Based on the strong reaction to the MassLive.com poll, readers feel passionately and split on whether suspected or admitted PED users should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.
With the steroids argument ignited again, The Republican and MassLive.com collaborated on a poll to judge how readers view the Baseball Hall of Fame candidacy of alleged performance enhancing drug (PED) users.
Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens are Hall of Fame eligible for the first time, prompting the latest wave of discussion of the steroids era. Members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) will cast their votes through the end of December, with candidates needing 75 percent of the vote for induction. The results of the vote will be announced Jan. 9.
Based on the strong reaction to the MassLive.com poll, readers feel passionately and split on whether suspected or admitted PED users should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.
The results of the poll show that 42.5 percent of the 640 voters believe PED users should never be allowed into the Hall of Fame; 31.4 percent believe so many players used PEDs, usage of them should not keep a candidate from induction; 10.9 percent believe a player's candidacy should be based on the amount of PED evidence against him; 10.7 percent believe a PED user's candidacy should be determined by his level of accomplishment; and 3.4 percent wrote in their own responses.
BBWAA members have the option of casting 10 Hall of Fame votes out of the 37 candidates eligibler. Based on the poll's results, The Republican and MassLive.com readers determined their 10 votes would be cast for:
"Again, our readers have proven to be passionate baseball fans," said Vern Hill, The Republican's sports editor. "Several of them used this opportunity to mention the candidacy of Pete Rose.
"I also suspect, looking at the ballot results, that the Yankee fans among our readers spoke loud and clear by voting in Don Mattingly and Bernie Williams."