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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Baseball's Fifty Shades of Gray

Happy new year, my friends!  The holidays are over, kids are back in school, and the ballots for the 2013 inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame are in.  On January 9, the Hall of Fame will announce this year's inductees, which will no doubt cause a lot of controversy and discussion among baseball enthusiasts and non-fans alike.

You see, this year's ballot reflects baseball's "steroid era," featuring players like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens.  The list also includes "nice guys" like Craig Biggio, Curt Schilling, and Don Mattingly, and 3 Puerto Ricans (Edgar Martinez, Bernie Williams, and Sandy Alomar, Jr).  So what makes a player worthy of being inducted into the Hall of Fame? That's where the gray areas exist.

According to the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA): 

"Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played." (I copied this right off the BBWAA website).

Baltimore Sun columnist, Peter Schmuck, recently wrote an article in which he said that "Based on any strict standards of ethics or morality, there are plenty of players in the Hall of Fame who must have sneaked in through the back door."  So if a player's character is questionable but does not affect the way he plays baseball (is he an alcoholic, a racist, a wife-beater, or does he actively bet on baseball?), should he still be in the Hall of Fame?  Again, that's where the gray areas lie (for the record, I don't think Pete Rose should be in the Hall, but that's a whole other blog for another day!).  Would the careers of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have been as successful without the steroids?  For how many years did they actually use performance-enhancing drugs?  Were they considered elite athletes before the alleged drug use began?  Yet more questions and more gray areas.  It doesn't help their cause that both Bonds and Clemens are idiots, but then again, do you vote for the nice guys as opposed to the asses?  If that's the case, then Steve Carlton shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame (and I think he's worthy of being there, despite having played with the Phillies).  Schmuck (gotta love that name!), who is a member of the BBWAA but cannot vote because of the policies of his employer (I'd change jobs, if I were him), says he would vote for both Bonds and Clemens, as well as for former catcher Mike Piazza, who was never accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, yet he had big biceps and hit tons of home runs during the same era.  

If I were a voting member of the BBWAA (which I hope to someday be!), I would vote for the following players (voters can pick up to 10):  

  • Curt Schilling (Any pitcher with over 3,000 strikeouts and over 200 wins is Hall of Fame worthy, in my opinion.  So what if his video game business went bankrupt and he recently had to fire everyone?)
  • Mike Piazza (You know how I love catchers, plus his career batting average over .300, 12 All-Star Game appearances, and Rookie of the Year award in 1993 are not too shabby)
  • Don Mattingly (How is it that he's not in the Hall yet?  I know he's a Yankee, but he's worthy!)
  • Edgar Martinez (Not because he's Puerto Rican, but because of his career .312 batting average, 2 batting titles, and overall consistency.  Unfortunately, Edgar was a very quiet guy who played for crappy Seattle teams, so he's not as popular as most nominees.  I don't think he'll ever get selected.)   :-(  

(Craig Biggio was on my original list because he was a catcher, he reached 3.000 hits, and he had boyish good looks, but I agree with Peter Gammons on this one - he just wasn't spectacular enough to be a Hall of Famer.  Sorry, Craig!)

So yeah, of the current list of players, I only found 4 of them to be worthy of Hall of Fame status (I know, I'm a hard-ass, but I take my fictitious voting very seriously!).  No Sosa, no McGwire (I "mis-remembered" to vote for him), no Bonds, and no Clemens.  We'll find out next week if any of my selections were actually chosen by the BBWAA writers; for now, if you're a current baseball player reading this (and there are many of you, I'm sure!), hit the ball hard, be nice to the media, stay healthy, and keep your nose clean.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll be voting for you someday!