Baseball Insider: A Rocket crash landing?

The brown envelope with my Hall of Fame ballot arrived this week, and I was too busy covering steroids news to open it.

For baseball, that's a sign of the times.

Our votes are due Dec. 31. I hope to make sense of this by then.

When the Mitchell Report bombshell hit Thursday, it left Hall voters with another major dilemma.

What happens when Roger Clemens hits the ballot?

"Yes, I will vote for Clemens," said USA Today's Bob Nightengale. "The bottom line is that we really don't know who cheated or who didn't cheat, so I have no choice but to put everyone on the same playing field."

"No, I would not [vote for Clemens]," said the Newark Star-Ledger's Dan Graziano. "My personal feeling on this is that the Hall of Fame is a reward, and I don't intend to reward people who cheated in an effort to get there."

Graziano also has no plans to vote for Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds.

There are good arguments on both sides of this debate. I didn't vote for McGwire last year, but promised I would review the decision annually.

Inside the brown envelope are the Hall's election rules, as established by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Rule No. 5 says, "Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which he played."

Integrity. Hmmm.

Clemens loses points here.

"I think this whole steroid episode in baseball has been led by a few examples," said Clark Griffith, a former Twins executive and current Minneapolis attorney. "If a few wouldn't do it, others wouldn't do it.

"The fact they had to face a juiced Roger Clemens meant they had to do it. Or for pitchers, the fact they had to face a juiced Barry Bonds meant they had to do it."

The Mitchell Report detailed how steroids spread through the game.

Clemens is the star example. The report says he allegedly began getting steroids from Blue Jays strength coach Brian McNamee, that they both joined the Yankees, and that McNamee eventually provided for Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte.

"Was the player in a position to lead positively or negatively?" Griffith said. "If they led positively, they're in [the Hall of Fame]. If they led negatively, you can't make the same case for them."

OK, but suppose you don't vote for Clemens, and then other players reach the ballot who were every bit as suspicious without getting caught.

"I've been saying this for 15 years," Griffith said. "I don't care if he didn't flunk a test: Look at him!"

Still, as the Mitchell Report reminds us, it's not just the muscle heads who use. For every Clemens, there's a Dan Naulty, hoping for that little extra zip on his fastball.

I'd hate to be unfairly biased against someone I assumed was using, incorrectly. I'd also hate to vote for players who seemed squeaky clean only to find out later they were cheaters, too.

Finally, I called Bert Blyleven.

Here's a guy who has 242 complete games to Clemens' 118 and 60 shutouts to Clemens' 46, and Blyleven has been on the Hall of Fame ballot 10 times without getting more than 54 percent of the vote. A player needs 75 percent of the vote to get elected.

"I'm not saying Roger Clemens is guilty until he's proven guilty," Blyleven said.

"There's a very fine line there. Roger Clemens was at such a high level with the Boston Red Sox, and all of a sudden his career declined a little bit before he went to Toronto.

"Then, all of a sudden, his career took off again. What was he doing then? Was it a more strenuous workout, or did he do the same workout and had some extra help?"

Blyleven said he couldn't be sure.

"Is it a level playing field? I don't think so," he said. "And that's why this was a sad day for baseball. Because there's lot of great players who don't depend on any extra help to stay at that high level.

"So who gets penalized here? The game of baseball gets penalized the most. It puts another black mark on to me the greatest game in the world."

I'm still conflicted about Clemens. But I know I'm voting for Bert.

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com