I’ve said this before about Dwight Gooden.
You grab me in the late 80’s and start paying me $2 million a year as a teenager, and yeah I’m going to have a good time. I would have been on the Upper East Side every night with my Mets jersey on so that you would have no doubt that it was me. Who knows what trouble I might have gotten into.
A few years later regular ol’ me used to frequent the Dublin Pub on Long Island. There were Mets there almost every Sunday night chasing the same girls I did. If I were a Met I probably would have gotten a few more dates. Make me a 25 year old millionaire and maybe I would have done some jerky things.
Later, in this world where I’m a player, someone comes to me and suggests that andro/the cream/whatever might help me slug through August or rehab faster or keep me playing at my best in my free agent year – who knows, maybe I would be tempted.
Maybe I could have played in the 60’s and taken some greenies.
Keith Hernandez did cocaine. We like him. Doc & Darryl have had their faults. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle? Colorful characters. We like them. We forgive. Not everyone can be ex-Marine long-time family man Tom Seaver.
To have a Hall of Fame that ignores guys with 500 or 600 or 700 (!) home runs is silly. To ignore guys with 350 wins will be silly. A-Rod is already at 613 home runs at age 34 and is signed thru 2017. Whatcha gonna do about that baseball?
Put them all in, with the druggies, the spitballers, the bat-corkers and the racists. It’s a museum.
You can have a plaque say “Pete Rose retired with 4,256 hits, the most of any player. He was declared permanently ineligible from baseball in 1989.” Why can’t a plaque say “Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ season home run record in 1998 and was celebrated throughout the land. In 2010 Mark admitted taking steroids including during the 1998 season.”
As a parent I do my part. Junior knows A-Rod took steroids. He knows we don’t root for Michael Vick while acknowledging he had an MVP-caliber season.
The 1919 World Series still belongs to the Reds no matter what went on. Clemens won 354, Bonds hit 762 and 73, Pete hit 4256. Too bad. I’m sorry you don’t like it. Baseball has already been ruined when I have to look up that 762 number. We used to know those things.
Bud Selig should have Amnesty Day and invite everyone to confess to whatever they want. The media (and bloggers) can have a field day and then we can all move on.
If any former Mets wind up taking Bud up on the offer I’m sure we’ll be sad/angry/frustrated for a few days and then go back to liking them.
Just ask Doc.