| Baseball has never been good at looking ahead. It | | | | "Cooperstown Confidential", has ignored character |
| prefers the backward glance toward a | | | | and integrity forever. In fact, the institution itself |
| sepia-toned world that never was. | | | | was built on a lie. Abner Doubleday no more |
| The game is built on a reverence for the past. | | | | invented baseball than Al Gore devised the |
| Even when its showiest hallmarks occur, baseball | | | | Internet. |
| history occupies as prominent a place as those | | | | "Nothing drains an institution's integrity like fake |
| who are about to remake it. The ghosts of Babe | | | | claims of integrity," Chapman wrote. "Honesty |
| Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Roger Maris were tangible, | | | | clears the way for judging players solely on their |
| powerful specters when Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken | | | | professional excellence." |
| Jr. and Mark McGwire toppled their records. | | | | You know the laundry list of enshrined Hall heels: |
| Jackie Robinson's groundbreaking debut in 1947 | | | | Ty Cobb, Cap Anson and likely many others were |
| was one occasion when baseball might have | | | | pathological racists. Cobb and Tris Speaker were |
| gazed forward toward the broader social impact | | | | implicated in game-fixing. Babe Ruth was a moral |
| of our national pastime's integration. Instead, it | | | | reprobate. Grover Cleveland Alexander was a |
| would take the game a half-century to formally | | | | pathetic drunk. Rogers Hornsby was a |
| appreciate and recognize Robinson's trailblazing. By | | | | misanthropic Ku Klux Klan member. |
| then, of course, it could look back fondly. | | | | Where was evidence of their character? Their |
| The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is its temple to | | | | integrity? |
| the past. It's there that the game's relics, | | | | Members and their contemporaries always used |
| statistics and greatest stars are preserved. The | | | | whatever edge they could muster - spit, grease, |
| Hall has marketed itself brilliantly. It's made us | | | | aspirins, alcohol, amphetamines, cortisone shots, |
| believe it is something more than a tourist | | | | stolen signs and corked bats. So why pick on |
| attraction. It has done so by establishing an entry | | | | steroids? They weren't even forbidden by baseball |
| process nearly as rigorous as canonization in the | | | | rules when McGwire and his contemporaries used |
| Catholic Church. Indeed, it has borrowed the | | | | them. And, as Chapman notes, the science |
| sacred trappings of religion. Its plaque room is | | | | surrounding the drug remains murky. Do they |
| marked by a hushed darkness that brings to mind | | | | really do more good than harm? Do they really do |
| a chapel. Writers and Hall officials serve as its | | | | more good than cortisone? Or aspirins? No one |
| Swiss Guard, jealously guarding the gates. And | | | | really knows. |
| those with sins on their souls - sins, at least, in the | | | | "The guys on the plaques in Cooperstown are a |
| eyes of Hall guardians - are confined to a | | | | mixed bag, heroes and scoundrels, just like the |
| permanent purgatory. | | | | rest of humanity," Chapman wrote. "The players |
| But now, with a generation of steroid-using | | | | who arrive in the future won't be any different. |
| players coming due for Cooperstown | | | | The Hall of Fame doesn't enshrine saints, and it |
| consideration, the selection process won't be | | | | never has. It enshrines baseball greatness. And for |
| nearly so clear, looking back not nearly so | | | | the millions of people who love the game, that's |
| pleasant. Nuances, not numbers, will decide. | | | | more than enough." |
| McGwire finally admitted his steroid use this week, | | | | Each January, unless officials take some action, |
| one of the worst-kept secrets ever. His numbers, | | | | the controversy will continue to embarrass the |
| when the performance-enhancing substance is | | | | Hall and the game. With each passing season, |
| overlooked, seem to be Hall-worthy. As do Roger | | | | more and more players from that |
| Clemens' and Barry Bonds' and Sammy Sosa's | | | | statistics-bloated era, will become eligible. McGwire |
| and so many others from the tainted era. | | | | said he could have hit 70 homers without steroids. |
| So what should the Hall do? | | | | Clemens, despite much evidence to the contrary, |
| Leave the baseball writers to determine each | | | | has vociferously denied using them. Will each |
| individual on his merits? Or, as it did with Joe | | | | voter be left to sort out their claims for himself? |
| Jackson and Pete Rose, rule these miscreants | | | | Why not end the charade for good? Why not |
| officially ineligible? | | | | decide that future Hall membership will be based |
| Hall voters who have snubbed McGwire in his first | | | | exclusively on what happened between the foul |
| years of consideration - in four votes he has not | | | | lines. Not in the clubhouse. Not on the telephone in |
| gotten more than 25 percent; selectee must be | | | | the manager's office. Not in a man's heart. Not in |
| named on 75 percent of the ballots cast --like to | | | | a man's veins. If you don't approve of a player's |
| cite the words "character" and "integrity" in their | | | | frailties, walk past his plaque. |
| one-sentence charge: | | | | Only then will baseball be able to look ahead. It |
| "Voting shall be based upon the player's record, | | | | won't be the end of its drug troubles, but it will be |
| playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, | | | | a moment that recalls Winston Churchill's words to |
| and contribution to the team(s) on which the | | | | his people during World War II. |
| player played." | | | | "Now this is not the end. It is not even the |
| But the Hall of Fame, as author Zev Chapman | | | | beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of |
| points out in his fascinating new book, | | | | the beginning. |