Baseball Needs to Balance the Scales.
It was a Macy’s-like parade, all right, complete with hot air balloon excuses for the process of righteously turning away, one more time, but in larger and newer numbers, some of the greatest players in the history of baseball from the residence they each deserve on the basis of their field performances in the so-called Baseball Hall of Fame.
The day of January 9, 2013 unfolded as a prescription for home-made/ho-made (take your pick) hypocrisy among most of the same writers who could not praise Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa enough back in 1998 for saving baseball from the stink of 1994 with their magical, somewhat mystical displays of record-breaking power. Time Magazine featured a glowing cover of Big Mac and Sammy. Sports Illustrated went so far as to dress out the same two players in Roman togas and laurel wreath head-dresses before spilling out their broadly smiling images on their cover as the saviors of the game.
It didn’t matter to the writers and the owners in 1998 that many of the “big boys” were getting there through the open use of steroids. I don’t recall anyone in 1998 writing about steroids as “performance enhancing drugs.” In fact, I don’t recall anyone writing or expressing their concerns about steroids in 1998. The performances of Big Mac and Sammy that year were rattling the soul and brain of baseball on a recording-breaking pace. Like real life action heroes, those two men almost single-handedly together, were spinning the big league park turnstiles far into the black and driving away the bad memories of that horribly lost season of 1994.
Memories are short.
Once Barry Bonds took things to a wholly higher level of achievement, breaking the HR record of the revered Hank Aaron, and once a proven liar accused Roger Clemens of PED use and the latter “mis-remembered” his actual experience into a case for branding him a liar to Congress on the Rafael Palmeiro-level, requiring a trial for Clemens to find legal exoneration, the witch hunt was on. Now players like Jeff Bagwell were falling under the shadow of suspicion for having developed “Popeye” biceps during the same era.
Now all you had to do was pander to the suspicions of the suddenly self-righteous members of BBWAA to lose any later support for the HOF. – And this has been how it’s been for the past 7-10 years.
So what actually happens when the big 2013 class of major suspects comes up for HOF consideration? The writer boys arrogantly turn their backs on all, explaining that it’s all part of the process of sorting out what needs to be done over time.
Oh really? Does that same “process” include not voting for the squeaky clean and sure-fire Hall of Famer Craig Biggio – just because it’s his first time on the ballot?
What arrogance!
I could not agree more with writer Jerome Solomon than I do this morning. In his Houston Chronicle criticism of the BBWAA today, he touches all the bases on why this vote, this year, stunk to high heavens. If you are a voting writer, and you think a man is good enough to go in “sometime,” he’s good enough to go in “now.” Any further delay for the sake of pro forma compliance with the historic rules of the good old boys’ and girls’ club is unacceptable.
Those players whose numbers speak for themselves should be inducted into the Hall of Fame, regardless of how much anyone thinks these players alone should be punished for the steroids era by banishment. We have to be vigilant here. There is no clear class of convicts in this matter. Some people used and some people lied in an attempt to cover up. Others just stood there like deer in the headlights and got smeared with the mud that got slung their way. The result is that we have allowed social network television to hawk the witch hunt and to smear guilt-by-suspicion to all who could not defend themselves from character assassination.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner, the owners, many of the writers and fans, and all of the sports print and broadcasting publishers sit back in the glow of bystander sanctimony and go about the business of making the players alone pay for the game of baseball’s embrace of steroids at our most recent turn of the century.
Yesterday’s HOF vote by the BBWAA was nothing more than a ritual exercise of the baseball culture’s hypocrisy. It’s time we all took responsibility for the fact it happened and move on with clear and severe consequences embraced and set forth about what shall happen to future abusers.
Then let’s get those field-deserving nominee people into the HOF from the era that were punished for being members of the fall guy group in this whole past, but still ongoing sad affair and make things right. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Mike Piazza, among others, all belong in the Hall of Fame. So do Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, by the way.
It’s time to make it right by the next vote.
The fall guy group has taken the whole rap and suffered long enough for a sin that belongs to the whole baseball world. If our baseball world cannot see that much, then we all deserve whatever happens next.
The witch hunts of Salem never stopped the advent of new evil in Massachusetts.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 10, 2013 at 3:11 pm |
Bill – You are my hero! I have considered Craig Biggio the best thing to touch baseball in 25 years. Family man; no dirt; plays the game with respect, the way it should be played. Commits to the Sunshine Kids. All around kind of person to represent Baseball.
Arrogant is a great description of a bunch of knuckleheads who were unable to seperate a true HOF candidate from those they choose to punish based on media mania.
Craig Biggio should have been voted in – those that did not vote for him should be ashamed.
January 10, 2013 at 3:18 pm |
Biggio in the HOF for sure, but never in a million years for the steroid-bloated types.
January 10, 2013 at 3:37 pm |
Let’s not forget that the writer’s unleashed the steroid “boogeyman” only to smear Barry Bonds. Do you remember how long they ignored all the stuff surrounding Clemens?
