Thursday, January 28, 2021

Hall Pass

Author's note: I amended this post to correct my own sloppiness, the sentence that baseball writers had never voted in a player unanimously. If you know me or know journalists, you understand how cheesed off I am for this mistake. Please forgive.

Baseball’s annual Hall of Fame reveal is a nice little slice of Americana, which is to say it includes tradition, achievement, bias, selective memory and full-on bitching. People do or do not get voted into Cooperstown, and then everyone retreats to their respective barstools to gasbag the wisdom or ignorance of the decisions.

It’s a welcome dose of baseball in January, even if a bit self-reverential. No American major league sport takes itself more seriously than baseball, owing mostly to history, nostalgia and several generations of self-appointed guardians of the game. Baseball tacitly approves of its characterization by some as national religion, with Cooperstown as its Vatican City.

I can offer little on the merits of the HoF Class of 2021, but I believe it increasingly puerile to continue to reject Barry Flaxseed and Roger Syringe. They weren’t one-offs, but the product of an entire era with which baseball is still coming to terms. Curt Schilling’s odious personal and societal positions, post-career, present a different argument, but one that’s even less germane to his resume.

According to the Baseball Writers Association of America’s rules for election: Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played. The so-called “character clause.” Points 1, 2 and 6 are reasonable; 3, 4 and 5 are where it gets tricky.

A gent named Robert W. Cohen authored the book “Baseball Hall of Fame – or Hall of Shame?” in which he detailed many of the reprehensible doings of those enshrined in Cooperstown. He wrote, “Baseball has always had some form of hypocrisy when it comes to its exalted heroes. In theory, when it comes to these kinds of votes, it’s true that character should matter, but once you’ve already let in Ty Cobb, how can you exclude anyone else?” (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ty Cobb, who hails from noteworthy and noble American stock, is much-erroneously-maligned. As it turns out, the rumors of his misanthropy and misdeeds were greatly exaggerated. Dammit.)

Cap Anson, now there's a racist
Indeed, the Hall is full of racists, abusers, cheats, womanizers, drunks and miscreants. Younger me was a little more strident about inductees exhibiting some ill-defined standard of conduct and integrity. Older me now views Halls of Fame as historical markers, and criteria should mostly be: could a guy ball in relation to his peers and to history? If so, he gets in. Does the history and progression of the game require that someone’s story be included? If so, they get in. Mention whatever transgressions and context necessary, but they get in. To deny someone whose accomplishments clearly merit induction becomes logically indefensible.

A common argument for rejecting Bonds, Clemens and the PED stat stuffers is that they cheated the game and cheated their clean peers, while the behavior of racists and abusers, though contemptible, did not affect the game. That’s some Coco Chanel-level needle threading, given points 3 and 5 above, and the fact that it’s called a Hall of “Fame.”

Remember, too, that though steroids were banned from baseball in 1991, MLB didn’t begin testing for them until 2003. Baseball was only too happy to count the money generated by home run binges and power surges. Players essentially got a wink-and-nod pass for a couple decades.

Some folks draw the line at positive drug tests for HoF consideration. In that way, one can rationalize Bonds and Clemens getting in, but Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez disqualifying themselves. That’s an even thinner limb to crawl out upon. It’s worth noting, as well, that when it comes to doping and PEDs, the cheats are often one step ahead of the cops. Rather than risk honoring players who simply had access to cleaner jet fuel and better masking agents while tarring those who got pinched, include everyone whose numbers pass muster. Tailor and adjust the narrative accordingly. The Republic will survive.

It should be obvious that Cooperstown is less hallowed ground and more an exclusive What A Bunch of People Think. Otherwise, there’s no justification for embracing noted racist and color line enforcer Kennesaw Mountain Landis immediately, yet waiting 40 years to grudgingly induct labor pioneer Marvin Miller, who only changed the sport forever. Another tell on Hall voting and membership is the fact that the only player ever to be elected unanimously was a relief pitcher. Granted, Mariano Rivera was an exemplary relief pitcher, but still. Look at the history. Not Ruth, not Ted Williams, not Koufax, not Willie Mays, not Aaron, not Seaver, not Ken Griffey Jr. None of them unanimously. To a person, Hall voters will tell you that each of them, and a score of others, all deserve to be in the Hall. But each time around, at least a handful of voters chose not to vote for obvious candidates because, well, that’s just the way it’s done. Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for objective standards.

It would be healthier if the Baseball Hall of Fame were viewed as the Smithsonian, rather than the Sistine Chapel. But where’s the fun in that? It’s not coincidence that there’s only a few letters’ difference between myth-making and marketing. Besides, debate on whether Michelangelo was a first-ballot guy is pretty much played out.

