Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez is a new comer on this years Baseball Hall of Fame finalists. While he was never suspended for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) there are several people who believe he did at some point. Should this affect his chances at getting into the Hall? Over the years there have been several articles which broached this exact topic. My belief is that performance enhancers should not be used as a consideration. If the numbers are there, they are there. I don’t believe this hurts the integrity of the game at all. If anything baseball had it great when a lot of their players were using. The home run races, long balls, etc were all amazing rating grabs. Here is the ballot of names for the Hall of Fame this year:
Returning Names
- Jeff Bagwell
- Barry Bonds
- Roger Clemens
- Trevor Hoffman
- Jeff Kent
- Edgar Martinez
- Fred McGriff
- Mike Mussina
- Tim Raines
- Curt Schilling
- Gary Sheffield
- Lee Smith
- Sammy Sosa
- Billy Wagner
- Larry Walker
New Names
- Casey Blake
- Pat Burrell
- Orlando Cabrera
- Mike Cameron
- J.D. Drew
- Carlos Guillen
- Vladimir Guerrero
- Derek Lee
- Melvin Mora
- Magglio Ordonez
- Jorge Posada
- Manny Ramirez
- Edgar Renteria
- Arthur Rhodes
- Ivan Rodriguez
- Freddy Sanchez
- Matt Stairs
- Jason Varitek
- Tim Wakefield
If I had a vote I would more than likely vote in Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Pudge Rodriguez, Trevor Hoffman, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield, Larry Walker, Vladimir Guerrero, and Jeff Bagwell. Obviously a lot of those are not going to get enough votes due to the links with steroids or off the field issues. I am all about those numbers though and would not hesitate to put any of those guys in the Hall of Fame. I also would have voted Pete Rose in because there are so many gamblers already in the Hall that it’s really not a huge deal to me either.
I guess you could say that I look at the corruption of sports as part of the game. The New England Patriot’s spy on other teams, deflate balls, and whatever else they have not been caught doing in order to stay on top. What’s the result? They have won more Super Bowls since 2000 than any other organization and have been to every Conference Championship since 2011. Either way when it comes to Pudge Rodriguez who is arguably the best catcher to ever play the game, I say he should be a first ballot. I can’t think of anything keeping him out at this point. Let’s hope I am right.