HALL CALLS 3 MR. CLEANS
No doubting Thomas, Tom & Greg; ’roid gang shunned
Maybe now we can put to rest all the criticism of the Hall of Fame voting system and the Baseball Writers’ Association that applies it — although I doubt it.
A year after the writers sent no one to Cooperstown — and thereby incited a torrent of media outrage clamoring for sweeping reforms in both the electorate and the process — they elected Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas on Wednesday, three no-brainers who were appearing on the ballot for the first time. It is not easy getting named on 75% of any ballots, which is why the Baseball Hall of Fame is exclusive as it is and the only Hall of Fame that generates such passion over who’s in and who’s not. The reason no one was elected last year was because there were no no-brainers on the ballot.
Oh, did somebody say Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens? Let’s get right to this because the Baseball Writers have been particularly criticized — even by some of their own — for their hardline stance on steroids cheats. Bonds and Clemens got 36.2% and 37.6%, respectively, their first year on the ballot in 2013 and slightly less — 34.7 and 35.4 — this time around. At the same time, Rafael Palmeiro fell off the ballot completely and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are about to fall off.
Now I could understand if, based on their overwhelming statistics alone, these guys were getting over 50% because that would show the writers are really torn about this issue. But when just under 70% of 571 voters express their opinion that Bonds and Clemens fail the integrity test, I’d say that’s a pretty strong consensus. Moreover, to those who still say the writers shouldn’t be the ones to be making this judgment, then who should? Broadcasters? Players? Hall of Famers themselves? A combination of all of them? It doesn’t matter. No matter what the group — unless you want to round up 400-500 steroid dealers — I guarantee the vote would be about the same. And if it was just the Hall of Famers voting, Bonds and Clemens would be lucky to get 5%.
So do all the handwringing you want about the Hall of Fame being incomplete without baseball’s all-time home run champion* or a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, but who is going to put them in?
“This past year I did a lot of charity work with Hall of Famers and I can tell you they have a strong st a nce (against steroids),” T homas said Wednesday on his conference call. “This Hall of Fame means a lot to them and t hey don’t want these guys in.”
And what about him, now that he’s in? “They shouldn’t be in,” Thomas repeated. “Cheating shouldn’t be allowed to get in the Hall of Fame.”
It seems the biggest criticism of the writers is over who they don’t put in. Again, the reason the Baseball Hall of Fame carries the prestige it does is because — at least on the Baseball Writers’ ballot — only the best of the best are able to get that elusive 75%. This year, because of this loaded ballot, there was a lot of discussion among the Baseball
Writers about doing away with the rule that limits voters to up to 10 players, and instead allow them to vote for as many candidates as they want. I have no problem with that, but would it have made any difference this year? The three bona fide Hall of Famers all got in. Bonds and Clemens got about the same percentage of support as last year, and fears that some of the new players on the ballot, such as Jeff Kent or Mike Mussina, who may well be elected a few years down the road, would get knocked off because of the logjam proved unfounded. Maybe if the writers could have voted for as many as they wanted, Craig Biggio would’ve picked up those two votes he missed by, but he’ll probably make it in next year. And is there anyone who would put Biggio in the same no-brainer class as Maddux, Glavine and Thomas? Mike Piazza? He improved from 57.8% to 62.2%, still a bit of a leap to election. Fair or not, the greatest hitting catcher in histor y continues to have a cloud of steroid suspicion around him — something to do with that incredibly shrinking body the year baseball began steroid testing. Even though Piazza never failed a drug test or appeared in the Mitchell Report, I suspect a lot of writers are reluctant to vote for him for fear some proof will turn up out of the blue — like it did with Alex Rodriguez in the Biogenesis scandal — down the road.
Piazza’s supporters need to keep the faith. He’s got plenty of time and he’s a whole lot closer to Cooperstown than
Bonds and Clemens ever will be.