First of all, congratulations to Barry Larkin. (And in case anyone is wondering, Brad Radke got two votes, so consider me doubly shocked.)
On the other end of the spectrum, Juan Gonzalez's place on the ballot is no more, and Mark McGwire lost more support, all due to steroids, of course. (Although Rafael Palmeiro's support went up. Apparently lying to Congress about steroids ... possibly ... carries more of a stigma now than it did when Palmeiro did it.) And the worrying is already starting for next year ... Clemens! Sosa! Bonds! Whatever shall we do?
Personally, I'll be most upset if Curt Schilling gets in.
It's understandable that the people who ignored rampant steroid use in baseball for years would want to make sure the Hall of Fame is kept free of cheaters, and I completely support that effort.
So let's start by throwing Whitey Ford out.
Yes, that's right. After all, he cut baseballs and put all sorts of gunk on the ball. How many clean hitters couldn't build their own Hall resumes trying to hit Ford's funky pitches?
And needless to say, Gaylord Perry has to go. After all, he literally wrote the book on cheating.
John McGraw was an old-school cheat. Farewell.
And Don Sutton? The guy who threatened a lawsuit to keep from getting suspended? Take your plaque back; Cooperstown no longer has any use for it.
There can be a special committee to determine all the players who cheated, and a big ceremony during the summer will celebrate their removal from the Hall of Fame and its rebirth as a clean institution.
Anything less, and people more cynical than me might think that the self-proclaimed moral guardians of the game only seem to care about one particular kind of cheating.
No comments:
Post a Comment