Estimable baseball writer Tim Brown has a column up today that’s either about how Bud Selig’s election to the Hall of Fame shows up the condemnation of players such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens by the likes of the veteran baseball writers who have refused to vote them into the Hall of Fame for the farce that it is, or about how people who think that Bud Selig’s election to the Hall of Fame shows up the condemnation of players such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens by the likes of the veteran baseball writers who have refused to vote them into the Hall of Fame for the farce that it is refuse to face the fact that it was labor, not management, that was responsible for the drug scandals baseball faced in the aughts.
The Deadspin staff has been unable to determine which position Brown takes. We’ll turn to Brown here.
Brown:
What’s important, then, now that 15 people on a 16-person committee hardly anyone ever heard of before two weeks ago decided Bud was Cooperstown worthy, is to make fair, fair. If Bud, who at his worst did not wrest syringes from the hands of offenders, must be recognized for his career, then those whose hands were not freed of those syringes must also be recognized.
Brown:
No, we’re not so big on accountability anymore, so it’s a good thing Bud was around, standing as he did between the owners making all that money and the players making all that money, nobody wanting to admit there was a problem, at least not until everybody else knew there was a problem and there was no more denying it. And it’s an especially good thing Bud is being inducted into the Hall of Fame now, because that clears up that bit of ickiness, because if Bud’s in everybody’s in, because Bud drove the damned bus, straight over the bloated bodies of all those men who couldn’t possibly have known any better.
Brown:
The important thing is we still have a villain. It’s not the guy whose jersey anybody wears. It’s not the home run champ or the 300-game winner, thank god. It’s not the little guys who chased the shortcuts, or the big guys whose chased an extra million dollars, or the ‘tweeners who had three kids to support, or even the knuckleheads who fell face-first into a pile of greenies. Accidentally. The system practically begged them to shoot up. It’s the system’s fault. We see that now.
So open the doors. Let ’em in. Because, you know, they were enabled by a guy who should have known better and could have taken a stand. As opposed to, you know, now, which is way different.
Confused, we at last turn to Brown:
If you have inside knowledge of whether the point here is that it’s ridiculous that Bud Selig—who turned a blind eye to drug use in the major leagues so long as it made money for him and his owner cronies—was elected to the Hall of Fame while great ballplayers have been kept out for being tied to drug use, or whether the point is that ultimately ballplayers are to blame for having been tied to drug use and that Bud Selig should be judged simply on whether or not he did well at his job of making money for owners, please hit us up at [email protected].