Opinion: Not electing Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens into Baseball Hall of Fame sets quite a precedent

It’s the most controversial, polarizing and scandalous Hall of Fame ballot in history.

The seven greatest and most decorated players on the 30-man ballot, including two of the best players in baseball history, are linked to performance-enhancing drug use.

They have combined for 3,672 home runs, 77 All-Star Games, 12 MVP awards, seven Cy Youngs and 354 victories.

You’re familiar with the names, the numbers, World Series championships and Hall of Fame credentials.

You’re also painfully aware of their transgressions:

♦ Barry Bonds: Involvement with BALCO, the infamous Bay Area lab that produced designer PEDs.

♦ Roger Clemens: Implicated by trainer Brian McNamee’s testimony and the Mitchell Report.

♦ Alex Rodriguez: Caught, suspended a year, and admitted to PED use.

♦ Manny Ramirez: Suspended three times for PEDs.

♦ David Ortiz: Tested positive in 2003 anonymous drug test.

♦ Sammy Sosa: Tested positive in 2003 anonymous drug test, according to the New York Times.

♦ Gary Sheffield: Worked out with Bonds and his infamous trainer Greg Anderson from BALCO; named in Mitchell Report.

It likely will keep all but one from being elected into Cooperstown, not only now — the election results are announced Tuesday (6 p.m. ET, MLB Network) — but forever.

Take a bow, David Ortiz, who is trending at 84.1% of the needed 75% vote by Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker.

The standard, as flawed as it may be, has been set.

If Ortiz isn’t elected Tuesday, he’ll surely be in next year.

Bonds, Clemens and Sosa will be off the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot forever now that their 10 years of eligibility has expired.

The candidacies for Rodriguez, Ramirez, Sheffield and Andy Pettitte are all but over, too.

It also basically ends any Hall of Fame chance for Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, Yasmani Grandal or anyone else in the future who has been caught using PEDs.

HALL OF FAME: Breaking down the top candidates on the 2022 ballot

TIME RUNNING OUT FOR BARRY BONDS: Hall of Fame will be worse off without baseball's home run king

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW: Stay up to date with our sports newsletter

I’ve voted every year for Bonds and Clemens, who combined for 15 MVP and Cy Young Awards and are two of the greatest players to put on a baseball uniform.

They never flunked a drug trust. Never were suspended. And are the only ones who spent millions of dollars clearing their name in federal court.

They instead are guilty in the court of public opinion.

Do I believe they were clean?

No.

Do I believe that drug use was rampant and raging through the sport, with perhaps 50% of players and pitchers using PEDs?

Absolutely.

That’s why I believe we are making a terrible mistake in not separating those who were caught and suspended once MLB implemented its drug-testing policy in 2005 from everyone else.

My ballot included Bonds, Clemens, Ortiz, Sosa, Sheffield, Jeff Kent, Billy Wagner and Curt Schilling, but not A-Rod or Ramirez, who violated the drug-testing policy and badly damaged their teams with their suspensions.

Let’s be honest, before drug testing, Major League Baseball was the wild, wild west of doping.

It was driving without speed limits, seat belts, and with little attention to stop lights, knowing that no one was around to enforce erratic behavior on the highway to absurdity.

Remember those anonymous tests MLB conducted so they could determine if steroid tests were needed?

There were 104 players who tested positive, including Ortiz, and this is after every player was already informed in spring training they would be tested.

Can you imagine how many more players would have tested positive if they didn’t know the test was coming?

It was the worst-kept secret in baseball. Everyone who stepped into a clubhouse knew what was going on, and no one cared. Steroid use was actually encouraged. You want to help our team win, you want the big contract, you want to stick around in the game, you better take steroids and human growth hormone.

No harm. No foul. It’s your body.

There are Hall of Famers, particularly those elected in the past few years, who greatly benefited from steroid use.

There are Hall of Fame managers and executives who benefited from their players taking steroids.

And don’t be naïve, there are players today who are benefiting from PED use.

Oh, sure, there is plenty of testing, but it is only conducted at ballparks during the season — and with today’s advances in doping, it is easy to circumvent the system.

When the infamous Biogenesis scandal went down, 13 players, including Rodriguez, received at least 50-game suspensions. It was the most suspensions that were simultaneously imposed in the history of baseball.

Well, not a single one of the "Dirty 13" ever tested positive. They were only ensnared when a disgruntled ex-employee leaked clinical records to the Miami New Times.

If everyone still wasn’t looking for an edge, we would have never heard of Spider Tack and all of the foreign substances used by pitchers this past season to improve their grip and spin rates. It was a wake-up call for MLB to inform its pitchers in June to immediately stop without receiving automatic 10-game suspensions.

Now, with the BBWAA making its sentiments known loud and clear for the past 10 years on steroid users, wouldn’t it be outrageous if the stance is all for naught in 11 months?

Bonds and Clemens — and Sosa, too — are eligible to be elected into the Hall of Fame by Today's Game Committee in December. This 16-member group includes four former players and considers all players, managers, umpires and executives whose greatest contributions were from 1988 to 2016.

They’ll be on the ballot with favorites Fred McGriff and manager Bruce Bochy.

The committee is scheduled to meet twice every five years, and it could renew the steroid debate in perpetuity.

When the committee meets, surely the words of Joe Morgan, who was on the Hall of Fame board of directors, will echo throughout the room. He sent out letters to all of the BBWAA voters in November 2017, urging them not to cast a ballot for any alleged steroid user.

“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame," Morgan wrote. “They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here."

For now, the writers have spoken, and as hypocritical as it may be, Ortiz will be the lone member of this steroid class who is forgiven.

The two greatest players of the steroid era will be left outside of Cooperstown looking in.

Fair?

You be the judge.

Follow Bob Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baseball Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens are tipping point