Even the worst person in the world can occasionally have a brilliant idea. Even if you cannot stand Keith Olbermann, the controversial lightning rod that is back on ESPN airwaves, he must be given credit for the only sensible answer to the Baseball Hall of Fame dilemma in this era of road rage players being on the ballot.
Olbermann correctly stated that the Hall of Fame is broken “beyond repair” and that it should be shut down and rebuilt from the ashes. Perhaps for the first time in my life, I completely agree with Keith Olbermann. And when such respected baseball writers as Tim Brown and Buster Olney abstained from voting, it further adds to his case.
Pride before the Fall
As great of a game as baseball is, it has long suffered from a haughty self-important media that has acted far more as cheerleaders than as actual journalists. This is best evidenced by the late 1990s when the game started to resemble beer league softball or, better yet, home run derby.
High scoring slugfests and the home run, it was hoped, would help fans forget the lost season of 1994 and be the competitive answer to the NBA’s slam dunk during its glory of the Michael Jordan era. The compliant baseball media put the blinders on in 1998 when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa had their memorable, if discredited chase, of Roger Maris’ single-season home run record of 61. When skinny Barry Bonds morphed into the incredible hulk, not a discouraging word was heard. Nobody was asking the tough questions that later were asked much too late, after the damage was done.
And now, the same media the promoted the game, even as it became corrupt to the core with an ugly era of performance enhancing drugs, is voting on the Hall of Fame membership.
Ruined Records
Among the most annoying personality traits of seamheads in the media is their waxing poetic about the continuity of baseball’s numbers and how they are comparable to different generations. Well, no more. Many of the records that were shattered during the past generation deserve a big fat asterisk, and the game’s leaders will forever be known as the ones who turned the other way in the face of the glaring evidence the PED era and its counterfeit record setting players.
Thanks to the smartest people in the room, playing dumb it is next to impossible to develop a fair way to vote for Hall of Fame membership as nobody will ever know for sure if players from the PED era were clean or corrupt.
The Bloom Remains off the Rose
The same baseball writers that correctly refuse to vote for roid rage stars such as Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa, even after they slobbered all over them when they played, are also not letting go of an old grudge. Pete Rose, the man that has the most hits in history, remains ostracized for his gambling on baseball games involving his own team in the 1980’s and his refusal to fully come clean and apologize. Compared to the aforementioned foursome of PED abusers, Rose looks far better in comparison and hopefully will get his day in Cooperstown while still alive.
The 2015 Class
Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio will enter the Hall of Fame this year. Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz are pitchers that are best remembered for dominating in that PED era of offense.
Johnson was a five time Cy Young Award winner that posted 303 wins with 4,875 strikeouts and received votes on 534 out of the 549 ballots. Martinez was a three time Cy Young Award winner that was on 500 ballots. Smoltz was on 455 ballots as one of the most consistent pitchers in the game. Smoltz will join fellow Atlanta Braves teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine as HOF members. Biggio was on 454 ballots and had 3,060 career hits in a 20 year career with the Houston Astros.
