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.
