Forget it Jake; it’s Cooperstown (Hall of Fame part 2)

Forget it Jake; it’s Cooperstown (Hall of Fame part 2)

The Baseball Hall of Fame is possibly the greatest source of sports debates ever.  Who deserves to be in?  Who shouldn’t get it?  Who should be kicked out (as if they’d do that)?  Why did anybody vote against admitting Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle in their first year of eligibility?  Why did they put the darn thing in the middle of nowhere?  Seriously, I only made it there because I lived in Albany, New York for a while; I can’t imagine traveling there from some place further away.

Last time I quibbled with some of the choices that had been made over the years regarding the HoF.  One problem is, even when they get it right, they get it wrong.  The most egregious case of bad timing was the sad case of Chicago Cub Ron Santo.  Santo was a fan favorite at Wrigley Field, going from a great player to a beloved radio announcer.  The Hall of Fame case for Santo was not clear cut but was substantial: he was an excellent third baseman (five Gold Gloves) but no Brooks Robinson; he was a very good hitter but he played in the dead-ball 1960’s (plus his stats were padded somewhat by playing in hitter-friendly Wrigley Field).  In his excellent book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame baseball guru Bill James said (in 1994) that Santo would be his first choice of who deserved inclusion, but his stats were those of someone neither fish nor fowl, good at a lot of things but not great at any one. 

After being passed over for induction for the final time in 1998, Santo’s candidacy seemed doomed.  He lost his legs to diabetes (which he struggled with during his playing career) and his health declined, and he eventually died in December of 2010.  Then, a year after his death, the Hall of Fame “Golden Era committee” resurrected Santo’s candidacy.  The 16 man committee contained Santo’s teammate Billy Williams, as well as fellow third baseman (and contemporary of Santo) Brooks Robinson.  The committee voted 15-1 to admit Santo a year after he passed away.  Nice timing, guys. 

At least Santo got in after his death.  The late Marvin Miller, the labor leader that transformed the Players’ Association from a lapdog for the owners into the most successful labor union in history, is still not in.  As Keith Olbermann said, the three most influential people in baseball history are Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and Marvin Miller.  Buck O’Neil, one of the great ambassadors of the game, is also on the outside looking in, or he would be if he wasn’t dead. 

On the other hand, a post-death induction might be appropriate for one Hall aspirant.  A great many people have been agitating for the induction of Pete Rose, the all-time “hit king” in Major League Baseball.  I have a slight problem with that description as Rose only accumulated that many hits because his manager kept him in the lineup despite the fact that he was the weakest hitting first baseman in the league; that manager’s name was Pete Rose.  Be that as it may, a lot of people are outraged that the all-time hit leader is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, regardless of his admitted gambling indiscretions.  I am not one of these people; Rose is ineligible for the Hall of Fame because of a piece of paper that was signed by Pete Rose agreeing to a lifetime ban.  Ah, but there is the solution—Rose was given a lifetime ban, so Rose should be eligible eventually.  All he has to do is die.

With Santo’s induction, the old-timer whose exclusion I remain the most animated over is pitcher Jim Kaat.  Kaat has 283 wins, short of the magic 300 but very, very close but more than anyone may have for a while (and way more than Dizzy Dean or Sandy Koufax).  He never won a Cy Young award, but as Bill James pointed out he had his best years when only one award was given out and there was a guy in the National League named Sandy Koufax.  Let’s say his qualifications as a pitcher are marginal.  Fine.  He also won 16 Gold Gloves.  The only player with more Gold Gloves at any position is Greg Maddux, who will almost certainly be inducted in 2014.  Brooks Robinson was voted into the Hall with 16 Gold Gloves and a below-average offensive resume; if a mediocre hitter with 16 Gold Gloves gets in, shouldn’t an excellent pitcher with 16 Gold Gloves make it?

With so many voters refusing to vote, at least on a first ballot, for suspected steroids users, a backlog is going to develop very quickly.  Some have speculated that only Greg Maddux will be voted in this year, leaving such obviously eligible candidates as Frank Thomas and Tom Glavine to wait along with previous non-inductees who should eventually get in like Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio.  But with a limit for each voter of only ten names per ballot, and with new candidates popping up every year, many candidates worthy of at least consideration will not find room on enough ballots to avoid the 5% cut off rule and be excluded permanently.

The rules for Hall of Fame voting need to be changed.  The limit of ten votes per year should be eliminated.  And curmudgeonly voters who refuse to vote for anybody in their first year of eligibility on the grounds that no one deserves 100% of the vote should be penalized; anyone voting against someone who gets more than 90% of the vote should lose their voting privileges for five years.  And no more “special committees” stacked to get a desired result.

But the Hall of Fame is supposed to be for “the immortals.”  Doesn’t that include Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons despite their supposed transgressions?  How will fathers in the future explain to their children that the Hall of Fame contains the best players of all-time, except the home run leader and the hits leader?  Cooperstown itself is a lie; baseball was not invented there by Abner Doubleday, so let’s let it go.  Maybe Keith Olbermann is right, it is time to start the Baseball Hall of Fame over again.