On Arrogance and "PE"Ds Accusations
This is Pedro Gomez. Pedro Gomez is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and a Hall of Fame voter. Pedro Gomez believes that steroid and other “performance enhancing” drug users should be kept out of the Hall of Fame (which is a fair position to take, even if The Common Man disagrees with it). Pedro Gomez also apparently believes that Jeff Bagwell took something that was against the rules to bulk up:
You notice Bagwell has never denied using? “@Ben_Oehler: @pedrogomezESPN too many voters think like you. Keeping guys like Bagwell out wrong
— Pedro Gomez (@pedrogomezESPN) April 25, 2012
Now, if you know The Common Man, you know what’s coming next. Jeff Bagwell has never been accused of taking “PE”Ds. There has never been any evidence that Jeff Bagwell took “PE”Ds. Yet Pedro Gomez figures it’s still ok to act as though Bagwell has been tried and convicted. He thinks it’s ok to assume Bagwell’s dirty (while, by the way, assuming Omar Vizquel is not, because apparently non-sluggers have never used “PE”Ds before). Yes, yes, Pedro Gomez is now hereby suspected of plagiarism, based on the fact that there has never been any evidence brought to light that he is not a plagiarist, nor has he denied it. By now, you know the drill. He joins the hallowed ranks of the Dan Shaughnessys of the world. And until Gomez is able to prove definitively that he has not plagiarized the work of other hard-working reporters, he’ll have to live with the scarlet P of the suspected plagiarist.
The Common Man has thought long and hard about why this issue bugs him so much, and he thinks it all comes down to the arrogance of writers like Gomez, who refuse to acknowledge that their judgment is not infallible. Who use their vote as a tool, a hammer, to send messages and get attention. Who ignore the Hall of Fame’s legacy of allowing pretty much everybody in, and substituting their own belated morality (where was their hand-wringing 10-15 years ago?) for what has come before. They are proud of their ignorance, proud of their votes, and proud of themselves. And when their wrong, they’re too proud to apologize and rethink their position. They’re too proud for contrition. The Common Man is Catholic. Contrition is big with him.
Gomez has since gone on Twitter to admit he was wrong about Bagwell denying “PE”D use. Predictably, he did not do any apologizing for getting facts blatantly wrong. He didn’t show any humility. Instead, he doubled down on the douchery. He just noted that, FINE, Bagwell did deny using:
Bagwell DID deny. Fine. You join BBWAA for 10 years, you get to do what YOU want with your vote.
— Pedro Gomez (@pedrogomezESPN) April 25, 2012
It’s the FINE that gets The Common Man. “FINE, you caught me. FINE, I was incompetent. FINE, I was intellectually lazy and/or dishonest. FINE, that’s your problem, not mine. I’m Pedro Gomez, and I have a Hall of Fame vote, and I can do whatever I want with it even if I’m basing it on completely erroneous information or on suspicions that aren’t grounded in fact.” Gomez continues to swagger, and to lord his Hall of Fame vote over fans who care about things like facts and integrity. And it’s voters like Gomez who are the reason the Hall of Fame is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to the game’s history. Not that Gomez will care. He thinks everything’s FINE.
