Former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra spoke at length with Jesse Spector of Sporting News. One of the big topics they touched on was the inclusion of players proven or implicated to have used performance-enhancing drugs getting into the Hall of Fame. Nomar thinks they should be booted out if they have been proven to have cheated.
From Spector’s column:
For me, I don’t understand why you can’t go back. If you find that out and you find out the truth — you can’t go off assumptions, but when you find out the truth, why can’t you take a person out of the Hall of Fame if you found out he was taking PEDs? I don’t see why that’s so horrible to do. Or, if they had an award, I know they do it in the Olympics, they take away gold medals and things when they later find out. I don’t see why that’s so hard. I mean, they took away the Heisman Trophy, as well. There’s a lot of different ways people can go about it and say that it can still be done.
Using an eraser on baseball history opens up a pandora’s box. Once you get the steroid cheaters out, is that it, or do you go after amphetamine users? Spitballers? What about other morally-questionable inductees — the wife-beaters, the racists, the drunks? By itself, Garciaparra’s wish certainly makes sense, but unfortunately it raises more questions than it answers.