29 comments:

  1. Hear, hear, Dave. Well said, well spoken. I’ll confess to utter schadenfreude when it comes to Bonds and Clemens being denied. They generally appeared to be arrogant, selfish dicks when they played the game, so let ‘em suffer.

    A far more Zen approach is that like every human, they had lapses in judgment, ones that they didn’t even need to make in order to achieve baseball’s highest honor, and they’ve more than paid for them. So like Sir Paul sang, Let ‘Em In.

    Eh. Either way.

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  2. According to somebody I heard on the radio yesterday who sounded smart, schadenfreude is actually a 4-syllable word. Is that the case, German language gurus? I've spent my whole life thinking the last syllable was Sigmund's last name. Makes it a more fun word if there is an "uh" at the end.

    I haven't been this confused since I learned banal and anal don't rhyme.

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  3. jawohl, timmo. shah-den-froy-duh. sehr, sehr gut.

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  4. Coco Chanel needle-threading! Damn fine stuff as always. Wasn't Mariano Rivera unanimously inducted?

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  5. In the first Hall of Fame voting, Cy Young was selected on 49% of ballots. Tris Speaker 59%, Rogers Hornsby 47%. It's a pretty exclusive operation.

    And as Dave pointed out, Babe Ruth was only selected on 95%. Babe Fucking Ruth. The most world famous baseball player not of his era but perhaps ever was not quite good enough for 5% of the writers. Shoulda hit 61, I guess.

    Did You Know??? Babe Ruth is 17th in the all-time rankings for... drum roll... career ERA. 2.28.

    https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/earned_run_avg_career.shtml

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  6. Sweet Christ. Hold my beer.

    https://www.jaguarusa.com/about-jaguar/heritage/c-type-continuation.html

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  7. holy shit. inject that into my veins.

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  8. Yo z, you're correct about Rivera. Forgot. Shit. Fact that it took 83 years for a unanimous pick is almost as damning and weird as never.

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  9. I'm far too old to care about the BBWAA / HoF perpetual kerfuffle. The humorous part of all this is that there is zero chance Jeff Bagwell didn't do steroids. Dude reshaped his entire body as an adult. He was just lucky to live in a town like Houston, where the beat writers played nice in the sandbox. And he was never THE GUY in MLB in the 90's. He was always a slight level below McGwire/Sosa/Bonds/JuanGone/Giambi, in terms of preposterous stats. So he could "quietly" have 40 HR, 120 RBI years.

    So he's fine b/c he never got caught.

    Put them all in. Except Schilling.

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  10. I think Schilling should get the nod before the steroid crew, and it's not because I sympathize with any of his crazy beliefs.

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  11. On a way, way different note, I have my first ever colonoscopy tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.

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  12. Five feet of exploratory fun. Enjoy and hope it is uneventful!

    Prepare for some quality commode time tonight.

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  13. The great state of New Jersey gave me an appointment for a covid vaccine. This is obviously good news. I guess they called me in because I have high blood pressure. Oddly, however, they have not contacted zmother or zstepfather who are both well over 65, also have high blood pressure, and have suffered strokes in the past. Not sure how I got ahead of them.

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  14. Hey Whit, colonoscopy prep isn't nearly the endurance contest it used to be. Consume a couple of smallish containers of flush liquid that's actually palatable, and don't stray far from the commode. Twelve-fifteen years ago, you had to drink darn near a couple quarts of disgusting solution over a few hours the night before. Can still almost taste that sludge.

    Here's hoping you're polyp-free.

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  15. what's the book by the really good fiction writer where him and his 13 year old son go to cooperstown? i can't remember it

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  16. also, why am i going into school next week but i can't get a vaccine yet?

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  17. Richard Ford is the reason you're going into school?

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  18. Isn't Richard Ford the main character in The Fugitive?

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  19. that's doctor richard kimball, played by harrison ford. richard ford is actually frank bascombe, who took his kid to cooperstown.

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  20. why did richard ford come to you, dave? that's pretty cool. i love his stuff.

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  21. Didn’t Richard Ford pardon Henry Nixon?

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  22. that was gil gerard, i believe

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  23. There are few sports related things I care less about than the Baseball HOF. One of them, even as an enormous basketball fan is the Basketball HOF. It’s the opposite of baseball. Everyone gets in.

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  24. Thanks for the encouragement on the colon blow. You don’t want to know from whence I’m sending this text.

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  25. wasn’t colon blow the secretary of state?

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  26. That was before they named Blow Hall after him.

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  27. pretty sure that was kurtis blow

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