"My hope for today is the BBWA spare us their sanctimonious BS about their HOF vote. This has become more about them than the players."
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| 2013 BBWAA Badge |
SANCTITY OF THEIR SANCTITY
The National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its 2013 inductees today and the expectation among mainstream sports media is that nobody will be inducted in 2013, the first time in 17 years this has happened. The big name players in their first year of eligibility all have resumes that are either slam dunks for the Hall or right on the borderline for a first ballot induction.
Unlike football and basketball's halls, baseball's hall does not suffer from the annoying constraint of having to make sense. The Hat Trick has hammered the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) several times in the past for insisting upon itself as opposed to writing about baseball. Today is no exception. the hammering will continue.
NO BRAIN USED FOR THE NO BRAINERS
Barry Bonds (.298, 762 HR), Roger Clemens (354-184, 3.12 ERA, 4,672 Ks), Sammy Sosa (.273, 609 HR), Mike Piazza (.308, 427 HR, catcher), Jeff Kent (.290, 377 HR, second baseman, jerk), and Craig Biggio (.281, 291 HR, 3060 career hits) are all up for consideration. For those of us who can see, think, and read, all but Kent and Biggio should be able to walk into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
Of course the BBWAA would not get a chance to shine the light on themselves if they simply voted in these great athletes. No, the use or suspected use of steroids is going to be the cop out that the writers will use to increase their profile at the expense of these players.
RULES ARE RULES
Never mind that anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that with or without steroids, Bonds and Clemens are among the top ten at their positions of all-time and, even excluding any suspected period of taint in their careers, they easily clear any reasonable benchmark for the Hall. Never mind that there was never a gun, let alone a smoking gun, tied to Sosa, who blasted over 600 home runs. Never mind that there was neither a positive test nor any credible evidence that Piazza was a user, he was simply "suspicious", the buzz word used over the years regarding Piazza and steroids. What does that even MEAN?
Never mind that baseball never had a rule against steroids until 2003 and none of the nominees tested positive after the rules were in place. Never mind that Major League Baseball benefited tremendously from the increased interest in the late 1990s due to more home runs being hit thanks to across-the-board steroid use. MLB was complicit and therefore MLB made steroid use part of its game prior to 2003.
NEVER MIND
Being passionate about the outrageous "no" votes for obvious "yes" players would be a normal reaction for me and other fans of baseball who aren't high on our personal moral compasses. However, the agitators are the members of the BBWAA.
Never mind.
Don't forget to vote in the fan polls!
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