The 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced on Wednesday, with Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza getting voted into Cooperstown. Piazza got in with 83 percent of the vote, while Griffey set a new record with 99.3 percent as he was on 437 of 440 ballots cast. And, honestly, it’s hard to believe three people didn’t vote for Junior. Who are those monsters? They should have their ballots revoked forever.
As has become tradition around this time of year, the debate about whether steroid guys should be allowed into the Hall has heated up once again, as some big names with HOF-worthy numbers were denied entry into yet another induction class. Among those names was Roger Clemens, who came in at 45.2 percent.
Clemens — a seven-time Cy Young winner, 11-time All-Star, 354-game winner, and third all-time in strikeouts — has been kept out of the Hall due to accusations of steroid use. Despite Clemens being one of the most dominant pitchers of all-time, there are still those who believe that his alleged PED use is enough to keep him out of Cooperstown. Former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay, who was very briefly teammates with Clemens in Toronto, is one of those people.
When you use PEDs you admit your not good enough to compete fairly! Our nations past time should have higher standards! No Clemens no Bonds!
— Roy Halladay (@RoyHalladay) January 6, 2016
Halladay’s strong, opinionated take was sent prior to the announcement of results on Wednesday, and it didn’t sit well with Clemens, who waited until after the results were official before firing back. In a statement to Mark Berman, sports director at Fox26 in Houston, Clemens expressed disappointment in Halladay’s “asinine” post before levying accusations of PED use against Halladay himself.
.@rogerclemens gets 45.2% of votes for HOF,up from 37.5last year.The 7time CyYoung winner issued following statement pic.twitter.com/qclbFxRcYW
— Mark Berman (@MarkBerman_) January 7, 2016
Halladay has never been named on any of the steroid reports or tested positive for any banned substances, so the accusation from Clemens is a bit surprising. Either way, pitcher fiiiiiiiiiiiight!
It’ll be interesting to see if Halladay responds to Clemens’ statement after his anti-steroid Hall of Fame celebration party ends, or whether he’ll just wait until next year to get some more punches in.
