Sorry if this offends fellow Hall of Fame voters, but our voting keeps getting worse.
Specifically, someone is going to have to explain how PED guy Gary Sheffield is killing PED guy Alex Rodriguez in balloting. Makes zero sense on any level.
I don’t vote for either guy as I generally eschew PED guys (I did vote for Barry Bonds, who I’m convinced didn’t take steroids until well into his career, long after he won three of his seven MVPs). And I get it if someone prefers to ignore cheating, pretend steroids don’t matter or justify in any way. It certainly is easier to simply go by numbers. It’s like paint by numbers.
But I simply don’t get how Sheffield can be getting close to the 75 percent needed for induction (according to vote-tracker @NotMrTibbs, he’s at 74 percent, though the assumption is he’ll drop once all votes are counted) while A-Rod is languishing at 39 percent. So 35 percent are voting for Sheffield and not A-Rod. Nutty!
Both guys are confirmed PED cheats. A-Rod is an all-time great, a terrific shortstop who won three MVPs, hit 696 home runs and was one of the best players in the game for a decade and a half. Sheffield is borderline on stats (his 60 WAR equals Jim Edmonds and Bobby Abreu), an ordinary fielder who once admitted throwing away live balls on purpose to get out of Milwaukee.
There’s good reason Sheffield received 11 percent-14 percent his first five years on the ballot. But then some noted Fame voters and influencers got behind his case, and groupthink took over. Voting for Sheff became popular.
It’s silly that we are so easily influenced that 11 percent in 2018 turned into 74 percent (about two-thirds the electorate changed its mind!). As a group we are way too easily swayed.
Perhaps some guess A-Rod cheated more than Sheffield. But that isn’t known.
Sheffield was caught in BALCO. He lamely blamed it on Bonds, suggesting he didn’t know what he was doing. But if that’s the case, why did he reportedly send cash (not a check — this is before Venmo) to steroid guru Victor Conte? Sheffield is rightfully in the Mitchell Report, a report unchallenged by him or any of the other 89 players in the report. He does not belong in the Hall of Fame. Unless A-Rod (and Bonds and Roger Clemens) go in first.
