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The Spectacle Blog
Last time I really fulminated about the respective Halls of Fame in baseball and football, I argued that Andre Dawson deserved to be in the baseball one and that Ricky Jackson deserved to be in the football one. Both were voted in at the very next opportunity. I wish I could claim credit!
Anyway, in hoping that my wish will again be father to the action, here, in light of the baseball writers’ refusal to approve any players for induction this coming year, are the players I think the writers screwed up by not voting in:
1) Alan Trammell
2) Curt Schilling
3) Tim Raines
4) Lee Smith
5) Mike Piazza, unless somebody credibly suspects him of steroid use.
Yes, that would be an awfully big class, but i think they all deserve it, without question.
Fred McGriff and Jack Morris are borderline cases who, when I’m feeling generous, I might also vote in. As for Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, I lost track: Which, if either, is credibly believed to have enaged in steroid use? I think Biggio clearly qualifies on stats, if he was clean, which I think he probably was. Bagwell, maybe. In the steroid era, one loses sight of what were and weren’t good statistics. An argument can be made, for instance, that a guy like Will Clark, with a .300 career batting average, decent power, and great fielding and leadership, should still be getting a fair number of votes even if not reaching the 75% threshold — but, because his stats suddenly seem pedestrian compared to steroid-addled competitors, he isn’t even in the running anymore. How, pray tell, does one really know how to adjudge performance from at least the post-strike era until about three years ago — and perhaps from as early as about 1992 onward?
As for Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, and Sammy Sosa: No way. Never. Not in a trillion trillion years. I think it is so obvious that a reasonable person can look at the evidence and believe wholeheartedly that these guys cheated that the baseball writers have an obligation, to protect the integrity of the game, to keep these guys out. Their stats are their stats and they won’t be taken away; but honor is another thing. And don’t give me any of that BS about how “everybody did it” and so there stats “compared to everybody else similarly situated” remained so superior that they merit induction. Don’t give me any of that bunk about how Bonds and Clemens should make it on their pre-steroid achievements alone. If they took steroids, as most people believe they did, they knew darn well that it was illegal. Yes, there may not have been some sort of explicit enough BASEBALL rule against it. So what? The substances themselves were against the law, were they not? In this case, they were not just against the law, but they actually provided an unnatural competitive advantage, and everybody knew it. That’s why they took the stuff. PEDs actually increase muscle mass and power, unearned. It’s a lot worse than players in the 70s taking “greenies,” which did nothing to alter the actual physical mass and power of the players. These steroids were taken specifically in order to produce an uncommon and thoroughly unearned edge. That violates the spirit of the game, which is just as bad for Hall purposes as violating the letter of the rules.
Finally, back to Trammell: Just Google his name and Hall of Fame, and, even if you didn’t have the chance to watch his career like people my age did, you’ll see plenty of extremely knowledgeable people explain why he should be a definite inductee. What a classy player.
View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/01/09/writers-messed-up-on-hall-of-f
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Crassus| 1.9.13 @ 5:24PM
What about Albert Belle? He has legitimate Hall of Fame credentials. Just because he was a jerk to the media he was only on the ballot for two years. That's a disgrace. Ty Cobb was a jerk too and he got in.
Bob K| 1.9.13 @ 5:56PM
Hey Quin!
Think, for a minute, about the absurdity of having the Journalistic Profession, of all institutions, being in charge of protecting the "integrity" of anything, let alone Baseball!
Next thing you know it will be in charge of protecting "Apple Pie," and everyone knows how well it has protected Chevrolet's integrity in the recent General Motors debacle.
No one wants Baseball Players, or anyone else for that matter, judged by the people of whom D'Israeli said: "One day they are blackening your boots, the next day they are blackening your character."
Occam's Tool| 1.9.13 @ 7:05PM
True, Liberal journalists, the group with whom most sportswriters are, are low life scumbags as bad as Jack in Wi.
Foul vermin not fit for decent human company, whose writings any well trained parrot will pass on pooping onto. In short, oxygen stealers.
Jack, three out of the six of the most influential people in designing the Internet were Jewish. You hate them, and use their discoveries.
Jack in Wi| 1.10.13 @ 7:31AM
Al Gore designed the internet. My life was saved by a member of the Hall of Fame. I being crushed to death on the field of the Milwaukeee brewers in 1982 the day when they won pennent. I was the first guy across the field and was trying to pull up second base for a suvenier. I was soon on the bottom of a massive pile being sufficated. Beside me lay Sal Bando the old Boston Rex Sox great, then a Brewer coach.We were face to face, on the ground being crushed. Robin Yout kept smashing people with his fists and broke up the pile and pulled us out. I think he was mainly trying to save Sal Bando. I didn't realize how bad it was until I got up. Think of all those crushed to death in soccer pileups and you get the idea. I know you are quite happy about my great excape.
Crassus| 1.10.13 @ 10:55AM
You are a moron. Sal Bando played for the Oakland A's not the Bahstan Red Sawks. Damn, you are worthless. If only Robin Yount would have left you under that pile.
