This Year’s Hall of Fame Arguments
I’ve been reading a sampling of the vast body of opinion regarding the 2014 baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which includes many of the most famous (and infamous) names in baseball history: Bonds, Maddux, Clemens, Sosa, Bagwell, Biggio, Piazza, Schilling, Glavine, Mussina, Morris, Raines, etc. Predictably, there is not only little consensus on which players belong in The HOF (with the probable exception of Greg Maddux), but there also seems to be a great deal of disagreement about what standards we should even use to judge these players.
What follows is a random sampling of the often contradictory (occasionally hallucinatory) opinions that fans and writers have expressed online regarding the players, and the Hall of Fame voting procedure itself. The player being commented upon appears in parentheses.
1) “He was a compiler. He needs to get used to the fact that he was a good, but not a great player, and only got to 3,000 hits because he hung around for a long time.” (Craig Biggio)
2) “He didn’t play long enough. His career was too short. He never got anywhere near 3,000 hits.” (Larry Walker)
3) “He didn’t hit 500 homers, which is the gold standard for first basemen. Also, he just looks like a ‘roid user.” (Jeff Bagwell)
4) “Although he hit over 500 home runs, and was mostly a first baseman, he was just too much of a one-dimensional player. He probably didn’t use steroids, but that’s not enough of a reason to vote for him.” (Frank Thomas)
5) “If he’s not in the Hall of Fame because of the mistakes he made, which he’s paid for long enough, then no one should be. Betting on baseball is not any worse than steroid use. In fact, steroids are far worse.” (Pete Rose)
6) “He should be in the Hall of Fame because he was one of the greatest players who ever lived. Period. It’s not like he bet on baseball, which is much more serious.” (Barry Bonds)
7) “Mostly, he got to 300 wins because he played for great teams. Put him on a more average team, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation today.” (Tom Glavine)
8) “I can’t see him getting elected to the Hall of Fame because he didn’t reach 300 wins, which would have made him an automatic Hall of Famer.” (Mike Mussina)
9) “If he and the other ‘roid users get in, then the Hall of Fame will have lost all respectability.” (Roger Clemens)
10) “If the BBWAA doesn’t vote him into the Hall, then the Hall will no longer have any credibility.” (Roger Clemens)
11) “That’s what I hate about stats. You can make an argument for lots of guys.” (Tim Raines)
12) “He wasn’t any better than Ray Durham. He just ended up with more numbers.” (Craig Biggio)
13) “He wasn’t any better than Lew (sic) Whitaker. So why should be get in?” (Craig Biggio)
14) “A loudmouth phony and a shameless self-promoter. Had a couple of great seasons, but so did a lot of other guys.” (Curt Schilling)
15) “This shouldn’t be a popularity contest. There are lots of scumbags in the Hall of Fame.” (Barry Bonds)
16) “The Hall has been so watered down over the past few years, he’d just water it down further.” (Argument against Jack Morris)
17) “Winningest pitcher of the ’80’s, and always pitched to the score. That’s why his ERA shouldn’t matter.” (Argument in favor of Jack Morris.)
18) “They all used steroids, so if everyone is cheating, then no one is cheating.” (Clemens, Bonds, etc.)
19) “All the steroid users should be in jail.” (Clemens, Bonds, etc.)
20) “I know stats wise he is better, but he also quit while he was ahead. So people saying Glavine is just getting in over him due to 300 wins also need to look at the downturn that getting to 300 caused to the rest of his stats.” (Argument apparently favoring (?) Tom Glavine over Mike Mussina.)
21) “Not denying {he} was a pretty good pitcher, but he could throw the ball anywhere near the plate and the umps would call it a strike.” (Greg Maddux)
22) “No one ever had better command and control.” (Greg Maddux)
23) “Bloody sock, my ass. One great World Series moment does not a career make.” (Curt Schilling)
24) “His Game 7, 10-inning shutout in the World Series was one of the greatest moments in baseball history. That’s why he should be in the Hall.” (Jack Morris)
25) “Greatest right-handed pitcher ever.” (Roger Clemens)
26) “Greatest right-handed pitcher of all time.” (Greg Maddux)
27) “The Hall of Fame is just a museum of baseball, so you have to take the good with the bad.” (Regarding the alleged steroid users.)
