Buster Olney is one of the most decorated Major League Baseball reporters. He started his career in 1989 as a beat reporter for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds and has been covering MLB teams since 1993. He says he will not cast his vote for the 2015 Hall of Fame ballot.
Olney believes he will give a number of deserving players a better chance to make the Hall of Fame if he doesn't cast a ballot. Players like Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling, Tim Raines, Craig Biggio and Randy Johnson will be among those eligible for induction, but Olney believes his voting philosophy will hurt their candidacy.
"As written in this space many times, I think all players should be judged within the context of the era in which they played," Olney wrote in an article published by ESPN on Thursday morning. Referring to the steroid-era, Olney says, "Like it or not, that's what the sport was in that time: no drug testing, lots of drug use, lots of drug users, lots of money being made by everybody. (And by the way, no team, baseball executive or player has offered to give back the money made in that time.)"
By that logic, Olney would likely cast a vote for Mark McGwire, who excelled during the steroid era and compiled a career total of 583 home runs and 1,414 RBIs, because that 15-year period of baseball was characterized by the use of performance-enhancing drugs. By Olney's logic, the context of that era would mean McGwire is a Hall of Famer. As a result, he believes the rules need to be adjusted before he casts another vote.
His main concern is with the "Rule of 10," which limits each member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America to cast votes for a maximum of 10 candidates. Olney says it wasn't a problem until steroid-era candidates hit the ballot because many voters were more apt to withhold votes for these players and vote for others who weren't associated with the PED time period. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza are among those who have received a low percentage of votes despite having Hall of Fame numbers - all of them played during the steroid era, but have no indisputable evidence suggesting they used PEDs.
"The list of serious candidates grew well beyond 10 spots. Last year I counted 17 players I thought were Hall of Fame-worthy, from Greg Maddux to Tom Glavine to Craig Biggio," Olney continued. "But because of the Rule of 10, I had to leave off seven players who I believe are of Hall of Fame caliber. That included Mussina, Schilling and Raines. For the first time since McGwire became eligible, I didn't cast a vote for him."
So until the Hall of Fame voting rules change, Olney will seemingly take a stand against the process he was once overly excited to partake in because he feels players worthy of the HOF are being hurt by his ballot.