Occam's Tool| 1.10.13 @ 1:12PM
Not really, Jack. I see no purpose in your survival, but then, the ways of the L-rd are mysterious.
You are, of course, kidding about Al Gore. If not, you are truly a moron.
Lee Smith deserves to be in the HOF, and Elroy Face by the Veteran's committee.
ejp| 1.9.13 @ 6:48PM
"Yes, there may not have been some sort of explicit enough BASEBALL rule against it. So what?"
So EVERYTHING, Quin. They violated no baseball rules, and their search for an "edge" was no different than all the overly sainted figures of the 1950s-1960s who looked for their 'edge' in amphetamines, or who in the early 1980s like Tim Raines (who I think should be in, BTW) used HARD DRUGS, which ARE illegal too! So by your definition, your outrage over a player and "integrity" ends if he just snorted up coke before the game instead of a steroid injection? Talk about hypocrisy!
And BTW, do you believe Gaylord Perry, whose entire CAREER was devoted to an illegal pitch should have his HOF plaque stripped? Try reading his plaque sometime, it actually CELEBRATES his cheating. Yet many of the same writers who voted Perry in and looked the other way with his cheating are now preening about the "integrity" of the game and insisting that Clemens, who was a far better pitcher than Perry and who is deserving of the HOF, should be made to wear a scarlet letter as should this era. Uh-uh, I am not buying that argument. As far as I'm concerned, the writers committed the biggest disgrace of all today.
Occam's Tool| 1.9.13 @ 7:02PM
Lee Smith. Trammell. Schilling. Great players, and they will be in.
But consider: Yogi Berra did not get in on his first ballot. I think there was a message sent today, (and I think Dale Murphy might get in by Veterans' committee) and the message was this---what you guys did disgusts us.
ggoblue| 1.10.13 @ 12:06AM
trammel but not without whitaker...they turned more dp's than any combo in history....in fact they turned twice as many dp's than any combo in history.
JimH| 1.10.13 @ 8:14AM
If Piazza played any other position his batting numbers would have him as a real good player, but not possible HOF material. As a catcher he was at best middle of the pack. Maybe he thought it best for his team, but many a Mets fan would have liked to see him go after Clemens after the bat was thrown in the 2000 WS.
Derek Leaberry| 1.10.13 @ 8:55AM
Alan Trammell was 97 % the fielder Ozzie Smith was and twice the hitter. Yet Smith is in the Hall and Trammell is out, reduced to induction by a veteran's committee. Hopefully, he won't be dead when they induct him like Ron Santo was.
RAM| 1.10.13 @ 10:22AM
They could do the right thing...but that would be too easy.
JP| 1.10.13 @ 11:05AM
Sorry Quin,
Outside of Piazza none of those people stood high enough above the crowd to be inducted - not even Schiller.
What is too bad about both Bonds and Clemens is that they were Hall of Famers before they juiced. Rumors had it that Bonds, full of racial animosity, juiced only to pass up McGwire. Who knows why Clemens did it. His splitter was good enough to keep him pitching well past 40. In both cases, tragedy struck. Bonds could have gone down as one of the best all around players in history. Who cares who owns the HR titles.
Occam's Tool| 1.10.13 @ 1:21PM
Actually, Schilling has an incredible strike-outs to walk ratio.
And Jack, the guy who saved you was Robin Yount. Learn to effin' spell, and show respect to your betters.
Lee Smith IS a HOF worthy reliever.
ejp| 1.10.13 @ 2:48PM
Clemens and Bonds should still get in. Those that say they should stay out forever will rue that once they induct a supposedly "clean" player who then after he gets his plaque then confesses or is outed.
Occam's Tool| 1.10.13 @ 3:57PM
Before juicing up, Bond fielded well, ran spectacularly, and hit for average and power. He would have been a HOFer.
Trammell was a great player, and inducting a guy like him (and Lee Smith) over Bonds and company would also have sent a message.
Tom Kyba| 1.10.13 @ 12:15PM
If we're going to try to shoe-horn players we liked into the hall, then fine, I add Don Mattingly, who would have been a 3500 career hit guy easily if he didn't struggle with chronic back pain the second half of his career, and who also fielded his position as well or better than anyone(yeah I know it was only first base).
Occam's Tool| 1.10.13 @ 6:18PM
Lee Smith. saves 478 (more than Eckersley and Sutter). Lifetime ERA: 3.03: lower than Eckersley.
Put Mariano and Lee in next year together. Great relievers deserve it, and Rivera deserves to be a first year HOFer---the GREATEST reliever ever: #1 in saves with a lower ERA than Sutter---2.21.
Occam's Tool| 1.10.13 @ 8:12PM
Now, turning to football: the Bears, with an oft-sacked QB and a porous O-line (cause and effect) might want to sign Tim Tebow as backup. No question that he wouldn't be able to compete with Jay as a starter (minimizing stress), and as a backup he might be perfect because of his scrambling skills. Given the O-line, he might start a game or two to spell Jay's aching ribs.