I admit it. I used to be one of those “torch n’ pitchfork” people when it came to Baseball Hall of Fame voting.
Outrage was plentiful when the latest class was announced each year. I was ready to organize a March On Cooperstown. Expect it’s too damn cold in January.
Then I got a life. In the end, the Hall of Fame is a museum, but I recognize many baseball fans hold it close to their bosom. Any sports’ Hall of Fame is supposed to be exclusive. It’s supposed to be difficult to get in.
Yet no sport gets more flak for the players it excludes than baseball. It’s an annual topic, which by the way, I don’t think baseball or the Hall mind very much.
If I can mix metaphors (and I will), one of several reasons baseball gets such grief is that the goal line is always moving. The standards change, and because there is a limit to how many players can be voted in during a given year, there is bound to be a backlog.
Especially in the wake of the steroid era. Some voters exclude a player on the mere suspicion of doping.
When that happens I keep a few things in mind:
1) There are probably “users” in the Hall already.
2) The “character clause” which may be used to exclude a doper or suspected doper should also exclude some players already enshrined, for a variety of reasons.
3) I would look at the “character clause” as only a guideline and in the end it’s quite subjective.
4) If you want to argue “competitive advantage” for a hitter or pitcher, remember we don’t know exactly know how many players were using and whether the playing field may have been level on certain days with a bunch of “users” on the same diamond.
5) Players have tired to get “an edge” in many forms since the game began.
6) The worst competitive advantage of all time was the color line, yet there are many players who played in the decades of segregation who are now enshrined.
So now, we have a bunch of players waiting at the Hall of Fame’s toll plaza with the metering lights on. But the number of worthy candidates should be in a big stretch limo and moving over to the carpool lane.
Why? Ironically, here comes Bud Selig to loosen things up. I would never accuse Bud of “loosening” anything up, unless it came to policing steroid users.
His election by the “Today’s Game Era Committee” has caused some voters to reconsider their stand against (reasonably) suspected users like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Funny, because Selig embraced Hank Aaron (rightfully so) and gave an icy reception to Barry Bonds (spitefully so).
But why should Selig’s enshrinement change things ? It wasn’t like voters didn’t see this coming. Commissioners often get enshrined.
The facts surrounding the players haven’t changed. Was there an excuse for those who were on the fence to jump off? Some voters now feel that if the commish who oversaw the doping era gets in, so should the best players of that era. I’ve felt the best players of a given era should get in anyway — you can only compare them to their era.
Selig had good and bad marks in his quarter-century of “leadership,” and it’s true he did not lead the way in cleaning baseball up. He was reactive, not proactive. Baseball had rules that were loosely enforced, or not at all, and profited greatly.
Baseball has a stronger anti-doping program now, but only after Jose Canseco’s book, the excellent work of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the Mitchell Report, and congressional hearings among other things. Selig butted heads with the players union over how to regulate doping but he did not show a strong hand on the issue until the pressure was too great.
More than Selig’s enshrinement, however, I think the electorate has changed. Some voters have been weeded out, there are fewer overall votes, a shorter period for player eligibility, and younger baseball writers with different attitudes are now included. Are they unbiased?
No. Nobody is. There will never be an airtight way to keep bias out, but letting writers decide is probably as good a system as you’re going to get.
Consequently, Bonds and Clemens will make big strides this year towards the Hall doors. They could get in by 2020. They are very much a part of the story of the game, and a smart parent will explain to their kids both their tremendous skill and their cautionary tale.
So with all that in mind here’s how I would vote, if I had a ballot. You can be assured that will never happen:
BARRY BONDS: Best hitter I’ve ever seen in person. Lost many at-bats via intentional walks or pitching around, by the way.
ROGER CLEMENS: I despise him. That matters not. Dominance and longevity.
JEFF BAGWELL: Should’ve been in already. Cue Elvis Presley and “Suspicious Minds”
TREVOR HOFFMAN: 601 saves, top closer on the ballot and “Hell’s Bells”
CURT SCHILLING: Calls writers “worst people I know.” Were any of them accused of defrauding Rhode Island? He’s a loon, but should be in.
IVAN ‘PUDGE’ RODRIGUEZ: Greatest all-around catcher of this generation and one of best of all time. Johnny Bench-endorsed.
EDGAR MARTINEZ: If DH’s are part of the game, and they have been for 44 years, then enshrine the best.
TIM RAINES: About damn time. Played in same era as Rickey, so he suffered by comparison, but still great.
MANNY RAMIREZ: Nailed twice for cheating, played for the Dodgers, wore pajamas. And one of the most feared right-handed hitters of his time. Baseball should wear this.
MIKE MUSSINA: Sustained excellence in a very tough era for pitchers.
NEXT TIME: VLADIMIR GUERRERO, LARRY WALKER, FRED MCGRIFF, JEFF KENT, GARY SHEFFIELD
NOT QUITE: SAMMY SOSA, LEE SMITH, BILLY WAGNER, MAGGLIO ORDONEZ, JORGE POSADA, PAT BURRELL*
NEXT YEAR: AMONG OTHERS … CHIPPER JONES (NO-BRAINER), JIM THOME (ME HIT BALL FAR), SCOTT ROLEN, JAMIE MOYER, JOHNNY DAMON, OMAR VIZQUEL, ANDRUW JONES AND A GUY WITH A HIGHER CAREER OPS+ THAN JONES : AUBREY HUFF ! (NOT QUITE AS GOOD AN OUTFIELDER, THOUGH)
MY CLASS OF ’18: CHIPPER, VLAD, WALKER, CRIME DOG, KENT, SHEFFIELD, THOME, SOSA
SPECIAL MENTION: I GUESS I’LL DIE ALONE IN THIS ARGUMENT. TOMMY JOHN SHOULD BE IN. I WAS THERE THE NIGHT HE WALKED OFF THE MOUND AND INTO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE. THE “TOMMY JOHN” OF THE “TOMMY JOHN SURGERY.” CANARY IN THE COAL MINE. WON 164 GAMES AND MADE THREE ALL-STAR APPEARANCE *AFTER* THE SURGERY, 288 CAREER WINS.
* MERITS CONSIDERATION FOR HIS EFFORTS IN THE MARINA DISTRICT ALONE. GAVE SERIOUS THOUGHT TO VOTING FOR BURRELL, FREDDY SANCHEZ, AND EDGAR RENTERIA THIS TIME.