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.
