. And editor of sp nation and cliff corkland, a writer for Sports Illustrated where hes coauthor of the strike zone blog. Let me start with you, the fact that bonds and clemens have been passed over yet again is that a kind of verdict even without any official policies on what to do with suspect athletes . It is. Obviously the writers who vote, and im not among them. The writers who vote, a certain percentage of them, twothirds, decided despite clea clearly deserving to be on the hall of fame because of their on field accomplishments will not be awarded because of their steroid use. I dont think thats just. It should be up to baseball. If baseball wants to declare these players uneligible for the hall of fame i like they did with pete rose, they should not be on the ballot and clearly could not be voted for. But the voters should only consider what they did on the field. If theyre on the ballot they should be voted in. Is this a form of the writers creating their own probation and theyll eventually put barry bonds and others into the hall of fame . Well, it certainly is probation, how long its going to last is a good question. I would guess theyre going to get in. I find with baseball and the hall of fame never is a big thing to say. This guy, gosh, hes not getting enough votes, p. E. D. S or not, the momentum will pick up and things change, and cliff mentioned that hes not a voter, neither am i, but were both members of the Baseball Association of america. I just got in a month ago. So in 2023 ill be able to vote. And if barry bonds is still on the ballot im going to vote for him. People from a Younger Generation who grew up watching these guys plays, they may have a different thought of p. E. D. S and not willing to crack the hammer on them. Will it roll out now . You have a lot of voters now who are active as writers in the 7070s, 80s, and 90s, and saw these guys played. I think many of them feel betrayed, they feel that what they watched, reported and celebrated was not authentic. Whether they say explicitly or not they want someone to be punished for that lack of authenticity. Really, all they can do is withhold their hall of fame support for these few incredibly talented brilliant players who have obvious hall of fame numbers. What if drugs never had been invented, and its an emotional reaction. Its not a local reaction for what happened back in the 1990s. I think what happens among all the sports, baseball is obsessed with its numbers. If you listen to two fans talking about who was better trying to compare players across eras they fall back on numbers almost immediately. If something undermines the validity of the numbers, havent you undermined the whole game of being a fan . Well, look, there have always been things that undermined the validity or threw them into question whether it was smaller ballparks, lively ier baseballs, these things have always been around. Youre right in that much of the outcry about what happened in the 90s about barry bonds has to do solely with the numbers that the records that were broken. Mark maguire breaking the records and then barry bonds breaking hank aarons record. I think those two in particular define an era for a lot of people. Were going to take a short break, and when we come back well talk about baseball today and what the sport does Going Forward to deal with steroid era in baseball. This is inside story. Every sunday night, join us for exclusive. Revealing. And surprising talks. With the most interesting people of our time. As an artist you have the right to fail. Thats a big right to have his work is known across the globe. But little is known about the gorilla artist behind the glasses. We turned the camera on the photographer shaking up the art world. 2. 1. Thats scary jr. Talk to al jazeera with jr only on Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America. We open up your world. Here on america tonight, an opportunity for all of america to be heard. Our shows explore the issues that shape our lives. New questions are raised about the american intervention. From unexpected viewpoints to live changing innovations, dollars and cents to powerful storytelling. We are at a Tipping Point in americas history Al Jazeera America. Theres more to it. Welcome back it to north dakota story. I am ray sworees. The Baseball Hall of fame will induct players this summer. Baseball writers floated greg maddox, many big stars from the steroid era will have to wait. Jonah kerry, has baseball finally, grasped the nettle . It was later than other sports to create standards, to impose a testing regimen. Going forward, will it at least be clear enough about the players who are playing now, whether they were playing clean . I would actually say that baseball is leaps and bounds ahead of the three occurring north American Team sports. You can talk about the olympics being ahead in cycling and so forth but nfl, nba and nhl, they look the other way. What comes to mind here in denver, a suspension for ped use. He gained 16 pounds of muscle. How did he do that . He was on suspension. Baseball does not put on up with that. They are making an effort to stamp this out. Its perceived to be an epidemic and a negative for the game. Its just the commissioners coming down hard on baseball. I think it has not only caught up bur surpassed other sports and they are making an effort to try to get rid of this. Cliff corkrin was baseball the author of some of its own ms. Ries whether it took its time, when other fields of athletic endeavor were