You can still hear the clattering. The Hall Of Fame vote – made public almost a full day ago – has elicited much moaning and shouting about how flawed the process is. The words floated about are “broken,” “unworkable” and “antiquated.” You won’t hear any argument here; your intrepid columnist is about to join the clatter. An MSM member as estimable as Dan LeBatard found the process so distasteful that he peddled his ballot to Deadspin. To their credit, the good folks at Deadspin then crowd-sourced that ballot: the general public came up with a credible slate, devoid of any jokes, such as Hall votes going to Armando Benitez, Jacque Jones or Kenny Rogers.
To those of the proletariat who participated in that exercise, Mike Piazza was a prominent “yes” vote. Another 12.8% of the writers voting didn’t agree, and Piazza fell short of election. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas were deemed worthy for induction. If you’re a long time Met fan, seeing those two names – now and forever associated with the Atlanta Braves — dominate that of the Queens representative is nothing new. Yes, there was the ten-run comeback inning, capped by a Piazza homer in 2000. Yes Glavine did spend five years in a Met uniform, compiling 61 victories – leaving the fans pining for number 62. But overall, the Atlanta pitchers spent most of their time lording their accomplishments over the New York catcher. This Hall of Fame vote proves no different and one cannot help but come away from the whole process with the feeling that the geniuses in the MSM who cast their votes are assuming two separate things as regards these two winners and one loser: that Mike Piazza did steroids and that Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine did not. That there is no proof of either assumption is of little consequence to the voters. If nothing else, all this clatter is bringing light to the fact that the Hall of Fame voting is a sham, and has been one for a long time. Jim Rice was denied entry not for any deficiency on the field – though that is still a subject of debate for the sabermetric crowd – but because he wasn’t a “nice guy” to the Boston writers. As if a surly manner has anything to do with performance on the field – Ty Cobb, anyone?
Maybe this will be the final act of ATL dominance over NYM. The tide turned a bit last season when the Mets
finished .500 at Turner Field for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. Maybe this means that the ghosts of Glavine & Maddux, Chipper Jones & Brian Jordan, Bobby Cox & John Scheuerholz will finally leave us in peace.
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Unfortunately for Piazza there’s too much gray area in this conversation.Yes we all know that he was not suspended. I do wonder if privately if the Mitchell report was shown to someone outside of the scope of the hearings. They could not publish it or use the information against him. But that wouldn’t stop the writer from spreading the word unofficially. It’s not fair and hopefully one day he will get in. Can you imagine if Glavine or Maddux admitted to using PED’s or steroids for therapeutic reasons? How that would change the landscape forever!
I’m kind of surprised that Frank Thomas got in.. He was a great player. But not sure about Hall of Fame caliber when gauged against the other hitters who didn’t get the votes.
The Big Hurt won 2 MVPs and is top 25 alltime in homers, rbis and walks. And unlike those other guys he didn’t do steroids.
This comment makes you a clown.
Please refer to number two of the comment policy.
It takes a lot of courage to rip some one when you don’t use your real name.