Joe Morgan has an important message for those who cast votes for baseball’s Hall of Fame: Please keep “known steroid users” out of Cooperstown.
One day after the Hall announced its 2018 ballot, the 74-year-old Morgan, who grew up in Oakland,
sent a letter to each person on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s voting list. In it, he argued his case for excluding players implicated during baseball’s steroid era.
Morgan is the vice chairman of the Hall and sits on its board of directors and his note was sent from his Hall email address. While he maintains he’s not speaking for every Hall of Fame member, Morgan said many of them share his opinion.
“The more we Hall of Famers talk about this — and we talk about it a lot — we realize we can no longer sit silent,” Morgan wrote in his letter. “Many of us have come to think that silence will be considered complicity. Or that fans might think we are ok if the standards of election to the Hall of Fame are relaxed, at least relaxed enough for steroid users to enter and become members of the most sacred place in Baseball. We don’t want fans ever to think that.
“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here.
“Players who failed drug tests, admitted using steroids, or were identified as users in Major League Baseball’s investigation into steroid abuse, known as the Mitchell Report, should not get in. Those are the three criteria that many of the players and I think are right.”
Despite Morgan’s extensive, active role with the Hall of Fame, the Hall would still have you believe his message to voters isn’t coming from the Hall of Fame itself.
Jon Shestakofsky, a spokesman for the Hall of Fame, called Morgan’s letter “a Hall of Famer initiative.”
“Our role at the Hall of Fame was to support our players who feel strongly enough about this issue that they decided to speak out,” Shestakofsky said in an email. “They took the lead and asked us to provide administrative support to help get their message out.”
Morgan was inducted into the Hall in 1990 after a stellar 22-year career that saw him win back-to-back National League MVPs in 1975-76 and help the Reds win the World Series championship both years. The 10-time All-Star finished his career by playing two seasons with the Giants and his final season with the A’s in 1984.
About 430 ballots are being sent to eligible voters from the BBWAA, and a player must receive at least 75 percent for election. Ballots are due by Dec. 31 and results will be announced Jan. 24.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
