There are very few things in this world that can withstand the inevitable dilution upon aging. Everything has an expiration date and–aside from the Great Pyramids of Giza–nothing remains unscathed over time. With that being the case, it is no wonder that Baseball’s Hall of Fame is not the mystical place it was when it was founded in 1936 and continued to be for many decades.
It was inevitable, the way I see it.
Baseball’s fans are too diverse and opinionated to agree upon a ‘one size fits all method’. For that reason, the voting process has received a great deal of flak in recent years. If you ask me, it’s a matter of human nature.
Here’s an example of why, and it was the first example that popped into my head.
Player One: .260/.299/.367 career slash line over 17 years. An OPS+ of 84 and one top-10 finish in the MVP.
Player Two: .281/.363/.433 career slash line over 20 years. An OPS+ of 112 and three top-10 finishes in the MVP. Also averaged 24 stolen bases and 105 runs scored.
Player One is Bill Mazeroski, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame somehow in 2001. Player Two is Craig Biggio who was just left off on his second year on the ballot. I get it, Biggio will eventually get in and Mazeroski was voted in by the veterans committee many years after retirement. But my problem is that at the moment, the inferior player is enshrined in the Hall of Fame, which is reserved for the elite players that have played this great sport while Craig Biggio is not.
Don’t even get me started on Mike Piazza’s snub. I grew up a diehard Mets fan and was enamored with the numbers that Piazza put up, in addition to his leadership ability and durability at a premium position that notoriously has chewed up great players and forced them to position changes. Ahem, Joe Mauer.
I think the Hall of Fame will forever be tainted and it’s not just because of this current batch of chemically enhanced players with bloated statistics. The reason is that the BBWAA suddenly became more lenient with their voting. Keep in mind, this committee left Joe DiMaggio out of the Hall in his first year of eligibility!
First off, the amount of voters needs to be seriously cut. This year nearly 600 voters cast ballots because the requirement is to write for a daily newspaper for 10 years. Cut it to the highest tenured top-200 voters. Also, some clowns chose to vote for people just to make a joke of the process. It’s a joke because of them. Who voted for J.T. Snow? Armando Benitez? Obviously no reasonable person should have, so eliminate voters that will not honor the system.
Basically, I envision the Hall to be a slight extension to the All-Century team which was announced in 1999. It should be reserved for the very best, the elite.
There are three types of Hall of Famers.
1) The Most Feared Player of the Generation: This is capitalized because it has become a title among the inner circles, as in “Don Mattingly needs to be in! He was one of The Most Feared Players of His Generation! This type of player dominated the sport for a short period of time, usually 5-7 years. In the case of Mattingly, he didn’t exactly dominate it, which is why he wasn’t enshrined and has since been overshadowed by the steroid era power hitters.A great example of a player that fits this criteria and will be inducted is Pedro Martinez who had an unprecedented eight-year run of greatness that featured three Cy Young, two second place finishes and a third place finish.
2) The Compiler- This is a title that has been popular by Mike Francesa. It is the player that was never the best in the league and, in some cases, not even the best player on the team. A person that fits this criteria in my mind is Derek Jeter. I know, his postseason numbers put him over the top and his clutch reputation, but he has never won an MVP and every pitcher will tell you Bernie Williams was the most feared player on the great teams in the late ’90s. Jeter will get in because of his longevity, consistency and reputation, but he was never in Alex Rodriguez’s league in terms of numbers.
3) The Best of the Best- This is the Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth class. Players that managed to be the best player in the league for many years. This player doesn’t come along very often. Albert Pujols and Greg Maddux/Randy Johnson is the modern version of them.
Where does this leave us, and what does it mean for steroid users? Since my only requirement is being a great baseball player, yes I would enshrine those who have steroid clouds lingering. This is because baseball’s history has been inundated with those who benefited from bending the rules. Gaylord Perry, Whitey Ford, Dizzy Dean, among others were all known to doctor the ball. Not a 500+ foot steroid-aided home run, but still a tremendous advantage. They were not punished for their insubordination.
Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer because his exclusion tarnishes the game. He was the best during games that counted. He led his team to the World Series. Were those games forfeited? No, neither should his stats.
I don’t mind steroid users in the Hall for the same reason that Tommy John recipients are allowed. They still had to put up the numbers with or without it.
This isn’t to put in borderline players. To stiffen the process, I want the threshold to be pushed up to 85% to eliminate players like Bert Blyleven from the discussion. I don’t like when there are years without a strong class and a player like Jim Rice gets inducted when he normally wouldn’t. It’s tough to combat that problem, so there should be a qualification that all players must meet, such as ERA+ and OPS+. This would help to strengthen the class and limit the borderline players from getting in.
The committee needs to learn to say “nice career, but not enough for our museum”.
