If you follow the voting history, it’s plain to see the majority of Hall of Fame voters will not vote for a player confirmed to have used PEDs. The question is what happens with everyone else as you can create a hypothetical that anyone used steroids. 

Some voters use that opportunity to create false narratives. For some, like Murray Chass, it appears he has an axe to grind. For others, they just don’t bother to research their claims, thereby just guessing who did and who didn’t use steroids. Others pull stuff out of thin air. There are too many guys who lump guys together without making any distinction. At the end of the day, it’s a player like Mike Piazza, who gets his name dragged through the mud without so much as an explanation. Piazza is left standing outside the Hall of Fame asking “what does acne have to do with steroids?”

The answer is that it doesn’t matter. There was a time when reporters sought proof for their allegations. You used to need a source or documentation. Now, all you need is a byline and a hunch. This is best shown with Bob Nightengale‘s latest column. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the guy who famously tweeted this:

Ben Zobrist has a four-year, $80 million offer on the table. The #Mets still considered favorites to ultimately land him.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 8, 2015

I’m putting that out there before you take any of the following too seriously. Keep in mind that despite acknowledging Piazza has forever denied using steroids, Piazza having never failed a test, and Piazza’s name never coming up in any investigation, he’s accusing him of using steroids. In effect, this would be like if Deep Throat was Woodward and/or Bernstein. No one needs any facts; unfounded conjecture will do just nicely. 

Essentially, his case that Piazza used steroids boils down to this:

[Piazza’s denials] counters concerns of PED use aired almost exclusively in private by former teammates, opponents, scouts and management who were struck by Piazza’s rise froma modest  amateur career to a muscle bound slugger who hit balls clear out of Dodger Stadium. 

The insinuation is because Piazza was a very low round draft pick, he must’ve cheated. How is that fair?  Furthermore, how is it fair that all of these supposed people who accuse Piazza were anonymous?  Keep in mind there has still yet to be a teammate, opponent, or even a ball boy who has named Piazza as a steroids user. It’s all rumor.  If that was sufficient, we would all believe the married father of three is homosexual. I guess Nightengale has a source on that one too. 

You know what’s even worse about Nightengale’s assumptions?  Their just plain wrong. In fact, it took the Rising Apple very little time to disprove it:

Here's a large snippet from the 1985 Piazza article. Last one! CC @BNightengale. A retraction would be cool. pic.twitter.com/gc5TUZKfDY

— Rising Apple (@RisingAppleBlog) January 4, 2016

So yeah, Piazza had power as an amateur. Also, look at his minor league stats. Piazza hit 26+ home runs in each year he played in a full time minor league level. He did that despite being young for his leagues. You see Piazza could always hit and hit for power. It was just a question of where he would play. 

You may ask why does all this matter especially if Nightengale is voting for Piazza. There’s two reasons. The first is the he’s not the only voter operating with these unfounded accusations (the others use it to withhold their votes). The second is because people mistakenly see Piazza’s induction as a path for confirmed users like Roger Clemens. How ironic. 

So what happens is the greatest hitting catcher of all time waits to see if he’ll be elected on the fourth or fifth ballot. People are acting upon this rumor mongering and unproven suspicions. 

If you follow Ryan Thibs on Twitter and/or his Hall of Fame Tracker, you have seen Piazza’s early support dwindle from the low to mid 90’s to 86.5%. This is just from 35.1% of the voters. Last year, Piazza received 75.1% on published ballots and just 62.1% on unpublished ballots. Overall, Piazza finished with 68.8% of the vote. Unsurprisingly, the people who are afraid to put their names to a ballot are the ones who are most comfortable pretending Piazza used steroids. 

If Piazza’s vote total again dips by 6.3%, he will be elected with around 80.2% of the vote. It’s not a large margin of error. With a changing electorate, I’m not sure if we can expect a similar regression in the unpublished vote totals. It’s a wild card. It means it’s going to be close. I’m hoping Piazza gets elected, but I’m not counting on it. He may just have to wait until 2017, and that’s not right. 

If he does the Bob Nightengales of the world will have to look in the mirror and ask if it was worth smearing a player with no actual proof. Either way, they should ask what type of integrity they have publishing unfounded rumors. What journalistic standards asked that uphold. I presume none. 

 It’s time to stop punishing Piazza for bad journalism and elect him to the Hall of Fame.