2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

You're a businessperson in Des Moines ten years ago. You're also a baseball fan, so you love it when your trade association's convention is in a city where you can catch a game. The year that convention is in Houston, you walk into the stadium thinking, "Wow, I'm going to get to see Craig Biggio play."

............

Does anybody think that ever happened?

 

Probably not.

Why does that matter?

 

Count me among the cranks who think too many are in the Hall, not too few.

 

That's fine.

But your method of evaluating a player seems imprecise, to say the least:

Did a hypothetical businessman from Des Moines get excited to see Craig Biggio play while he was on a business trip?

 

I would rather have zipped over to Cedar Rapids and tried to make it with Anne Heche.

 

Ideally, when she had a girlfriend.

 

There was a season when the big draw for the Pirates was a young Oliver Perez. Also, the excitement test would mean that Mark Fidrych should be easily in the Hall.

 

I believe you're talking about the Hall of Shooting Stars.

 

My bad. I did not mean to imply that excitement qualifies anyone for the Hall. Its absence disqualifies them.

 

No, it doesn't.

 

For you, no. For me, yes.

I'm OK with that.

 

How can "excitement" possibly matter when there is reams and reams and reams of evidence available regarding a player's performance over the course of two decades and upwards of 3,000 games? How can you possibly justify using "excitement" as a disqualifier?