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Michael Kay says Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez should be in the Hall of Fame and has a plan to help his case.
“My advice to Alex, come back, activate yourself for one game, get an at-bat and then restart the clock to get yourself another 15 years on the ballot,” Kay said Tuesday on his ESPN radio show.
Kay pointed out that perhaps the Seattle Mariners might be open to signing the 51-year-old Rodriguez so he could get his one at-bat. Rodriguez returned to Seattle over the weekend and received a standing ovation from Mariners fans during a pregame ceremony honoring the franchise’s top 50 players as part of the team’s 50th-anniversary celebration.
Rodriguez, who has admitted on several occasions to using performance-enhancing drugs, has never gotten more than 37% of the vote for the Hall of Fame, and 75% is required to get in.
The three-time AL MVP has five more years remaining on the Hall of Fame ballot. Having completed his fifth year on the ballot in January, he is eligible for up to 10 total years as long as he maintains the required 5% minimum vote share.
“If Alex never did performance-enhancing drugs, we would be talking about him as one of the greatest players who ever lived,” Kay said.
Kay pointed out that Rodriguz, a natural shortstop who moved to third base when he was traded to the Yankees, hit 696 career home runs, fifth all-time behind only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Albert Pujols.
Kay’s logic is that with more time, younger voters will be more inclined to vote for Rodriguez.
“Five years you have to wait before you get on the ballot,” Kay said. “Then the voting bloc of older voters that hold firm about not putting in PED users, they die off. Younger people that don’t feel the same way, they enter the voting block, and maybe you get to 75%. But I don’t think you get to 75% now.”
Kay added that if you were making a list of the 20 greatest baseball players of all-time, Rodriguez, Bonds and Roger Clemens would be locks. But none of then are in the Hall of Fame with individual plaques because they’re linked to PEDs.
“And for those that think, once they get to the Veterans Committee, they’re going to get in, no they’re not,” Kay said. “These are the people that hold even more enmity toward people that used PEDs, so Rocket’s not getting in, Bonds is not getting in, and even in a Veterans Committee 10 years from now, I don’t think Alex is getting in.
“One at-bat, restart your clock, give yourself a better chance,” Kay said.
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Ironically, Rodriguez told the Athletic that he would feel “hollow inside” if he were voted into Cooperstown.
“I have a life today that I didn’t have for the first 40 years,” Rodriguez said, referring to his personal life journey with therapy. “If I went to the Hall of Fame, in a weird way, I would be hollow inside. I would still be in a lot of pain... I would rather have what I have today, because it really helped me unlock a lot of the work that I needed to do.”
Steve Politi of NJ.com contributed reporting.
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