One of the Hall of Fame’s voting rules states that a player’s character should be taken into account. The character clause, as it has become known, gained relevance as steroid users, both admitted and suspected, began to appear on ballots. He turned his ballot over to the readers of Deadspin, allowing them to vote on whom he should include. “In a climate without reform, my next 20 years of votes will be counted but not actually heard,” he wrote. “At least this gets it heard, for better or for worse.”The Baseball Hall of Fame still believes writers are “the best electorate for Major League players’ inclusion in the Hall of Fame,” according to a statement from its chairman, Jane Forbes Clark.

Source: New York Times January 24, 2021 15:00 UTC