Hall of Fame Poll

No, Shaq should not be in the Baseball Hall of Fame

 

Yeah. Jordan was better.

 

I voted for Raines and of that group, he's probably the only one I'd vote into the Hall.

Of that group, my second pick would be Cone. Maybe its because of the way he bounced around in the middle of his career, but he might be the one guy from those 90s Yankee teams that is underrated.

 

Whitaker suffered for years because of the fact that Detroit's Resident Sportswriter (every city had one between about the 1920s and the 1990s; let's call this guy "Moe Balls") hated his guts because he was very reticent about interviews (not nasty, usually just, "I don't feel like talking") and constantly fueled the national impression through syndicated pieces in TSN and other outlets that he was this lazy shiftless black bum who didn't give a shit about anything and could have been an all-star if he had only decided to work hard. In comparison of course to the gritty gutty hard-working Trammell.

So despite the fact their on-field performances were almost eerily identical, Trammell was perceived as a tough hard-working overachiever and Whitaker as a lazy slacker space cadet.

In the days before the Intertubes and 24/7 sports cable coverage, how the Resident Sportswriter in every city portrayed players is usually how they came to be perceived nationwide. And Whitaker WAS very standoffish with the media -- he didn't run to other beat writers to butter them up and pump out puff pieces about how dedicated and focused and intense he was. So Moe Balls's stories stood as the conventional national wisdom on Whitaker.


In the end this ended up dragging both of them down.

 

If you want to discount McGwire because of steroids, that's fine. But to write off the game's biggest star for about a 5-year period just because he was only a home run hitter would be unfortunate. It is the Hall of FAME. I bet he put more butts in seats from 1996-2000 than any other single player.

 

All steroids. Until steroids, McGwire was Dave Kingman Jr.

 

Don't take this personally, because I'm not trying to start a pissing match or anything.

But I hate, absolutely hate, the semantic, "It's the Hall of FAME!!!" argument.

I guess it's refreshing that it wasn't Dooley making it for once, though.

 

Hate it or not, it's utterly defensible, to not make entry into the Hall a mere calculator issue. I've laid it out before but won't lay it out again. I'll just let you go all condescending philosopher-king for a while while I visit elsewhere here.

 

To me, it's the ultimate yardstick. One I always consider.

 

I think the Fame element is overrated, but in a few, select cases, I don't think you can discount it completely. Roided or not, McGwire sold tickets. And it wasn't for a small, insignificant period of time. I'm at peace with him never sniffing the Hall because of steroids, but you have to acknowledge his impact on the game.

McGwire and Sosa is a part of history that was a blight on the game because of the steroid issue. But I also think the argument is valid that the 98 home run chase set the stage for the historic growth the game has seen since.

 

I must add that the "fame" I alluded to must stand up to the test of time.

But I think if you dismiss it, you wind up considering the fifth-best shortstop in an era, the third-best catcher. And I think the Hall should be more exclusive than that.

 

Because I disagree with you, you're going to make it personal and insult my character and motivation?

You'll never change. You'll just never change.

Always looking for a pissing match on here. Always.

Your post says 100 times more about you than it will ever say about me.