Putting Bonds, Clemens into HOF would be an endorsement of drugs

I've been surprised to learn how some baseball writers have declared that they'll vote for Bonds and Clemens because they were the best players in an era when drug use was widespread ---- ergo if there's a lot of guilt going around, then nobody should be assigned guilt.

Of course, we do not know how many baseball players took steroids, but it certainly never involved more than a small percentage. It was never, for example, like the Tour de France where drugs were as common as toothpaste. But what the baseball writers must not forget is that the dopers did not just pad their own statistics. They keep score in games; by definition, sports are zero sum. By taking unfair advantage, the druggies hurt the players who played fair.

Now, in a team game it's impossible to measure exactly how much any one individual was harmed. But let me read you some names, most of which will mean nothing to you: Wendy Boglioli, Camille Wright, Linda Jezek, Lauri Siering, Shirley Babashoff, Rosalyn Bryant, Debra Sapenter, Sheila Ingram, Pamela Jiles, Kathy McMillan, Frank Shorter.

Those are all American Olympians, who we know were robbed of gold medals in just two sports in just one Olympics,1976, because we know now that the East Germans who beat them were on drugs. There were far more baseball players robbed by our own cheats; it's just impossible to pinpoint in a team sport. The baseball writers should remember those Olympians; from that sample, extrapolate the many baseball innocent who were hurt. Honor them.

We cannot unravel the past, but the one way -- even if its only symbolic -- to punish drug cheats is to withhold from them any recognition. The battle against drugs in sports is forever. A Senate hearing into doping in thoroughbred racing is going on now. Lance Armstrong is finally about to face the music in drug court. But just because it was a drug era in baseball does not mean, so glibly, well, everybody did it. To vote for Bonds and Clemens for the Hall of Fame is, above all, an insult to all the good guys who played fair.

Boglioli, Wright, Jezek, Siering, Babashoff, Bryant, Sapenter, Ingram, Jiles, McMillan, Shorter. Remember the names -- robbed by other athletes using drugs. Multiply by a hundred or more and those were the honest baseball players robbed. To let in obvious dopers is not just to excuse them, but it is, effectively, an endorsement of drugs . . . and foremost: a slap in the face to all athletes, in all sports, who lost whatever their gold medal was. . . to cheaters.

Published Jul 19, 2012 | Modified Jul 19, 2012

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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