28) “It’s a special honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. It would send a terrible message if we put {them} in.” (Regarding the steroid users.)
29) “Mantle’s stats were great… now think how better they’d have been if he hadn’t tried to paint every town red across the country. Heck, Babe Ruth’s off-the-field escapades were legendary. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, how many players were on the field after a night of uppers or downers? Few people speak ill of those guys. Which affects a MLB game more? A home run that IS hit or a home run that IS NOT hit? A base hit or a strike out due to a hangover? (So, therefore, Mantle and Ruth should be EVEN MORE in the Hall of Fame?)
30) “As long as he’s not in the Hall, it’s all a complete joke.” (Argument for Shoeless Joe Jackson)
31) “No one who played before Jackie Robinson came along and broke the color line should be considered as great as today’s players.” (Argument against Shoeless Joe Jackson)
32) “He shouldn’t be in there if Gil Hodges isn’t.” (Jeff Bagwell)
33) “To argue that he should be in the Hall when Tommy John and Jim Kaat are not is ridiculous.” (Mike Mussina)
34) “He was a good hitter, but as a day-to-day catcher, I’d take Brian McCann over him.” (Mike Piazza)
35) “Saves are a junk stat.” (Lee Smith)
36) “One of the two or three best closers of all time.” (Lee Smith)
37) “Largely a product of his home ballpark.” (Larry Walker)
38) “New how to use the short porch in right-field at Yankee Stadium to his advantage.” (Roger Maris)
39) “All those who broke the rules should all be banned from baseball forever!”
40) Otter’s Defense of the rule-breakers: (Animal House)
My Hall of Fame Ballot, and a Cautionary Tale
Are you familiar with the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, located on the campus of Bronx Community College in New York City? Not many people are. It was formally dedicated in May, 1901, as place to honor prominent Americans who had a significant impact on U.S. history and culture. Modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, its 630 foot open-air colonnade was conceived as a place where marble busts of America’s most significant writers, presidents, inventors, and the like would be commemorated for all time. A very serious blue ribbon panel of 100 men was cobbled together to make initial nominations, and for several decades, the landmark was taken quite seriously.
As you have probably guessed by now, the existence of this Hall of Fame put the seed of an idea into the head of Ford Frick, who passed this idea along to Stephen Clark (of the Cooperstown Clarks), whose very wealthy local family connections paved the way for this unlikely caper to come to fruition. Stephen saw this as an idea to bring business to Cooperstown, suffering from the ravages of the Great Depression, and nearly overnight, this quaint little village was dedicated as hallowed ground where the Abner Doubleday legend also conveniently took root. That there was no easy way to transport people to Cooperstown to visit the proposed new shrine doesn’t seem to have fazed Clark.
Meanwhile, while the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown was just getting off the ground, the more established, high-brow Hall down in the Bronx (on what was then the campus of New York University) was in its heyday. The New York Bar Association went so far as advocating for certain of its members, and newspapers breathlessly covered the annual inductions.
In a fantastic little article I recently discovered, Baltimore Sun columnist Joe Mathews (August 1, 1997), wrote, in a sentence that could serve as a cautionary tale for the institution up in Cooperstown, “The 97-year old monument is a shrine not only to [them], but to an ideal of fame that, like the hall itself, is dusty and decaying.”
Apropos to nothing, my favorite sentence in the article is, “The first hall of fame was the brainchild of a Presbyterian minister who was influenced by his concern for prostitution, democracy, and the Roman Empire.” (emphasis added.) Mets brass, take note. Want to put asses in the seats at Citi Field next season? Why not go with “Prostitution, Democracy and the Roman Empire” as next season’s slogan? It’s certainly much more compelling than “Show up at Shea” (1998), or “Experience It” (2003).
Now, back to our story.