already cracking down on certain kinds of chemicals, certain kinds of substances, baseball created this sort of, umm, mushy limbo period of 12 years between the time when it said, dont take them, and actually checked whether anyone was listening . Yeah. The baseball basically looked the other way. One of the major factors is the 1994 players strike. Baseball hit a big blow. They cancelled the world series for the First Time Since 2004. Im sorry 19004. Yeah, baseball looked the other way because they needed to bring fans back. The big power numbers, the commercial ironically with greg maddox and baseball had a reason to look the other way. It looked the other way for a little too long. They let things get out of hand. They let the monster grow. I think they beat it back down to a certain degree. I dont think they will ever completely get rid of performance enhancing drugs in baseball or any other sport. The drugs are going to be ahead of the tests, and there is always going to be incentive for players on the fringes of the game to use but baseball did absolutely look the other way for too long. Rob, not only was baseball looking the other way; werent the sportswriters looking the other way . Didnt some of this come down to the attitude of the beat writers in not wanting to crossing certain thresholds when writing about certain players . The union fought against any sort of testing. Writers could have done more. There were a number of writers who were skeptical, writers who knew something wasnt going on. They couldnt write anything really without any evidence. The truth is that baseball writers as a group, they are not investigative reporters. And really, if you are going to blame anyone on the journalistic side, i would almost go a level higher to the editors and the producers of the t. V. Networks. They could have assigned stories to the investigative reporters they do have and actually dug deep and tried to find some of these things out. Nobody really did that for a a long time. So, yeah, look. There is plenty of blame to go around and the players deserve their share and so do a lot of other people. Jonah, isnt there still a question mark over a lot of this . Because even many of the people who were spoken of routinely as being tainted have never actually failed a drug test or been caught doping . No question about it. I mean i think that there needs to be a burden of proof and, you know, i think in the past, rob talked about the idea of being that you wanted to be sure if you were going to be a writer, you couldnt just go around smearing somebody and use evidence. Its gone the other way now. We are talking about the hall of fame. Pd use because he as acne. Geoff bag well was muscular and played in the 90s. Therefore, he is a steroid user. These dont exclude someone from baseballs highest honor. If there is no guilt, put them in. Sure, i think we have definitely swung too far the other way. I think a lot of that is the writers feeling they got burned that, like you said, if they didnt do it the first time, they are sure as heck going to do it the second time. If anything, they will go over the top to do it. Cliff, if the numbers are there, let them in. Do you agree with that . I do. Like i said before, its up to baseball to declare these players indelible. If they are on the ballot, the writers, voters, who are they are should deal directly with what the player did on the field because you can go back throughout the history of the hall of fame and find players in the hall of fame who used amphetamines, who were disreputable for a number of reasons whether in the early part of the 20th century involved in gamethrowing, racism, horrible off of the field attributes. The drugs did contribute to the onthefield performance but i dont think you will be ever know somebody didnt use. You cant prove that you didnt use for an entire 20year baseball career. I think if the guy is on the ballot, you have to vote on what he did on the field and let baseball sort them out. Rob, by common consent, this was one of the most talented fields of candidates ever in a hall of fame election, yet one voter submitted a blank ballot, one voted only for jack morris, who was in jeopardy of falling off of the ballot after 15 years of not making the hall. In a weird way, are the sportswriters, some of them cranky, some willing to look the other way, some not, kind of themselves . Well, they are. They are idiosyncaatic and they have pet projects. You mentioned those ballots. Migio missed the hall of fame by two votes. He is a fantastic candidate historically speaking. You could argue those two odd ballots kept him out. I will say this, though i dont think the fans care as much about the drug issue as the writers do. You can say thats good or bad. I dont know. But the writers are proxies for baseball fans born before 1970 or something, or 1960. But do they mirror the average baseball fan . I dont think so. One interesting doument, rafael palmero, a man who hit the same number of home runs as frank thomas voted in to the hall today is falling off of the ballot because he did not clear the five threshold. He wont appear on the ballot next year. Is he really so far the most prominent scout taken by the steroid era . Joan jonah . The numbers are interesting. Getting at home runs and hits, the three on the panel deal with advanced stats. By advanced stats, palmero is closer than you would think. But there is no question that he would get more support if he wasnt linked to peds and the link is stronger with palmero with him than bonds or clemmons. There is no doubt about it he has been the First Casualty and bonds and clemmons are ongoing stores to see how they will go and how the vote might pick up over the future. Cliff, rob, can you think of any other people who might be in jeopardy of going the palmero route . To have a guy north of 500 home runs not be considered for the hall very early in his eligibility window is a striking thing. 