Advertisement

Baseball Hall of Fame: Joe Morgan asks voters to block PED users

By The Sports Xchange
Baseball Hall of Fame Twitter
Baseball Hall of Fame Twitter

Hall of Fame vice chairman Joe Morgan emailed every eligible voter from the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday, writing that "steroid users don't belong" in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Morgan's email, which he said he wrote on behalf of "many of the Hall of Famers," comes one day after the 2018 ballot was released.

Advertisement

"We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don't belong here," wrote Morgan, a two-time National League Most Valuable Player who was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.

"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. Those are the three criteria that many of the players and I think are right."

Former stars Roger Clemens (54.1 percent) and Barry Bonds (53.8 percent) received their highest vote totals last year, moving closer to the 75 percent required for enshrinement.

"It's gotten to the point where Hall of Famers are saying that if steroid users get in, they'll no longer come to Cooperstown for Induction Ceremonies or other events," the 74-year-old Morgan wrote. "Some feel they can't share a stage with players who did steroids. The cheating that tainted an era now risks tainting the Hall of Fame too. The Hall of Fame means too much to us to ever see that happen. If steroid users get in, it will divide and diminish the Hall, something we couldn't bear."

Advertisement

The ballot is being mailed this week to more than 425 voting members of the BBWAA. Voters have until Dec. 31 to file their paper ballots, with the results to be announced on Jan. 24.

Latest Headlines