January 10, 2013 at 3:43 pm |
If character is so important that players like Bonds and Clemens should be rejected, why aren’t bonus points given for exceptional character for guys like Biggio and Dale Murphy? If the player was not a jerk and not an abuser but not a boy scout either, you can let his numbers alone speak but if the play was an exceptional role model who went above and beyond to help others, why shouldn’t the voters give them extra-credit if their stats were “near great”?
January 10, 2013 at 3:49 pm |
The Hall of Fame happily enshrined Ty Cobb, who took money to throw games, physically assaulted an umpire after a game, publicly horsewhipped his son, beat a hotel maid who objected to his racist remarks, had a history of other domestic violence, and was considered by his peers to be an all-around miserable excuse for a human being, Or John McGraw who started a riot and assaulted other players when he was in Baltimore, not to mention refused to play the World Series (how’s that for hurting the game). Or you can ask any honest player from the 1960s and 70s, and he will tell you that the clubhouse man or trainer was blithely dispensing greenies or some sort of amphetamine in the clubhouse. Some teams had them in bowls out in the open for the guys to pick out the color they liked. I could go on, but the point is that the moral qualities of enshrinees have always been something judged on a whim.
The bottom line is that Bonds and Clemens were Hall of Famers prior to any suggestion of steroid use. They would have been Hall of Famers if their careers ended before the steroid era. (The same cannot be said of Sosa and McGwire. They put up big numbers SOLELY because of steroids. To lump them all together is simplistic and intellectually dishonest.)
The writers are not guardians of the game. They are a bunch of holier-than-thou, hypocritical, self-important, arrogant snobs.
Jus’ saying.
January 10, 2013 at 4:04 pm |
I admire the stand the writers are taking. They are the guardians of the game’s integrity now, since MLB was unable (unwilling) to police itself. It began with McGwire. But the writers are not alone. For us Houston folks, let’s not forget the anger and resentment expressed by Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt towards those who would use PEDs to gain an advantage. And many other players – Hall of Famers and non-Hall of Famers – are in agreement with the writers. Just read this.
January 10, 2013 at 4:05 pm |
… Oops! This.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50418677
January 10, 2013 at 4:15 pm |
Al Kaline: “I’m kind of glad that nobody got in this year,” Kaline said. “I feel honored to be in the Hall of Fame. And I would’ve felt a little uneasy sitting up there on the stage, listening to some of these new guys talk about how great they were.”
Goose Gossage: “I think the steroids guys that are under suspicion got too many votes,” he said. “I don’t know why they’re making this such a question and why there’s so much debate. To me, they cheated. Are we going to reward these guys?”
Gossage, noting that cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles following allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, believes baseball should go just as far. He thinks the record book should be overhauled, taking away the accomplishments of players like Bonds, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire – who has admitted using steroids and human growth hormone during his playing days.
McGwire, 10th on the career home run chart, received 16.9 percent of the vote on his seventh Hall try, down from 19.5 last year.
“I don’t know if baseball knows how to deal with this at all,” Gossage said. “Why don’t they strip these guys of all these numbers? You’ve got to suffer the consequences. You get caught cheating on a test, you get expelled from school.”
Dennis Eckersley: “Wow! Baseball writers make a statement,” Eckersley wrote on Twitter. “Feels right.”
January 10, 2013 at 4:26 pm |
A lot of apologists for the PED users like to make the argument that cheating has been a part of baseball since its inception, and then they point to corked bats, doctored pitches, sign-stealing, throwing games, and scurrilous behavior of players like Ty Cobb as examples of why we should keep on rewarding the same or worse behaviors in the future, claiming “hypocrisy”. In the world of moral philosophy, this is a classic of example of a concept called “The Naturalistic Fallacy”. Rational arguments approach this with the notion of “From Is To Ought”. Which is the higher moral calling? Continue to perpetuate the questionable standard, or do something to correct it, even after 100 years of doing it the old way, and at the risk of being attacked as a “hypocrite”? Bear in mind that true hypocrisy only can be perpetrated by the same person, that is to say, one who does one thing and says another. So if Ty Cobb got on the bandwagon to oppose today’s PED users, HE would be a hypocrite! But how is it hypocritical for others who came along later and never condoned PED use at any time in their lives to be hypcrites when they try to do the right thing? I don’t think that is hypocrisy. But if it makes those who object to denying these guys while guys like Cobb are in there, I’m just fine with launching discussions to evict Cobb.
January 10, 2013 at 5:08 pm |
Mark –
Some of these wonderful defenders of baseball’s honor were out there leading the cheers for McGwire and Sosa back in 1998, even though many of them knew what certain players were doing to help themselves as much as the smiling silent owners also knew. These people are pure hypocrites in my view – as are the owners and the Commissioner who allowed it all to unfold into what we now call the Steroids Era.
