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Dodgers: Hall-of-Fame Voters Using ‘Pretzel Logic’ Says MLB Expert

The results of the 2022 Baseball Hall-of-Fame election were announced last week. It was a momentous occasion, but for the wrong reasons. Boston Red Sox icon David Ortiz was the only player elected to the Hall. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens failed to make the cut in their final year of regular legibility.



ESPN’s Buster Olney provided his perspective on what seems to be the current logic of the Hall-of-Famer votes, the BBWAA.

“I’ve laughed over the last seven years of the logic pretzel the writers go into. ‘Well, I’m voting for this guy, but I’m not voting for Sammy Sosa because of this.’ Can you please stop?”

To Olney’s point, many baseball fans, players, and analysts were incensed that Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, and other sluggers from the Steroid Era have repeatedly failed to get elected to the Hall-of-Fame, while Ortiz made it in his first year of eligibility. Those fans point to the New York Times Mitchell Report that stated that Ortiz tested positive for PEDs in 2003.

From their perspective, if Ortiz was worthy, so are the aforementioned sluggers others.

Olney doesn’t entirely blame the voters. He noted that the Hall-of-Fame has given them zero support in an unprecedented situation.

“Here’s the other thing too that drives me crazy. I used the term, ‘the writers have been deputized as the retroactive morality police’. The baseball writers went to the hall of fame years ago and asked for guidance when it came to the Steroid Era candidates. The Hall-of-Fame response was, ‘Nah, we’re not going to give you guys any guidance. You guys take care of it.’”

It’s important to note that Buster Olney, along with his co-worker Jeff Passan, no longer vote for the Hall-of-Fame.

Like many, Olney believes there needs to be wholesale changes to the voters’ thought process when it comes to Steroid Era candidates.

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Eric Eulau

Born and raised in Ventura, not "Ven-CH-ura", California. Favorite Dodger Stadium food is the old school chocolate malt with the wooden spoon. Host of the Dodgers Nation 3 Up, 3 Down Podcast.

3 Comments

    1. I agree, all of them in the different sports are a thing of the past. Without the annual voting results being published not most would forget they exist.

  1. Here’s a thought, just take the decision out of sportswriters hands and come up with a more equitable way of enshrining a player into the HOF? Sportswriters have shown time and again that they can’t take personal prejudice out of the equation and vote entirely on a players on field performance and impact on the game.

    Or, maybe, a sportswriters must justify their vote for inclusion/exclusion into the HOF and have that vote and justification tied back to that writer before their vote is counted. They need to help accountable. Otherwise, as it is, the HOF is just a “good ol’ boys” club and has no relevancy to anyone.

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