BREAKING NEWS: Clemens in Mitchell Report

Clemens will be in Mitchell's report

The headline under the video says:

Clemens May Be Named in Mitchell Report

Its not designed to prosecute anyone and its no more than a purge of baseball's mistakes, whether that be the players, coaches, managers, GMs, Owners or the league office itself.

if Utley goes, I'll be crushed...

but i have a feeling the Phillies young core of Hamels, Howard and Utley are pretty solid, as Hamels didn't appear until 2006, Howard in 2005 and Utley in 2004...

As long as there is competition, there will be people willing to push the envelope...

I however agree with Davis that the Hall of Fame has long been a popularity contest. Why else is there a difference between a "first ballot guy" and every one else? Either you ARE a Hall of Famer or you aren't. Players don't earn their way in after being on the ballot a few years into voting, they earn their way in DURING THEIR CAREERS.

Goose Gossage, Bert Blyleven and Jim Rice agree with me.

We could both write up a list of ten players we think who should be in and not in, and the lists would be different. And, there is no doubt in the early days the Hall voting was a popularity contest amongst the good ol' boys, but that is no longer the case. I know pretty well people with Hall voting credentials and to a man they take the responsibility very seriously.

Is it a perfect system? No.

Is it better than it was? Yes.

Twenty-five years ago or so, I took my youngest cousin, who was about ten at the time, to a Whalers game in Hartford to meet Gordie Howe. Howe posed for a picture with him, which I then took back and had Howe sign for him. Today, when you walk into my cousin's house the first thing you see is that picture, so yes, Davis, the Hall of Fame means something to some people.

Did you ever see Gordie play? Or Killebrew for that matter? Don't you think its important for future generations to have a place to at least see links to their careers?

Have you ever been to Cooperstown?

I'm all for taking the vote away from the writer's and giving it to the Hall of Famers themselves. I agree with you to this extent that 500 writers, no matter how much integrity they think they have, will not vote for someone that pissed them off 20 years ago. And, in my opinion, they don't know the game well enough to make a tough decision. If you have two, say, shortstops, one a power hitter and one a defensive specialist, the hitter will get in because the writer's don't know the game well enough to understand how important defense is.