OTHER VOICES: Steroids Create ‘Lost Generation’ At Hall of Fame

4-2-10

Once Jeff Bagwell and Roberto Alomar (both born in 1968) get voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame next January, there will be a strange generation gap in Cooperstown.
Actually it’s not as much of a generation gap as it’s a Generation Skip, which is why I’ve noticed it.
It’s Barry Bonds & My Generation (we are in this together) that have been, to this point, skipped, or have done things to make itself get skipped.
For multiple reasons, the players born from 1961-67 will be markedly unrepresented in Cooperstown for at least another year or two and maybe more, even though this is historically when my age-peers should be plowing into the HOF in solid waves.
Hmm.
Now I know this is not a barn-burner item, that’s for sure. I expect this one to be met with yawns and fleeing from this site. But sometimes that happens – or maybe oftentimes – no matter the topic.
...How come there’s such a huge age gap in HoF inductees? Why is Cal Ripken Jr. (born August 1960), elected THREE years ago, still the youngest member of Cooperstown?
Some early theories…
1. They’re playing longer, extending careers deeper than the previous generation, delaying the HOF inductions of obvious candidates like Bonds, Clemens (maybe, maybe) and Maddux.
2. Steroids pumped up and prolonged many of their careers. These first two reasons are probably related.
3. Many talented players who either honorably chose not to take PEDs or were not successful taking them had their careers truncated far short of HOF consideration because they couldn’t keep up with the Steroid Age players.
I’m thinking about potentially clean, talented guys who had some good early to mid-career years, then were pushed to the side.
Guys like Ellis Burks, Chuck Nagy, Gregg Jefferies, Rod Beck, Cecil Fielder, Mark Grace. (All born after August 1960). They’re the probable casualties of the Steroid Age.
Update: How could I forget possibly the classic case of a big talent hitter who didn’t muscle up and ended up getting blitzed by Canseco, McGwire et al., in the Balloon Body & Stat Era?
By that, I mean: WILL CLARK, born in 1964. (Same year as Bonds, by the way.)
Clark is maybe The Classic Case of a non-PED player who got his potential Cooperstown ticket erased by the rise of steroids and his decision not to partake, and his body breaking down along the way.
3. The voting bloc seems to be getting tougher on first- and second-year eligibles. This also might be related to Reason No. 2.
4. Hitting numbers were so crazy during the Steroid Era that some guys with borderline HOF numbers or even above are getting marked down amid the balloon totals around them.
Also related to Reason No. 2.
Yes, PEDs seem to be the issue here. Gwynn and Ripken were clearly and rightly viewed as clean. and after them, it’s hard to pull out a sure-fire clean superstar from this lost generation of alleged PED-infestation.

Tim Kawakami, sports columnist for the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, recently posted this on his blog.