Baseball writers need guidance from Hall of Fame

One year. One measly year.

That?s all the time left before the three-player crash that proves once and for all how broken the Hall of Fame voting process has become.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa are due on the Hall ballot for the first time next December. Barring direction from the Hall of Fame?s board of directors, 580-plus voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America again will be left to determine how to handle the legacies of players implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Was it OK to get some chemical help because so many players were doing it? Or does being a steroid guy disqualify you from membership, as voters are asked to consider the "integrity, sportsmanship, character" of candidates?

My take on the brokenness of the process is this: 581 voters, 581 standards.

It?s ridiculous to expect me and the other 580 who voted a year ago to sort this out. Many of my brethren disagree, but we hardly have the information we need for these calls. We don?t know who did and who did not use steroids, and we never will.

All we know is which guys have been implicated publicly, through positive tests (Manny Ramirez [stats] and Rafael Palmeiro), the Mitchell Report (Clemens) and reporting (Bonds, Mark McGwire). Then there are guys like Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz [stats] and Sosa, who are reported to have tested positive in 2003 survey testing, which was done under a since-violated guarantee of anonymity.

The whole thing is beyond a slippery slope. It?s an icy crevasse.

The one thing that is clear is that players with any link to performance-enhancing drugs aren?t currently welcome in Cooperstown. McGwire, the test case, has been on the ballot five years, never has received more than 23.7 percent of the vote and received 13 fewer votes in 2011 than in 2010.

While Jeff Bagwell never was linked to steroid use, he improved his body taking androstenedione when it was sold off the shelves at GNC and told ESPN in 2010 that he had "no problem" with a player juicing up. He received 41.7 percent as a first-timer and returns for his second year on the ballot in the voting that ends Sunday and will be released Jan. 9.

It?s impossible to know if that 42 percent rating is a reflection on his play - he?s a Hall of Famer in my book - or if he?s considered a steroid user, even if his only real tie is to androstenedione when it was sold over the counter.

My interpretation says guys who took advantage of baseball?s lack of testing to do as they pleased - Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Clemens, Rodriguez and Palmeiro, among others - disqualified themselves for the Hall because integrity is among the listed factors for voting. But I need some evidence. I don?t believe I can eliminate every brawny player on suspicion alone.

If the New York Times [NYT] had not reported Sosa was on the list of 104 players testing positive in 2003, I would have felt I had to vote for him even though he seemed as complicit as Bonds and McGwire. There has to be some standard of fairness, even if it allows a good cheat to beat the system.

Rather than reward some cheaters and sanction others, you can say _ as ESPN?s Buster Olney does - players should be judged only by what they have done on the field. But I can?t get there in my thinking when voting rules cite "integrity, sportsmanship, character ..."

Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the Hall?s board, needs to take some ownership of the issue. The BBWAA serves at the Hall?s discretion. There has been discussion at recent BBWAA meetings about seeking clarification from the Hall, but a vote asking for help was rejected in 2010. That doesn?t mean voters don?t need help; it means many aren?t humble enough to ask for it.

Jeff Idelson, president of the Hall, cites the BBWAA?s stance in explaining why the Hall hasn?t entered the discussion.

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