There's no * beside Aaron's career

True HR king, Gossage slam Steroids Era stars

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Finally.

At long last, someone whose opinion really matters -- legitimate Home Run King Hank Aaron -- has spoken out about how players from baseball's Steroids Era should be remembered.

Can you say asterisk?

Aaron, speaking during the Hall of Fame induction weekend for Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and the late Joe Gordon, said it's only right that the accomplishments of the steroids players are duly explained. "Do you put guys in [the Hall] with an asterisk behind their name and say, 'Hey, they did it, but here's why.' To be safe, I think that's the only way you can do it ... I've played the game long enough, and you've watched it long enough, to know it's impossible for players, I don't care who they are, to hit 70-some home runs [in a season]. It just does not happen."

I have just two things to add to that:

1) Bravo.

2) Take that, Barry Bonds!

It was Bonds who set the single-season home run record at 73 -- phony as it might be -- in 2001 and it was Bonds who broke Aaron's career mark in 2007, also amidst great controversy. Although Bonds technically holds both records, more and more people, inside and out of baseball, as they learn more about the Steroids Era, are recognizing Roger Maris and Aaron as the true home run champions.

Which is as it should be.

That Aaron finally decided to speak out so strongly about the issue is significant. He has just as much clout in the game now as he did when he whacked 755 home runs. Maybe it was all of the steroids talk this season -- Alex Rodriguez's admission that he was a user earlier in his career, Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension and news that Sammy Sosa failed a performance-enhancing drug test in 2003 -- that pushed Aaron to go public with his thoughts. The reason doesn't matter. What matters is that when he talks, clear-thinking people listen. They need to know that what the Steroids Era did to baseball is a travesty.

Aaron said something else the other day that was just as instructive. He said more than a few of his fellow Hall of Famers would boycott the induction ceremony for any of the steroids players or -- worse -- walk off the stage when those players were introduced.

What a nightmarish embarrassment that would be for baseball.

A deserved nightmarish embarrassment, of course.

"I'd boycott, or whatever you want to call it," Hall of Fame pitcher Goose Gossage said at the same media briefing Saturday. "What this place means ... it is so sacred.

"I think if you cheated, you shouldn't be allowed in. ... What's an asterisk? I don't think they should be allowed in."

I repeat:

Bravo.

Those who are sympathetic to the steroids players or don't care that they used performance-enhancers to achieve their prodigious statistics don't realize what's at stake here. The Hall of Fame truly is a sacred place. Those people need to know that many of those who honored the game with their legitimate performances want nothing to do with those who disgraced it.

Certainly, many Hall of Famers would cry if the day comes when Pete Rose gets in. Not Aaron, who, surprisingly, is pro-Rose for the Hall, but a lot of the others. Rose shook the integrity of the game by betting on baseball and deserved the lifetime ban he received 20 years ago. He shows up in Cooperstown, N.Y., each induction weekend to shamelessly sell his autographs and memorabilia. It's nice to think that's the closest he'll ever get to the Hall.

It's just as obvious that Gossage isn't alone among the Hall of Famers when it comes to the steroids issue. I'm guessing a majority don't want those who have been linked to performance-enhancers -- directly or indirectly -- in their exclusive club.

I promise to do my part in their honor.

I have a Hall of Fame vote and I won't be casting it for the steroids players.

Ever.

Not for Bonds, Rodriguez, Ramirez or Sosa. Not for Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield or Roger Clemens.

I can't pretend that those players didn't exist or that their inflated numbers didn't happen, but I sure as heck don't have to vote for them to receive the game's greatest honor.

That seems like the least I can do as conscientious voter, not just for Aaron, Gossage and the others, but for the sacredness of the Hall.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on July 28, 2009 at 12:00 am