Hall of Fame Voters, your mission is clear!
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by user Manny Stiles
Hall of Fame Voters, your mission is clear!
It’s a beautiful time of year. The grass is cut, the midsummer classic’s right around the corner. People are talking baseball every where you go… The Hall of Fame induction is coming soon…
Hall of Fame voters, your mission is clear! In a few years, the first wave of ‘performance enhanced’ players will be stuffing the ballot. Even if we never had proof (Raffy Palmiero) we still had a pretty good assumption (Mark McGwire) that steroids and enhancing drugs were prevalent.
There’s a lot of hemming and hawing and posturing about whether players admitting to enhancement should be voted for or not. Many people are already saying they won’t vote for McGwire on the first ballot and even more say they won’t vote for Palmeiro at all!
Do I think Palmiero and McGwire deserve to be in the Hall? Yes and Yes.
Why? They excelled even amongst their 'peers' during their era.
Do I think ANYONE should ever use a Hall of Fame voting ballot to make a personal statement?? NO, no, no…
It’s NOT your job to determine what is right or wrong. It is your job, your honor to vote for the worthiness of an individual players accomplishments in comparison with his correlative peers…
That being said, if you’re a Hall of Fame voter and you think it is important to leave someone’s name off a ballot as punishment for steroid use, then you have to reward someone else for NOT using performance enhancing drugs. You have no other ‘right’ thing to do than to vote Fred McGriff and Dale Murphy into the Hall of Fame.
Fred McGriff was the last ‘untainted’ hitter. 2500 hits, 493 Hrs. He led both leagues in HRs when 36 was a lot. He was consistent and an excellent fielder as well. A fine actor in commercials and a community treasure. Compares similarly to Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell. He has as many HRs as Lou Gehrig. Crime Dog played bigger when the games were bigger.
Dale Murphy was a back-to-back MVP and 7 time all-star in the ‘80s. He went 30-30 in 1983. His career stats are similar to Duke Snider’s, but unlike Duke, Dale played in an offensively stagnant era. He was a dominant player, offensively and defensively (22 DPs from the OF). And his only fault is that he was too nice and his end due to injuries came on too quickly. If you remember the ‘80s you remember Dale Murphy as THE elite National Leaguer. If you know anything about Dale Murphy, you have little doubt he was not a steroid user.
Now I could argue for Jim Rice, Joe Carter and Harold Baines as well, but they’re just off the mark, as I see it. I can argue for Canseco more than Rice or Baines and I guess that’s where I draw the line… Were you better than Canseco? Even if Canseco never did steroids, he still just misses.
And just to wrap up my HoF opinion; Yes, Pete Rose needs to be in as a player, he was suspended as a manager. He is a Hall of Famer as a player. He was banned from the game by MLB, but the Hall isn’t run by MLB. So what’s the deal? You only are hurting baseball by continuing to let this be an issue. Bart Giamatti wasn't going to keep Rose banned for life, he just died before he could lift it.
Want to see the most blatent sign of incompetence among HoF voters? Goose Gossage is still waiting. Ok, I remember the late 70’s and 80’s… Bruce Sutter was very good and consistent. Definitely worthy of he Hall, but seriously guys… Goose was BAD ASS!!! He SCARED batters! He still scares me! Dude had pure power, pinpoint control, devastating movement and routinely made 2-3 inning appearances. He WAS Intimidation. There is NO one like Goose today! Vote in the FuManchu on principle alone!
Say what you want about the inefficiency of the All Star voting process, the Hall of Fame needs to take a good look at what they’re doing too…
Date
Mon 07/10/06, 9:10 am EST
