(a) I am really sick of Hall of Fame arguments
(b) if by the All Star break of 1998 you didn’t know steroids were all over the game you were kidding yourself. Oh, and you watched lots of Cardinals and Cubs games that year and made fun of Bob Costas for questioning why all the great home run hitters of all time played at the same time.
(c) if Andre Dawson is a HOFer then put Blyleven and Morris in. Who cares. It’s a museum. a museum that doesn’t include the all time leader in hits and wont include the single season and career hone run king. Seriously, who cares. Let Jack Morris fans look at an old uniform. Does it matter?
(d) of all the players Baseball Prospectus could have chosen in this paragraph…
Every year brings another ream of recriminations, because the process involves risking another exercise in hubris that leaves great, Hall-worthy careers unrecognized. What has been especially noxious this time around is the treatment of Jeff Bagwell from some quarters as he arrives on the ballot. What he has been subjected to is little better than character assassination, where even the lack of any actual evidence, any scintilla of contemporary complaint from the writers themselves, or the especially self-serving “he didn’t rat on teammates to me” tack is being held against him.* This approach will be on the landscape for years to come, so you may as well gear up for the witch hunts to come, against Mike Piazza or Jim Thome and so many others, no doubt using criteria every bit as tenuous or fantastic.
via Baseball Prospectus | Prospectus Perspective: Bagging on Bagwell.
The Times also weighs in on the subject and one of the players mentioned above. Hmmm.
Maybe, but as I’ve been pointing out, Piazza is in the same HOF class ( I believe..they retired at the same time..) as Bonds and Clemens, so he may actually be voted in while keeping those out in a statement vote.
The Hall of Fame needs inductions (and the ensuing arguments) to remain relevant. The day that it turns into a pure baseball museum in upstate N.Y. is the day that it dies.
The only way to solve the problem that we’re starting to see is to change the rules. Why don’t we direct the voters to consider only a player’s on field accomplishments and role in baseball history when deciding who to vote for? Get rid of the character issue that has never been applied consistently.
Jeff Bagwell belongs in the Hall…it is a no brainer. Keeping him out is a crime.