3,000 mark mcguire got 11 this year which i believe was almost a 6 point drop from last year. His candidacy is weak because we have a crowded ballot. Next year we will have randy johnson, pedro f smoements, sheffield who has steroid connections, himself he is winding down his candidacy and another guy with 500 or more, he is the next guy in danger of falling off because of his steroid use. We will take a short break. When we come back, we will talk sports. This is insiinside story. Stay with us. The stream is uniquely interactive television. In fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. All these folks are making a whole lot of money. You are one of the voices of this show. I think youve offended everyone with that kathy. Hold on, theres some room to offend people, im here. We have a right to know whats in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. So join the conversation and make it your own. Watch the stream. And join the conversation online ajamstream. Fema sending clean water to West Virginia in the wake of a toxic chemical spill. Hundreds of thousands cant drink or bathe. The United States is reportedly considering sanctions on south sudan if the violence is not contained soon. Thousands are packing into the camps if the risk of disease escalates. Delegates are the ethiopia trying to hammer out a deal to apiece both sides. In Central African republic, the president steps down. Safety. An indian diplomat is back in her home country after the u. S. Ordered her to leave on visa fraud charms. An american counterpart has been september packing. Indias foreign minister says it is not a standoff. These are Al Jazeera America. We understand that every news welcome back to inside story. Im ray suarez. Two squeaky clean 300 game winners and a big slugger is going to cooperstown. But a long list of stars will wait for the title hall of famer. The which is how long and whether were coming to common wisdom across athletics on this edition of the program were talking about drugs in sports. Rob, im wondering whether now as a class of institutions, whether sport is getting its arms around this, and whether with distance well look at this with the bad ol days in 10 years, 20 years. You know, in 20 years, i wouldnt want to guess because there are so many Different Things happening with drugs, implants, computer chips, who knows what will happen. But this year, sure, well look back on this time as an unique time, it was when people did whatever they want, it was the wild west. Players use drugs in every sport but i dont think as often because the penalties are so severe now. Has it brought the sports, jonah, athletics, cycling, the nfl, into a kind of disrepute that leads fans if they can really trust what theyre watching. I think it depends on the fans. In the nfl, James Harrison was suspended, a big muscular guy who came back, and if you way 220 in the mlb, thats not necessarily accepted. In the nba nobody talks if the guys are doping, the same in the nhl. I think its what sport were talking about and the group of fans and the Younger Generation of fans dont care as much as the older ones do. Have the sports moved in a way to protect their brands . Do they feel this is essential to handle because of the fans watching over their shoulders . Absolutely. Thats mainly bud selig, an outgoing commissioner has been trying to protect his legacy and the legacy of the sport trying to eradicate steroids. I dont think theyll ever get rid of them. With advances of medical technology, theyll never get rid of them. But even if its just putting on a show of trying to eradicate them, baseball has come a long way of doing that, and theyre doing a very good job even if some of their methods were in the bio jenist case was a little under handed. In the majors and the minors, they face long suspensions. Its funny that people think they can still cheat the cup test. I think there is always going to be someone who thinks they can. The drugs are always going to be ahead of the test and there will always be players on the fringes, whether its a triplea who just cant get that major job, or a player who was tested last year and whose only shot back in is a Little Something tricky on the medical end. There will be always those players trying to do it because they dont have a whole lot to lose and the rewards as weve seen with the contracts are great. Cliff, rob, jonah, gentlemen, thank you all. Thank you for being with us on the announcement day. That brings us to the end of this edition of inside story. Thanks for being with us. In washington, im ray suarez. Check check appeals for calm amid religious tension in Central African republic as efforts are made to form a transitional government. Hello, you are watching al jazeera live from doha. The top stories israel prepares to mourn Prime Minister ariel sharon. Thailands protesters threaten to shut down bangkok as they try to bring down the government. Permission to kill a permit to hunt an endangered black rhino is sold at auction in theiates
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