With Alex Rodriguez's recent admission that he took performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), the baseball world was again rocked with a big name star being right in the crosshairs of the steroid era.
Rodriguez is added to a list that includes Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Rafael Palmiero and Mark McGwire as players that have been villified in some manner in the court of public opinion.To a greater extent, it appears that gaining entrance into Cooperstown will be a tall task based on how the voting went for McGwire in his first year of eligibility. As the black cloud over this era seems to only get larger, how does it effect the players that are clean?
Let me preface the rest of this article by saying that it is impossible for me to sit here as I write this and say for certain that Frank Thomas has never touched a PED. However, as more and more names come out, it seems to me that Thomas should be a shoe-in for baseball's highest honor. Thomas has always been very outspoken against the use of PEDs and publicly advocated testing on numerous occasions. As the Jose Canseco's of the world write books for their own personal gain by naming names, Thomas has always steered clear of suspicion.
Chances are his numbers alone are good enough to get in, at least at some point. Thomas has a .301 career batting average, a .419 career on-base percentage, 521 home runs and 1,704 RBIs. He holds the majority of career records for the Chicago White Sox. Thomas has also won two MVP awards and should he not gain entrance into the Hall of Fame would join only Dale Murphy and Roger Maris as two-time winners not in the Hall.
In my opinion, combining his pure numbers with the fact that he was a clean player in a very dirty era should ensure not only his Hall of Fame entrance, but also his recognition as one of top hitters of this generation.
