POSTED BY Coley Ward ON 9:13 pm, June 21, 2012 - POSTED IN News reel
“Are we going to reward these guys for cheating?” That’s what Goose Gossage recently asked Michael Kay and Don La Greca on ESPN New York 98.7. Gossage is opposed to Roger Clemens and any steroid user getting into the Hall of Fame. This is hardly a unique position. But Gossage, who was inducted into the Hall in 2008, also admits he would have taken steroids had he played during the steroids era.
I don’t have access to Goose. But if I did, this is how I imagine an interview with him would go:
Me: You don’t think steroid users should be elected to the Hall of Fame?
Goose: Cheaters? Does a test count when you get busted for cheating on a test. No and neither should steroids. There is no place for them in the Hall of Fame.
Me: You think using steroids is wrong. It’s cheating and should keep guys out of the Hall, right?
Goose: Absolutely.
Me: You are in the Hall of Fame.
Goose: Yup!
Me: But you admit you would have used steroids if they had been around in your era?
Goose: I probably would have.
Me: So if using steroids is an ethical failure that justifies keeping somebody out of the Hall of Fame, and you admit that you aren’t ethically superior to Roger Clemens or any of the other players who used steroids, doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame either?
Goose: But I didn’t use steroids.
Me: But only because they weren’t readily available!
Goose: Right.
Me: So you get into the Hall of Fame because you were lucky enough to play during the pre-steroids era, while Clemens is held out for using steroids — a choice you admit you would have made too, given the chance?
Goose: I suppose.
Me: Thanks Goose.
The next day ESPN calls and offers me my own talk show, Quite Seriously with Coley Ward, which is canceled six months later.
