Originally Posted by Ocotillo (Post 17695054)

Tom Verducci is a steroid hardliner.

Rob Manfred declares Ortiz's 2003 failed test should not be considered a true positive for legal reasons.

Verducci uses Manfred's edict as a justisfication to vote for Ortiz.

There's more to it than this. Ortiz is the face of the 2000s-10s Red Sox, the face of the 2004 comeback, the man who declared this is our ****ing city. The writers liked him and gave him a pass. "The politics of glory" as Bill James once appropriately remarked.

Originally Posted by Ocotillo (Post 17695051)

Baseball had nothing to do with it. The Baseball Writers Association of America kept them out.

They're not entitled to the Hall of Fame anyway.

They knew what they did was wrong. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

They got to keep their money. They got to keep their records. Keeping them out is a message to other players that cheating has consequences.

Originally Posted by smithandrew051 (Post 17693771)

Mahomes hit 55 TD passes and 5,500 yards in the same game by throwing for 6 TDs, 500 yards, rushing for another 100 yards, and scoring 2 TDs on the ground.

Something like that.