Jose Canseco, a poster boy of baseball’s steroid era didn’t take the Jeff Bagwell Hall of Fame nod Wednesday night lightly.
Canseco, who helped blow the lid off the perceived PED problem within baseball lauded the Bagwell selection on Twitter while also taking aim at Tom Verducci for his belief that Bagwell was clean throughout his career.
Tom verducci's ballot what an idiot he said Jeff Bagwell never used steroids
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
Tom verducci's ballot for the Hall of Fame what an idiot he said that Jeff Bagwell never use steroids you have got to be kidding me right
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
The only people who should be able to vote on the Hall of Fame are the players themselves from that era who understood the era
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
bud selig gets an honorary needle in the ass as the leader of the ped era. Put that on his plaque
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
My message is simple Tom verducci if you let one ped user in the Hall of Fame you've got to let all the others that qualify also
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
My message is simple Tom verducci if you let one ped user in the Hall of Fame you've got to let all the others that qualify also
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
How the f*** is Jeff Bagwell being inducted into the Hall of Fame and Mark mcgwire's not that is disgusting
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
It's a great day for the hypocrisy of the Hall of Fame voting induct all that used Peds or induct none
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
How it's not Mark McGwire Sammy Sosa Roger Clemens Rafael palmeiro not in the Hall of Fame that is a travesty
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
And definitely bonds should be in the Hall of Fame are you kidding me that is disgusting
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
Bagwell was never named in the Mitchell Report however has been the subject of what Jay Jaffe of SI.com called a ‘whisper campaign’ surrounding the speculation of the Astros’ first baseman’s PED use. And although Bagwell did admit to using androstenedione in 1998 long before it was banned by the MLB, he always came up clean whenever presented with a drug test.
Baseball isn’t going to be able to avoid putting in a PED user at some point. That particular era produced some of the best players in the game’s history and it shouldn’t be looked over. So in many aspect Canseco is right. It’s silly the home run king isn’t in Cooperstown nor is a guy who’s widely considered one of the most dominant pitchers in MLB history.
