Alex Rodriguez remains on the outside looking in when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and suggested voters are guilty of “hypocrisy” when it comes to certain decisions on who gets elected.
Rodriguez took issue with the induction of former commissioner Bud Selig into the Hall of Fame. The former New York Yankee said it made little sense to punish the likes of Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds for alleged PED use when all of that happened on Selig’s watch.
“All of this stuff you’re talking about was under Bud Selig’s watch,” Rodriguez said on Stephen A. Smith’s SiriusXM show, via Denny Alfonso of The Athletic. “The fact that those two guys are not in, but somehow, Bud Selig is in the Hall of Fame, that to me feels like there’s a little bit, some hypocrisy around that.”
Selig was commissioner from 1992 to 2015. While his tenure was successful in certain areas, he oversaw the sport during the infamous era of PED use, and initially did little to try and crack down on it.
Rodriguez himself has admitted to using PEDs, and eventually cooperated with the Biogenesis probe that initially ensnared him. He received just 37.5% in last year’s balloting for the Hall of Fame, leaving him well short of the 75% required for election.
Rodriguez’s point is that Selig should not be celebrated while the players that thrived during his tenure are snubbed by the Hall of Fame. Few will feel sorry for the likes of McGwire and Bonds, but Rodriguez is clearly arguing that Selig does not deserve the honor either.
