David Ortiz, steroids, and the Hall of Fame double standard

Why have some players gotten a pass while others haven't?

David Ortiz. | Jerry Coli | Dreamstime.com

I wrote an op-ed for NBC News Think that was published today to coincide with David Ortiz’s enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ortiz, by my count, is the 59th person associated with “steroids-era” baseball — covering the years from the late 1980s to early 2000s — to enter the hall.

My book Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever is available wherever books are sold.

I believe that number should be higher than it is. “Worthy players like Barry Bonds, the game’s all-time home run champion, and Roger Clemens, one of the game’s finest power pitchers, should be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame too. But the record breakers have been cast aside for their suspected or confirmed connections to steroids and held to a different standard than their peers,” I wrote.

“The baseball writers who vote for the Hall of Fame honorees, in electing dozens of other players from the ‘steroids era’ while scapegoating a handful of the generation’s greatest players, have established a curious demarcation line: You could be good, but not too good, on the juice. And likability counts.”

Read the full column here. And let me know what you think in the comments below and on social media.