We’ve come around again to the time of year when certain sportswriters search their souls and write the powerful story they find there.
Who belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame? When the baseball writers of America tell us who they think does and doesn’t, they’re breaking an important news story. That’s because the baseball writers don’t just think, they decide: the immortality of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and every other candidate is in their hands.
The Tribune‘s Phil Rogers allows that he’s perplexed. “In regard to knowing how to treat known users of banned drugs designed to enhance performance, the best we can do is follow outdated instructions that say ‘integrity’ is among the factors to be weighed,” he wrote last week. “In terms of knowing who did what and who was clean—well, at least as clean as the guys who gobbled amphetamines and are already in the Hall (pretty much everyone who played after the Vietnam War)—this is truly an exercise in the blind leading the blind.”