Hardly anyone ever visits The Hall of Fame for Great Americans these days anymore, even though it sits on an easily accessible college campus. Its committee of electors made its final official inductions in 1976. Among the four final inductees were a horticulturist and a judge. None of the final four have yet had a bronze bust built in their honor. Its Board of Trustees formally dissolved in 1979. Since then, the colonnade has been far more popular with pigeons than with people. You may still visit the 98 bronze busts in existence. Self-guided tours are available daily from 10:00-5:00, with a suggested donation of $2.00 per person.
Attendance to the Baseball Hall of Fame has steadily declined over the past twenty years, from a high of over 400,000 in the early 1990’s to around 260,000 last year. Although the Hall of Fame is a non-profit institution, and is, in effect, a ward of the State of New York, it appears that its operating budget was over two million dollars in the red in its last fiscal year. Over the past decade, the HOF has more often than not lost money.
Outwardly, the Baseball Hall of Fame appears to be a healthy, thriving entity. It has a modern website, a Board of Directors featuring such luminaries as Tom Seaver and Joe Morgan, and disproportionate influence on how the game itself is remembered from one generation to the next. Its solid brick exterior and its pastoral location connote classical American values such as fortitude, temperance and diligence. And it contains part of the original facade of Ebbet’s Field. What can go wrong?
By all means, consider the official Hall of Fame ballot a sacred totem of a mystical shrine, if you will, but consider this: Will our choices result in a stronger institution, more relevant to modern American sensibilities of entertainment and utility, or will they further contribute to the atrophy that apparently is slowly setting in?
Having said that, and while chafing at the ten-player limit arbitrarily imposed on actual BBWAA voters, here are my choices, in no particular order, for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame:
1) Greg Maddux
2) Mike Piazza
3) Craig Biggio
4) Jeff Bagwell
5) Tim Raines
6) Tom Glavine
7) Mike Mussina
8) Alan Trammell
9) Frank Thomas
10) Don Mattingly
I’m sure the most controversial pick on this list will be Don Mattingly. Fine. Up until I set about typing this post, I would not have included him among this group, either. But in light of all the previous paragraphs I’ve written about The Hall in this article, the relevant question is, would the enshrinement of Donnie Baseball be a good thing for the future viability of The Hall, or would it somehow be a “bad” thing.
Three questions:
1) Was Don Mattingly ever the best player in the game during his career?
2) Did Don Mattingly represent the game, his team, and himself with nothing but respect both on the field and off?
3) Did he meet the 10-year minimum length career criteria for Hall eligibility?
The answer to each of these questions is yes. From 1984-87, there was no better player in the American League than Don Mattingly. He was always nothing but professional. He played for 14 seasons. At various times in his career, he led his league in hits, doubles, RBI, batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, and total bases. From 1984-89, he averaged 330 total bases per season. Perhaps most impressively, however, he never struck out more than 43 times in any single full season in his career.
In his only playoff appearance, in 1995, vs. Seattle, he batted .417 in 25 plate appearances. He was a six time All Star, won three Silver Sluggers, nine Gold Gloves, and his .996 Fielding Percentage is among the ten best all-time at his position. He won an MVP award, and finished runner-up once as well. If he picked up a bat today, at age 52, he would probably still outhit Ike Davis.
Perhaps more to the point, Mattingly has legions of loyal fans who might just possibly trek all the way up to Cooperstown to see their hero enshrined, and to listen to his acceptance speech. Years from now, dads might still be taking their kids to see Mattingly’s plaque at The Hall. How many parents do you think bring their kids all the way up to Cooperstown each year to stand in awe of the plaques of HOF “immortals” such as Herb Pennock, Rick Ferrell, Lloyd Waner, or Dave Bancroft?
Explain to me, then, how inducting Don Mattingly into the Baseball Hall of Fame would be bad for baseball, or for The Hall itself?
In the final analysis, the Hall of Fame is an idea as much as it is a place. All baseball fans, in their heart of hearts, have their own idea as to what constitutes fame in this context. When the chasm between what fans believe in their hearts is legitimate fame relative to the actual composition of the institution itself grows too wide, then the fans, faced with an untenable choice, will always follow one and ignore the other. Should that happen, The Baseball Hall of Fame may one day bear an uncanny resemblance to that other unfortunately failed Hall of Fame further downstate on a bluff overlooking the indifferent Harlem River.