I’m not defending steroids use. I’m saying the blame for it should not fall upon the players alone. If those of you who want to punish some of these players for lying about their PED use, then figure out an equivalent penalty we might hang on writers, owners, and other administrators of the game who knew about the problem and did nothing to discourage and quite a bit indirectly to encourage PED use during its halcyon years.
Might some of these great present defenders of the game’s honor lie today if they were confronted about what they really knew back in 1998? – I would hope not. After all, these gallant voters who now block the HOF door from the unclean players who want recognition for their career game accomplishments are sworn defenders of the American way of life.
Why, those dedicated scribes wouldn’t hurt a fly.
January 10, 2013 at 4:40 pm |
Craig Calcaterra’s take:
//hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/09/will-barry-bonds-or-roger-clemens-ever-get-into-the-hall-of-fame/related/
January 10, 2013 at 5:22 pm |
Regarding Clemens and Bonds I have a problem in that no one proved they actually knowingly took steroids. To be ” tried and convicted” with lot’s of evidence that a court would not allow by Congress is a joke. Congress never was able to prove anything, but apparently that’s good enough. They can’t even control their own ala Rangel.
Their numbers before the ban should be all that is required. As for Biggio he will get in next time, but should be in right now.
January 10, 2013 at 8:08 pm |
True enough for Clemens, but in the BALCO records seized by the FBI, there were dirty test results. Bonds admitted using, he just denied knowing what he was using. Subsequently Gary Sheffield acknowledged use by Bonds of The Cream and The Clear, and Bonds had a dirty MLB test for amphetamines AFTER all this stuff hit the fan. (As Jim Rome observed: “Imagine the stones on this guy.”) The writers are the people who unveiled the PED use, starting with the reporter who spotted androstenedione in Mark McGwire’s locker in late 1998, and going on from there. Maybe some were hypocritical. I have no data or idea about that – but clearly, plenty were on this issue the moment they had a sniff of it.
I don’t advocate punishing players who did PEDs. They retain all their basic rights, and I can’t see altering their stats either. But HOF induction isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. If I don’t get elected president of the Kiwanis club when I want to be president, that isn’t punishment. That’s just the way it is.
January 10, 2013 at 10:04 pm |
I like what Larry Dierker said on tv last night. Probably half of these HOF voters haven’t seen a baseball game in the last five years.
January 11, 2013 at 3:00 am |
The best thing would be to take the vote entirely away from writers and give it to the players, both active and retired. Let the writers vote for writers and the players for players. If I was eligible for a hall of fame for my profession, I’d hate to think my admission depended on people who were not even in my profession. The other problem is the question of “character”. Where do things like alcoholism and racism come into it, for example? Ty Cobb is often mentioned for his racist tendencies, but there are quite a lot of people like that in the Hall and in baseball now. The best judges of how relevant character or steroid use is in considering someone for the Hall are the players themselves. If they do or don’t want to honor one of their peers, who can argue with it?
January 11, 2013 at 5:15 pm |
Please remember that Gil Hodges has not been voted in, and that it took many years for Enos Slaughter to enter the HOF. The system seems to work well enough–if we turned it over to the players, then there would be nothing to distinguish Cooperstown from the NFL HOF, wto which no one pays much attention.
January 11, 2013 at 5:34 pm |
Good piece. The HoF voting system has always reeked. Back in the 50s and 60s Frankie Frisch did everything he could to get his old buddies especially from the Giants in, and most of them were undeserving. Same with Ted Williams. What people don’t seem to realize is that with the cutbacks in newspapers, the writers really have more say than they are entitled to. I wasn’t as dsappointed as some about the Biggio snub, but the fact that they wouldn’t vote in Piazza and have kept out Raines is terrible. I just can’t imagine that there comes a year when not one player is worthy enough to get in. The whole thing is wired: how about the special vote for the negro players etc and they overlook Minoso and Buck Owens? They enshrine Bowie Kuhn and keep Marvin Miller out. Then you have the sanctimonious bud selig declaring that it should be very hard to get in, but gee, at least in the future there’ll be more good candidates.
I think we as fans put way too much importance in this Hof crap. Much as I like cooperstown the whole thing was founded on the fraud that baseball was invented there.
I think some good investigative reports need to scope out the whole history of this sordid mess.
January 11, 2013 at 7:54 pm |
If I remember right there’s never been a convicted felon in the HOF. Wasn’t Balloon Head Bonds convicted of obstruction of justice by lying to a grand jury? In addition he was never a “5-tool” player. Had a spaghetti arm and everyone in the league knew it (remember Sid Bream?). Ask the Pirates of the ’90’s when Bonds went in the tank in the playoffs. All the hand-wringing over Cobb, McGraw, Speaker, and the Babe not being nice guys – they did not cheat.
December 12, 2013 at 2:18 am |
Interesting commentary, but how will you EVER know where the real truth is with any of the players mentioned?
Bill and I are delighted to know that Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox were voted into the Hall! All three, along with Whitey Herzog, are certainly deserving ——-They are the “modern” Cream of the Crop!!!!! Well done HOF COMMITTEE!