Adding Baseball HOF...
to the list of things that are becoming irrelevant to me.
I love baseball. The first thing I would do as a kid every spring as the snow thawed, would be to get my glove out and bounce tennis balls off the side of our house. I played it at an above average level. I've coached, and I think it's generally "in my blood".
But even more I immersed myself in the history of it. I tried developing an analytical mindset about it but it usually reverted back to a romantic level. I have always wanted to make a trip down to Cooperstown and have imagined how hard it would be to tour the Hall without being blown away by the aura.
But that feeling is passing.
The other day Andre Dawson was elected into the Hall. Deservedly imo. However, the omission of Robbie Alomar is just ridiculous to me. Yes I'm a Jays fan and as a middle infielder I was always in awe of his ability and probably biased in this opinion. But there is no way he is not a first ballot Hall of Famer.
The main reasons I have heard about his denied inclusion involve the voters reluctancy to vote anyone but the absolute cream of the crop in on their first attempt, and the fact that Ryne Sandberg had to wait until his third attempt to get in. This is bullshit.
Fact is Alomar's numbers are closer to that of first ballot HOF'er Joe Morgan than Sandberg's. Also when Sandberg was elected he garnered 123 more votes than....guess who....Andre Dawson.
But this is only the tip of an upcoming Titanic sized iceberg. In the future voters are going to keep biases of drug use, personal indiscretions and such to further cloud the vote. I for one will no longer care.
end rant/
I love baseball. The first thing I would do as a kid every spring as the snow thawed, would be to get my glove out and bounce tennis balls off the side of our house. I played it at an above average level. I've coached, and I think it's generally "in my blood".
But even more I immersed myself in the history of it. I tried developing an analytical mindset about it but it usually reverted back to a romantic level. I have always wanted to make a trip down to Cooperstown and have imagined how hard it would be to tour the Hall without being blown away by the aura.
But that feeling is passing.
The other day Andre Dawson was elected into the Hall. Deservedly imo. However, the omission of Robbie Alomar is just ridiculous to me. Yes I'm a Jays fan and as a middle infielder I was always in awe of his ability and probably biased in this opinion. But there is no way he is not a first ballot Hall of Famer.
The main reasons I have heard about his denied inclusion involve the voters reluctancy to vote anyone but the absolute cream of the crop in on their first attempt, and the fact that Ryne Sandberg had to wait until his third attempt to get in. This is bullshit.
Fact is Alomar's numbers are closer to that of first ballot HOF'er Joe Morgan than Sandberg's. Also when Sandberg was elected he garnered 123 more votes than....guess who....Andre Dawson.
But this is only the tip of an upcoming Titanic sized iceberg. In the future voters are going to keep biases of drug use, personal indiscretions and such to further cloud the vote. I for one will no longer care.
end rant/
Comments
Alomar is one of the best Jays ever, not not mention one of the best 2nd basemans of all time...
Just because he didnt get in this time, doesnt mean he wont get in next time up.
You seem to forget his spitting in that umpires face, which defenitly hurt him. he was 8 votes short the first time, HE WILL GET IN.
I like your passion though, I feel the same way.
This.
Alomar's infamous spitting indecent when he was an Oriole was on the voters minds during the voting. Also the fact that his best years where as a Blue Jay don't help. Our stars don't shine nearly as much as they should in the US.
I'm not surprised to see Mark McGwire move down in the voting either. After what happen during the Congressional Hearing there's no way he's getting into Cooperstown without paying for a ticket.
The spitting incident is a ten second blip in an amazing career. One that was spurned by Hirschbeck himself. Both have apologized to each other for it and have worked together in charitable causes for Hirschbecks son. Hirschbeck also openly campaigned for Alomar's Hall run.
Finally, McGwire's numbers (other than HR's) just aren't HOF worthy. Steroid allegations should not be a determining factor in any player's election to the Hall in my opinion.
I disagree with you about mcgwire not being hof worthy. Anyone that has had the kind of impact mcgwire did on baseball even with the batting average and strikeouts being bad is still hof worthy.
Anyone who cheated the game shout be shot and burned in hell for giving embarassment to the sport.
all the juicers will not get in the fame.. that includes the rocket, bary bonds, and sammy sosa...
best slugger of all time without juicing is griffey jr.
ugh, i wrote this. stupid auto sign in
wa wa wa, its not cheating. Its a highly competitive industry and they just did something to give them an edge. And really, who knows if it even helped they could of done just as good on their own.
this, imagine what he would of done if he wasn't drunk half the time.
fyp
Misguided impact imo. Sammy Sosa came so close to being the man instead and with a much much better all around game to show for it. I forget the stat I once heard, but it had to do with McGwire's glory years. I think it was something like when he was hitting 65 and 70 HR's his total bases numbers were not even good enough to crack the top 75 all time. Heck even in that huge year Sosa was the NL MVP. One world series win where he hit 1 HR and drove in 4 for the entire playoffs. He was the epitome of a one trick pony. The steroids don't even bother me as much as his lack of other necessary baseball skills. Basically he's not even worthy of carrying Bond's soiled jock imo.
Baseball: It's our game, you are lucky we even allow you to have a team.
say what you want but he was still one of the most feared hitters ever with good reason.
Me and the Spitter;: An Autobiographical Confession
Author Gaylord Perry HOF 1991
I don't know anything about baseball..but I thoroughly enjoyed this post!
Wait wat?
If you polled a thousand pitchers from that era he wouldn't even register on their top ten list of feared hitters. He would show up on the list of most likely to hit a HR off of them when the score was 8-2.
obv. Although 70%+ of baseball writers agree that he's not Hall worthy.
True story, I played a year of ball with his son. The dude was 6' 9", 250 lbs, built like a brick shithouse.....and the biggest pussy I have ever seen. We had a bench clearing brawl once and I've never seen that big of a man cower like a scared puppy.
He did have the biggest hands I've ever seen. His claim to fame was that he could hold 7 baseballs in one hand at one time.
BB players have been cheating since the sport was invented.
johnny bench?
Game 7 of the '91 World Series.
That would be the one. iirc, 10 innings, couple walks, handful of hits, with about an equal amount of K's. Something like 130 pitches on 3 days rest and balls the size of a battleship. The thing that makes it more impressive is that Smoltz was doing something similar, ALSO on 3 days rest.
This game was the epitome of the term, "Pitcher's Duel", and Morris won it.
+1 for that being one of the greatest games ever. goooooooooooooooo Twins
MLB
Jack Mccaffery is a fking idiot. He didn't vote for Robby because of his lack of personal respect for the game (ie...the spitting incident) but voted FOR Mark McCqwire because of his outstanding career. He cheats by using steroids then LIES TO THE U.S. CONGRESSIONAL committee about it!
Mark McGwire finally admits using steroids - Yahoo! News
steroids or not, he is still a great hitter