2023 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

When he came up with the Jays he won the 1B job and his competition, Cecil Fielder, went to Japan
One day he hit a ball over the right field fence in spring training and it broke a car window in the Publix parking lot
Crime Dog was a good player for a long time
And he had class, unlike a lot of the guys who didn’t get the votes

 

I always picture him as a Brave. But it’s a great question for a guy with his career.

 

How about the Yankees, the team that drafted him and traded him for, I think, Dale Murray?

I’d like to see him wear a Jays cap but I don’t know. Mind you he did lead the league in homers twice while in Toronto.

 

He doesn't have to wear a logo, he can just have a blank cap if he wishes

Catfish Hunter, Maddux, Mussina and Halladay all have blank caps

 

That's how I feel about one without Bonds and Clemens, not because I like either guy, but because it is a joke without them.

 

I don't think it's going to happen, but I wonder how the Hall would feel if he asked to go in wearing a retroconned Rays hat. The only possible Rays inductee anytime in the next quarter-century (and probably a lot longer, since they'll probably trade Wander Franco and everyone else early enough so that they put together the bulk of any sort of HOF resumes elsewhere) is Evan Longoria, who is probably going to fall a little short at a position that's barely repped anyway. Could McGriff spin it as representing his hometown and the area he's lived his entire life? Does the Hall want the Rays repped before 2050? My guess is he goes in with the Braves since he probably put himself over the top there from 1993-95, but McGriff going in w/the Rays isn't nearly as outlandish as Wade Boggs saying he was gonna do that.

 

John Lowe won the BBWAA Excellence Award (formerly the Spink)

John Lowe 137 votes
Gerry Fraley 135 votes
Bruce Jenkins 106 votes

 

Glanville: Bonds shouldn't be a Hall of Famer -- and that's OK

 

He's free to feel that way. Others are free to thumb their nose at the BBWAA's decision to leave the game's all-time hits leader and the game's all-time HR leader out of the sport's Hall of Fame.

 

It's a good, well-reasoned piece from someone who played in the big leagues at the height of the PED era.

I credit his perspective on the matter much more highly than my own.

And it's worth remembering the Hall of Fame is an upstate tourist attraction, and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

 

Dammit, I love Mr. Jenkins' writing! He's old school and not afraid to tell it that way (BTW, cool story his dad played in Sinatra's band)