Chicago writers to discuss steroids, Hall of Fame

Ben Bentley lives!

“We’re going to spend the next decade or so voting for guys who have been implicated or rumored” in steroid scandals, said Paul Sullivan, the Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Tribune and president of Chicago BBWAA chapter.
“We’re debating it in press boxes anyway, so it’s a good idea we all get together and discuss it,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “We’re just going to see what people have to say about it.”

Neither the national BBWAA nor the Hall of Fame had heard about the Chicago chapter’s plan to meet, and any decisions the chapter makes would not be binding. But representatives from the BBWAA and the Hall said they would look at any recommendations.
“We’ve been pleased with (the BBWAA’s) capabilities to interpret the criteria presented and to elect accordingly,” said Brad Horn, Hall spokesman. “They’ve had that privilege for a long time, and they’ve done a very good job.”

...It’s that kind of uncertainty that prompted Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander to ask the Chicago chapter if it could discuss the issue during this weekend’s Cubs-White Sox series at U.S. Cellular Field.

“The guidelines used to be so simple: stats, longevity and star power. It’s all been trumped by performance-enhancing drug use and drug use suspicion,” Telander said Tuesday. “Part of me says it’s not fair we have to make these determinations, but we do.”