Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot Released

I found it interesting that in the AP survey of voters and their stand on McGwire, five of the 125 aren't allowed to vote by their employers.

 

Saberhagen says he'll decline induction

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16111397.htm

And, somehow, I doubt he'll have to worry about it

 

Wow, a guy who'll be lucky to get 25 votes won't accept? Stop the presses!

 

He may not even be on the ballot next year.

 

Alan Trammell has HOF numbers compared to others that have been voted in.

 

I will vote for Gossage, Ripken, Gwynn & Morris.

I am torn on McGwire, and don't know which way I am going to vote on him. Until baseball came up with a serious steroids policy a couple of years ago, I'm not sure if guys who I believe are Hall-of-Famers should be penalized. (I'm not talking about Palmeiro, who I would not vote for because while he accumulated big numbers, he was never a dominant player in his league or at his position.) I'm talking about mainly about McGwire, Bonds & Sosa. To me, everyone in the sport -- owners, team management, players' association officials, players themselves -- were complicit in steroid usage. Everyone chose to ignore it, in fact they all quietly encouraged it.

The sport was in trouble after 1994, and steroids saved it. Should these guys alone spill the blood? Besides, we, as media members, were equally culpable. Shamefully, we also ignored it, or didn't investigate it like we should have, or -- worst of all -- attacked people like Steve Wilstein, who did make andro an issue. (I hold myself as responsible as anyone else.) I'm not sure -- as someone who covered MLB during that time -- that I have the right to punish McGwire or Bonds or Sosa for drug use.

I'm really wrestling with this, because I take my voting privileges very seriously.

As for Sandberg/Alomar -- two of my favourite players to watch, ever -- Sandberg was the one you could count on, in any situation. Alomar had times -- like his last season in Toronto -- where he just gave up and cruised on his talent. (Or, gave up entirely, like when he sat at the end of that season to preserve his .300 average.) But at his best, Alomar was the better player. I watched a lot of them both, and there was no one who could get to hard-hit balls on turf like Alomar could. He used to get angry because he'd get charged with errors on balls no one else could get to, and he really had a point.

Plus, Alomar was a playoff monster -- three .400 series, two more .300 series, an overall average of .313. It didn't happen in the World Series, like Kirk Gibson's or Joe Carter's, but his 1992 ALCS HR off Dennis Eckersley is one of the biggest clutch blasts I've ever seen. Sandberg actually hit well in his two playoffs, but Alomar absolutely took over some of those series.

 

So what if it is against the law.... it wasn't against baseball's rules.

Very Le Batardian-sounding.

Boy, are the witch-hunt remoras pissed with McGwire leading the cheaters' parade to ABC (anywhere but cooperstown)....

Maybe Whitlock and Le Suction Cup will say that McGwire is black.

 

I've always said that.

In a day and age when millions are made by hitting 10 more homers a game (i.e hitting 50 pays more than 40, because 50 is a sexier number), players were doing anything within THE RULES of baseball. Everyone should be pissed at management more so than the players.

 

They were given special exemption from labor laws for most of the 20th century.

 

you just said "50 is a sexier number," which means that post doesn't count and neither do your next nine.

using the word sexy in that manner should become an official SportsJournalists.com posting foul.

 

Doc beat me to it.

Ask Congress and the Justice Department. Baseball has been exempt from antitrust since 1922. And the SCOTUS upheld the reserve clause in the Curt Flood case by citing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._National_League">that 1922 judgment</a>.

There's a lot higher channels to blame before you get around to blaming the players. They share the guilt, but they're also the scapegoats.