Jim Rice, who will be enshrined in Cooperstown with another baseball icon Rickey Henderson on July 26, spoke on Friday against steroid use and bad vibes spread by steroids in baseball. He suggested that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, among others, just do not belong in the Hall of Fame.
In a conference call arranged by the Hall of Fame, Rice went on to say that baseball players who used steroids to better their on-field performance or against the game of baseball do not deserve a place in the hall of fame.
From Sfgate.com:
“You can almost look at the same thing as Pete Rose,” Rice said on a conference call arranged by the Hall of Fame. “I think if they did something wrong to enhance the game of baseball or go against the game of baseball, they shouldn’t be in. That’s just me.”
Regarding steroids, Rice said of the players already enshrined, “You didn’t find anything that they did wrong. They’re in the Hall of Fame. All of a sudden, you pick someone who did something wrong, and they say, ‘Well, we’re going to overlook that because he was a Hall of Famer before that.’ Nah. Uh-uh. I don’t believe in that. If you’re going to be that way, you’ve got to be straight with everyone.”
Both Bonds, a seven-time MVP, and Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, elevated their games in their late 30s and early 40s and are targets of federal investigations into whether they lied about using steroids. Both were considered Hall of Fame worthy before their first link to performance-enhancing drugs.
“If they used steroids, it’s up to the writers to make the decision. As Hall of Famers, we have no vote,” Rice said. “You go back and ask, ‘Was he a Hall of Famer before they caught him using steroids?’ So you’re telling your kids, ‘Hey, you can use steroids now, don’t get caught.’ “
It is believed that many of the several Hall of fame decorated players expressed their discontent of players who used steroids at one point or the other in their playing days, including Rich Gossage who was one of the last year’s inductee, who motivated young players to fess up with steroids for the good of the game.
