Maddux, Glavine, Thomas elected to Baseball Hall of Fame; Biggio just misses

Mike Fitzpatrick, an AP sports writer who voted for the first time, wrote a column about the ballot.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/2014/01/08/rookie-voter-take-the-hall-fame-election/XC4Z2WdVHcLCzV9t8Pe7EN/story.html

He revealed his selections: Bagwell, Glavine, Maddux, Mussina, Piazza, Raines, Schilling and Thomas.

 

"You're going to miss me when I'm off the ballot."

Oops, wrong again.

 

I'm not a baseball guy, so please forgive me if I'm wrong about this, but didn't some guys named Aaron, Mays and Mantle follow that same track -- skinny, five-tool wonderkid becoming a home-run hitter as he ages? In fact, if you take out the skinny part, didn't some guy named Ruth follow that same sort of track?

Frankly, I always thought that was a natural track for those really special five-tool kids -- the wheels go away eventually and what's left is the power. Hell, Trout will probably end up playing first base or DHing some day.

 

Deleted for trolling and lying.

 

Have you seen his father? Guy is built like a brick. Of course Junior would get bigger as he got older. But unlike Bonds, his head and jaw didn't grow exponentially larger.

I can't remember every one of Junior's injuries. But as I remember it (and again, I could be wrong) most of the injuries he sustained with the M's came from running into walls or on diving catches (ie, broken bones) rather than the muscle/tendon tears most associated with a body artificially made too strong for its natural infrastructure by steroids.

 

Aaron hit 27 HRs as a 21-year-old rookie. Mays hit 21 as a 20-year-old. Came out of the Army and hit 41 as a 23-year-old.

 

Ruth was a lean, athletic machine for the first 6-8 years of his career. He didn't start really gaining weight until he was 30 and didn't get "fat" until his mid- to late-30s.

 

Glad to see Glavine get in. Would have liked to see Jack Morris, too. But maybe Morris --- and Biggio and some others --- are the Hall of Very Good.

 

Yeah, unfortunately good film didn't exist until late in Ruth's career, by which time he was, as Larry David's George Steinbrenner once described him, "a fat old man with little girl legs."

 

Agree to disagree then. But I have a difficult time implicitly trusting any slugger from that era, especially one with Griffey's story (injuries, historic power, etc.). I also think it's foolish for any of us to assume we know who is clean and who is not, especially from that era. If you're going to hold back your HOF vote based on suspicion, I don't know how you can vote for anybody from about 1985-2005 with a clean conscience. Or even more recently, as Braun proves. To me it should be all or nothing, because there's no way to know.

Changing direction a bit, I find it interesting that a board devoted to journalists seems so upset about me asking questions of Griffey.

On a third note, I think it would be interesting if MLB added a stipulation to its drug testing/punishment policy that any player caught using PEDs will, on first offense, have their name excluded from all future Hall of Fame ballots. I wonder what effect that would have had on guys like Bonds, Clemens, Braun, etc.? Obviously that wouldn't impact no-name minor leaguers just trying to get to the show, but it might work wonders to prevent record book abuses the likes of which Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and Clemens inflicted.

 

It would have no effect, people never beleive they ae going to get caught.

 

No effect?

For that to be the case, then you'd have to argue that PEDs are as prominent in the game today as they were 10-15 years ago. And maybe you do think that, although I think the consensus opinion is that they are not. If people truly believed, as you say, that they won't get caught, then wouldn't they be taking them more frequently now?

The one that baffles me is the NFL. No one ever gets nailed in that league, and I bet an enormous percentage of players, particularly linebackers, tight ends, and defensive ends, are heavy users.