The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, is the capital of sports excellence. As the oldest sports hall of fame in the world, it not only serves as the ultimate shrine to the sport of baseball, but also as a symbol of America’s passion for sports themselves.
The Hall of Fame has long upheld a set of values that it claims are essential to induction, but its selections over recent years reveal a glaring hypocrisy in the Hall of Fame’s voting process and by Major League Baseball itself.
Pete Rose is the king of hitting. During his 24 seasons in the majors, Rose amassed an MLB record 4,256 hits, one that will likely never be broken. On the field, he was a hard-nosed warrior, earning the nickname “Charlie Hustle.” Plowing through catchers at home plate and tackling infielders to prevent them from turning a double play are just a few examples of what Rose was about.
Off the field, his personality and ego were in direct correlation with his playing style. Rose was a product of the raunchy pop culture in the 1970s. During his career, he had mistresses in every city, admitted to occasionally doing amphetamines before games and even appeared in Playboy Magazine.
In 1989, MLB banned Pete Rose for gambling on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, a punishment intended to protect the sport’s integrity. Initially, Rose fiercely denied the allegations, lying through his teeth despite the plethora of evidence against him.
After Rose was banned, the Baseball Hall of Fame enacted its own rule which permanently banned those who were on MLB’s “ineligible list” from being inducted. Rose’s failure to take accountability for his actions left a poor taste in fans’ mouths, but more importantly, the Hall of Fame jury.
Meanwhile, baseball’s attitude toward gambling has shifted dramatically. MLB now partners with major betting companies like DraftKings and FanDuel, promoting sports betting as an integral part of the fan experience.
Rose died on Sept. 30. He served his time, 35 years to be exact. Murderers have received shorter sentences than that. In fact, football has one in its own Hall of Fame.
Another dilemma lies in the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Due to their involvement in the steroid era, legends like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa have been shut out of the Hall of Fame.
The reality is that MLB knew about steroid use long before the public did. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the league was fully aware of the rise in PEDs, but turned a blind eye as home run records were shattered, attendance soared and television ratings climbed.
The MLB front office could have implemented measures such as a testing pool or stricter policies to curb PED use early on, but they didn’t. Instead, they let it spiral into an epidemic. Today, players like Bonds serve as scapegoats for the league’s own complacency in the steroid era.
But if PED use is truly an unforgivable offense, then why was David Ortiz, who tested positive for steroids in 2003, inducted without hesitation?
With Ortiz in Cooperstown, the line is blurred beyond recognition. If one suspected PED user is allowed in, why not the others? The Hall of Fame’s selective forgiveness has turned it into an institution that no longer reflects excellence alone but rather a popularity contest subject to the biases of the writers.
The Hall of Fame voting process, controlled by writers, has allowed personal biases and media favoritism to cloud the selection criteria. The system disproportionately rewards players who were well-liked and punishes those who were seen as antagonistic, creating an unfair and subjective standard.
It begs the question: If Bonds and Clemens weren’t notorious jerks to the media, would they have a better shot at a plaque in Cooperstown?
It shouldn’t matter. They should be in regardless, but the Hall of Fame’s inconsistencies extend beyond players with doping or gambling controversies.
Roberto Alomar was placed on MLB’s ineligible list in 2021 following a sexual misconduct allegation from a MLB employee. Despite being banned from all MLB events and stripped from several team honors, his plaque still stands in Cooperstown, untouched.
Cap Anson was a pioneer of the game in the 19th century and is considered to be the first baseball superstar. However, when you dive into his other contributions to the game, you’ll find that he played the leading role in establishing baseball’s color barrier.
Anson’s staunch opposition to Black players was instrumental in enforcing segregation within the sport, setting a horrid precedent that lasted for decades. Yet the Hall of Fame, while citing “character” as a key value, continues to honor a segregationist without any reconsideration of his place in baseball’s legacy.
The Baseball Hall of Fame can either do one of two things: It can either legitimize the requirement of integrity by stripping plaques of players who don’t uphold baseball’s values, or cut the moral high ground act. I choose the latter.
