2023 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

If only those priests had been so discerning and adamant during the period under discussion.

A great deal of the upset and confusion over these votes has to do with the Stewards of the Game™ trying to re-virginize themselves long after the fact.

If the press had reported out the steroid story in real time, none of this would be happening.

 

You are so right. And there is a very strong correlation between the purpleness of the prose during the 1998 season and the virulence of the denunciation of "cheaters" ever since. I should also point out that EVERYBODY in baseball, not just the press, were happily sweeping the whole thing under the rug at the time, making the story very difficult to pursue. If Barry Bonds' head hadn't grown so much, they might all still be sweeping it under the rug.

 

I think you're failing to grasp that previous.generations NEVER looked at Cooperstown that way. Yes, it was taken seriously. It was NEVER considered a "roadside attraction."

It was considered the ultimate arbiter of greatness in baseball history.

Has that changed? It sure has. I don't know if you can expect everyone to shrug their shoulders and gladly accept that it's become less than what it was.

 

As a roadside attraction, the Hall of Fame is fantastic. The museum part of the complex is truly wonderful. As an arbiter of baseball greatness, it sucks, and it kinda sucked long before PEDs hit the scene to fuck it for good and all.

 

It's not that it's less than it was.

This is what it always was.

 

Frankly, I don't know how the current system could be improved, other than just letting me make all the decisions about who is inducted or not

Seriously, between the verdicts on Bonds, Clemens and Schilling rendered first by the BBWAA and then by their peers/contemporaries, what else is left? Voting by the masses? If so, will early voting be allowed? Or only same-day voting? And will the candidates announce beforehand that they will accept the voting results? Or will Bonds supporters be storming the Hall on induction day?

The people have spoken, hypocritical though they may seem or be. They don't want to honor Bonds, Clemens and Schilling.

 

Not the people, or in this case, the customers. The Prime Directive of the Hall of Fame is "keep the fans out of it." It is by and for those inside baseball, not outside. We're (OK, I'm an outcast insider) merely supposed to gape in awe.

 

Thank god for that. It's why this country is a republic and not a direct democracy.

 

The Hall could do the whole selection thing with an anonymous panel 0f half a dozen qualified baseball historians.

It chooses to do this instead.

 

If fans elected people to vote for the Hall, it'd be the US system. Baseball's system is more like feudalism. There are grants of limited power within a structured hierarchy, but the peasants have no say at all.

 

If fans voted -- like they did in 1999 for the All-Century Team -- we'd end up with Mark McGwire on the team, while the experts would have to clean it up and add Honus Wagner, Stan Musial, Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, and Christy Mathewson.

The fans are idiots. See the All-Star Game, which is why they came up with the All-MLB team.

 

Fans are into what they see on the field, not so much baseball history (a significant minority of them care about that, of course). That's a valid perspective, albeit a limited one IMO. But the reason fans are excluded from even a limited role in Hall selection is that they don't give a shit about being guardians of the holy shrine. They'd put Bonds, Clemens and even Pete Rose in in a heartbeat. Is that wrong? Depends on what you think a Hall of Fame is for.