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Alex Rodriguez will see his name on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the fifth time for the Class of 2026, but is unlikely to make it because of his ties to performance-enhancing drugs despite his illustrious career numbers.
But Rodriguez feels “hypocrisy surrounds the Hall” because of Cooperstown resident Bud Selig, the former MLB commissioner in charge during the infamous steroid era.
“All this stuff you’re talking about was under Bud Selig’s watch,” Rodriguez said on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show after commenting on Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, per Awful Announcing.
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Former professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez attends an NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Miami Heat at the Kaseya Center on March 7, 2025 in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
“And the fact that those two guys aren’t in, but somehow Bud Selig is in the Hall of Fame, it feels to me like there’s a little bit of hypocrisy about it.”
Rodriguez and any player on the Hall of Fame ballot must receive at least 75% of the vote to enter the Hall. Since he did not get 40% of the vote in any of his first four times on the ballot, the results are not expected to change for Rodriguez in 2026.
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Selig was inducted into the Hall of Fame after receiving enough votes from Today’s Game Era Committee, which has only 16 voters. Meanwhile, players like Rodriguez, Bonds and others linked to PEDs during their careers have a much larger pool of Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) members who vote for them each year.
Selig, 91, took over as acting commissioner in 1992 before becoming full-time commissioner in 1998. During the 2015 season, Selig was at the forefront of the steroid era and all the controversy that came with it.
Inducted Commissioner Emeritus Allan H. “Bud” Selig speaks during the 2017 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 30, 2017, in Cooperstown, New York. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty Images)
While it was fun to watch players like McGwire and Sosa battle each other for the single-season home run record in 1998, as well as Bonds smashing 73 homers in 2001 to eclipse McGwire’s previous record of 70, there were rumors and reports of PEDs in the sport that didn’t get the recognition they should have until 20 MLB.
The Joint Drug Agreement was enacted that season, and the infamous Mitchell Report was released on December 13, 2007. The 20-month investigation by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell led to a 409-page report that alleged a “collective failure” within MLB to address the problem of PEDs while allegedly using 89 current and former ballplayers.
Among those listed in the Mitchell Report were Bonds, Jason Giambi and Jeremy Giambi, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Eric Gagne, Andy Pettitte, Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Mo Vaughn, Jose Canseco and many more.
Alex Rodriguez pitches prior to game six of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on October 20, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
In Rodriguez’s case, he served the longest suspension in league history for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, which was a Florida clinic accused of distributing PEDs to world-famous athletes. Rodriguez was initially suspended 211 games, but it was later reduced to a full season of 162 games, which he had to miss in 2014.
Despite ranking fifth in home runs during his long MLB career, Rodriguez won’t be in the Hall of Fame anytime soon if Bonds isn’t. Bonds still holds the home run record with 762 homers over 12,606 plate appearances.
