The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

 

The old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Logic would then tell us that if it is broke, fix it. The sad thing is though, when it comes to the Baseball Hall of Fame, logic left town a long time ago and has yet to resurface. No matter the results of today’s Hall of Fame vote, deserving candidates will  be left out in the cold, and those in the camp of believers that PED users deserve inclusion will be up in arms. There’s no pleasing everyone and there is no happy medium but the point still stands. The Baseball Hall of Fame voting process is broken and no one is allowed to fix it.

Before discussing this year’s inductees and omissions I want to first talk about PEDs. Anyone who has admitted to using PEDs and anyone being followed around by a cloud of suspicion will never get inducted because the Baseball Writers and fans as well have become the morality police. Stop and Frisk is a big problem here in New York City, but in Cooperstown and all across America, Stop and Judge is far worse. Now don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not condoning players usage of PEDs and steroids, but I would like to know why it’s ok to live in a world where these players stories are not a part of the baseball narrative. They cannot be treated as nonexistent, non-contributing entities.

If not for Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 who knows what the state of baseball would be now. The strike of 1994 put baseball in the cellar as far as popularity and attendance. McGwire and Sosa brought fans and excitement back to America’s Game. Yes, we now know they cheated, but the debt of gratitude they deserve for helping rescue baseball cannot go unrecognized. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens get shunned and blackballed for being cheaters even though A) they were Hall of Fame worthy players before picking fruit from the poisonous tree and B) Gaylord Perry gets inducted and celebrated even though he doctored more balls than an urologist. Cocaine was a huge problem in baseball at one time but the players from the coke era could do no wrong when it comes to the “old school thinkers.”So doctoring balls and narcotics are good, but needles are bad.

In television and movies we love the heroes who bend the rules and do whatever it takes to get the job done but on the baseball diamond everyone must be an altar boy who grows up to be a priest, who then performs miracles and ends up being canonized. Baseball may well be America’s pastime, but let’s stop putting it on a pedestal as the be all and end all in judgment.

I’m not even sure there’s reason enough to go into what it will take to fix the process because not only am I not that smart, but even if someone were to come up with a fantastic idea that would be beneficial to all, the curmudgeons will attack in full force because, NO CHANGE!!!!

No matter the player and no matter the road they took to get to the final destination, if they are Hall of Fame worthy they deserve to be in one way or another. Now onto the Class of 2014. Three excellent candidates will gain enshrinement and any arguments for other players, no matter how deserving, should diminish their moment and their glory. Congratulations to Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, and the greatest right handed pitcher of my lifetime, Greg Maddux. You have entered Heaven without a stay in purgatory and are now Gods walking amongst us mere mortals.