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With Bagwell being an admitted andro user and for whom other PED allegations were swirling around - with no evidence - and for Raines being an admitted cocaine user (during games), should we expect Bonds, Clemens, and others to make the hall sooner rather than later?
Ivan Rodriguez, Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell prove Hall of Fame does forgive
These three perennial All-Stars played during two of the worst scandals in Major League Baseball.
Two of them played during the steroid era and were suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs.
One played during baseball’s cocaine era, testifying during the Pittsburgh drug trial that he used the drug during games, keeping a vial in his uniform back pocket.
Now, all is forgiven as Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez were elected Wednesday into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
They have reached baseball immortality and will be inducted with former commissioner Bud Selig and former general manager John Schuerholz on July 30 at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The vote and election certainly showed a softening toward suspected PED users by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Rodriguez, who was accused of steroid use by former teammate Jose Canseco in his book and lost 30 pounds before MLB’s testing program with penalties in 2005, faced significant skepticism.
Bagwell, suspected of PED use but with no paper trail to prove it, was forced to wait seven years until finally making it.
Ivan Rodriguez, Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell prove Hall of Fame does forgive