AP photo file: Hall of Famer Joe Morgan before a game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California during the 1997 season.(Larry Goren/Four Seam Images via AP Images)
By Amaury Pi Gonzalez
OAKLAND–Former Oakland A’s second baseman and Hall of Famer Joe Morgan wrote a letter to Major League Baseball and all Hall of Fame voters, urging them to reject Performance Enhancing Drugs users into the Hall of Fame. The 1990 inductee and Hall of Fame vice chairman sent a letter to the BBWAA-writers, and said he is not speaking for all players
“Players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League Baseball’s investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report, should not get in,” Morgan wrote. “Those are the three criteria that many of the [Hall of Fame] players and I think are right.” Morgan noted, “Please keep in mind I don’t speak for every single member of the Hall of Fame,” though he added, “I do know how many of the Hall of Famers feel.” According to Morgan, current Hall of Famers have said if steroid users get in, they may no longer go to Cooperstown for induction ceremonies or other events.
I agree with Joe Morgan and although it seems baseball biggest sin is gambling(The Black Sox 1919 World Series scandal, and in our lifetime the Pete Rose case)the “steroids era”as we know it and witnessed is also not a great time for baseball.
It was a great time for the long ball because 50,60,or more home runs were a “normal”occurrence, but we all knew then that something very unusual was happening. How can anybody forget 1996 lead-off hitter for the Orioles, Brady Anderson, when he hit 50 home runs? Or the whole Barry Bonds fiasco, the all-time home run leader with 762 and one season record of 73 in 2001. He played under a cloud of suspicion, that culminated in 2015 when the court overturned his 2011 conviction for obstruction of justice and later than same year, when prosecutors drop the case. Or the appearances in Washington D,C, of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and others,in front of that investigative committee, and of course the self declared Godfather of Steroids Jose Canseco, which I covered since he arrived with the Athletics as a rookie in 1985. The BALCO Laboratories just a few miles south of Candlestick Park, in Burlingame, We lived through those years. And they weren’t pretty.
Hall of Famer Joe Morgan is a man of character and dedication to his craft, baseball. He makes a lot of sense in his letter and my hope is that my fellow writers who have the privilege to vote for the Hall of Fame, read it carefully. I understand it is called The Hall of Fame, not The Hall of Saints, but we are living in a time in our history were people do not seem to take responsibility for anything wrong they do. The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York is the most prestigious of all among sports and Mr Morgan’s letter deserves a chance.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the TV Spanish talent for the Angels and the Radio Spanish talent for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
