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Michael Young: Players linked to PEDs don't belong in HOF

Adam Hunger / USA TODAY Sports

Former Texas Rangers third baseman Michael Young doesn't get to fill out a Hall of Fame ballot, but if he did, his wouldn't include anyone linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

"I've been very anti-steroid guys getting into the Hall of Fame," Young said recently on SportsDayDFW.com's "Ballsy" podcast. "For one reason - listen, it has nothing to do with the moral high ground, it has nothing to do with me standing on my soap box and being on a high horse. It's pretty much very simple, I think. We have - because they were enhanced players, right? In my opinion, that's not the player they were meant to be.

"So in that sense, we have no idea who they really were. I have no idea who those guys should have been. I have no idea the way their careers were supposed to play out. So I have no idea who that player truly was, how can I sit there and say, 'of course he's a Hall of Famer?' I can't."

Young played a big chunk of his career during the steroid era, eventually retiring after the 2013 season. The seven-time All-Star, who will be eligible for Cooperstown in several years, acknowledged it was difficult to compete against players who he believes broke the rules.

"I do think that if you ask cleans players, they're disappointed and a large portion are probably angry with the fact that they had to compete against these guys," Young said. "It makes it incredibly difficult. I remember facing guys who were throwing 85 and I look up at the radar gun a year later and he's throwing 93. I'm like, give me a - I'm just looking at him and (thinking), 'you are so full of doo doo.'"

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