Sports and Forgiveness: Baseball Hall of Fame Considerations
How will fans react if next summer’s Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown includes Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Carlos Beltrán holding plaques despite their controversial histories?
Hall of Fame and Integrity Issues Across Sports
There is ongoing speculation about whether the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will take action if inductee Chauncey Billups faces prison for his alleged involvement in gambling and money laundering.
Unlike other sports, no athlete besides Alan Eagleson has been officially removed from major sports Halls of Fame in the United States. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has never expelled O.J. Simpson, while Eagleson remains the sole person expelled from the four major sports Halls. In hockey, Bobby Orr’s corrupt agent resigned from the Hockey Hall before the board could expel him in 1998.
Baseball’s Leniency on Scandals
Currently, baseball appears to be more forgiving. For example, Alex Cora, a highly regarded Red Sox manager, was suspended for his involvement in the 2017 Astros cheating scandal but has since returned to manage playoff teams, with the controversy largely forgotten.
“MLB suspended Cora (a bench coach then with the Astros) and Houston manager A.J. Hinch for a year, but both are back in the dugout with playoff teams and nobody really brings it up anymore.”
Summary
Sports institutions show varying degrees of forgiveness for scandal-related figures, with baseball notably adopting a more lenient stance toward those involved in past controversies.
Would you like the tone to be more formal or conversational?