My Hall of Famers for 2007...
Well, we all will find out who gets into the Hall of Fame this Tuesday. I want to go over who I would include if was a baseball writer and a member of the Baseball Writers Association. I am obviously not a member, however, but for fun, I guess I’ll play along and choose who I would vote for.
Cal and Tony Gwynn are obvious choices, and I won’t go into it with them, since we are well versed as to what they have done.
Here’s who would be chosen on my Hall of Fame ballot…
Goose Gossage: If Bruce Sutter’s in, then he should be, no questions asked. Growing up, I remember him vaguely pitching, but seeing him and that Fu Manchu mustache made a big man look even scarier. The man was just plain dominant.
Bert Blyleven: The man has the numbers, the longevity, and the victories to more than qualify.
Jim Rice: I didn’t see him of him due to my age, but his numbers make him worthy. His numbers compare to Tony Perez of the Reds, and if he is in, Rice should be in as well. In comparison to players in his ear, the numbers were top-notch and he no doubt was a cog in the Red Sox teams of the 70’s and early 80’s.
Lee Smith: He was one of the preeminent closers in history. Along with being a consistent closer, he held the saves record with 478 for a few years before Trevor Hoffman passed him.
Andre Dawson: My view of him came from WGN, but he was a tough guy and played through various ailments and injuries. He had almost 3,000 hits, won 2 MVP awards, and a combination of power, defense and speed, before the injuries.
Jack Morris: He’s got 3 World Series rings and was money whenever it came to the big game. I remember his 10 inning performance in 1991 for Minnesota and that was one of the best games I have ever seen pitched. He’s short of wins and his ERA was high, but he was a warrior.
Mark McGwire: He’s in with my opinion. Sorry, like I opined in a previous post, when MLB and the Cardinals give a refund for a performance that was viewed as tainted, then I’ll consider the moral argument. Although his Capitol Hill testimony greatly reduced my opinion of him, he was still not proven to have taken anything as of yet.
Until we can prove he did indeed take drugs, he should be judged on his accomplishments on the baseball field. I will not play a moralist, and vote against him, considering that was not a system that did anything to prohibit him or anyone from drug use.
4 comments:
I'm still torn on the whole McGwire thing because while I am against the use of steroids, he sort of idolized him as a kid and the emotion got to me a bit when he hit 62 and nearly forgot to touch 1st base. That said, drugs aside, Gwynn and Ripken were far better, in my opinion, and he would have had trouble on the 1st ballot regardless. My pick is Ripken, who will forever be my favorite shortstop of all time. Class act all the way, I made it a point to go see his last appearance in Fenway Park. They rarely make athletes like him these days.
I agree on all points with Ripken & Gwynn.
My view of McGwire comes from the business side, not such from emotion. So many people, including MLB, ESPN, the media, way down the chain to the collectors have made so much money off him and for people to scream murder about he being in the Hall of Fame now is a little off base. McGwire was indeed one-dimensional compared to Cal Ripken, but until he was seen as "dirty" could we doubt what he brought to the game?
Whether he gets in or not, is another matter, as the court of public opinion has had their say.
I see your point, and though I haven't been a fan of his work lately, Bill Simmons on Page 2 brought this up in regards to your side. Mike Lupica wrote glowingly about the big home run chase in 1998, in his book, aptly titled, '98, but now that he's such a staunch opposer to McGwire's HOF bid, do we really think he's going to return the profits he made off '98? I think not. At least I'm not successful enough to have to make that distinction, right?
Well, unethical is still unethical and cheating is cheating.
However, seeing both sides of the coin, I feel those who profited off McGwire and the home run chase of '98 should take a good hard look at themselves and say, would I be where I am at today without this event taking place?
I don't really expect anyone to do anything in terms of refunds, etc, but people profited off his career and are now getting moralistic about it.
It's all relative to everything of course, but it came into my mind seeing the furor over this whole Hall of Fame debate.
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