A break from politics; A smart move by Cooperstown
Now for a break from politics, I bring you this bit of excellent news from Major League Baseball. Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame bid came up just short SOME 300+ VOTES SHORT today!!!
McGwire, whose 583 home runs rank seventh on the career list, appeared on 128 of a record 545 ballots in voting released Tuesday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
The 23.5 percent vote McGwire received represented the first referendum on how history will judge an age when bulked-up players came under suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs.
To be fair though, Major League Baseball didn't ban steroids until 2002, however, I personally LOATHE the fact that McGwire still denies to this day ever using them. When called before Congress in 2005, he lied through his teeth UNDER OATH to try and "protect" his legacy.
While Mark McGwire was rightfully DENIED entry into Cooperstown, two DESERVING PLAYERS, Cal Ripken, and Tony Gwynn, were both easily voted into the Hall. I think we can ALL agree, that the world of baseball will never view Mark McGwire as HALF the player that Ripken, and Gwynn were, nor does he deserve the RESPECT that those two men do.
2 comments:
I respectfully suggest there is a difference between lying and choosing not to engage in self-incrimination.
Frankly, I find the hypocrisy of MLB and the baseball sportswriters here to be breathtaking. Even if Mac and others of his ilk did use steroids, baseball refused to test for the same. There is no test proof one way or the other. Baseball saw these huge HR numbers and did nothing, instead reveling in increased gate receipts. The sports writers saw these big guys and the big numbers and failed to call them on it.
Now, years later, with no test proof and with only an unwillingness to testify against himself, these same sportswriters NOW claim superior moral judgement and deny him HoF membership...and the baseball owners sit back on their fattened wallets and say nothing.
I am not a Big Mac fanatic, but I think the sportwriters have set a dangerous precedent here. They have adopted guilty until proven innocent position, and I am confident they will be excoriated in the near future when they double back on their own new standard.
But what a day for baseball. Inducting two of the greatest baseball players of all time. Tony Gwynn who was one of the greatest hitters, and Cal Ripken who played the most fundamentally sound game of any player. Its an old brand of baseball that I think is being lost today. Nowadays its just who can throw the hardest and who can hit homeruns. PLaying small-ball is becoming a thing of the past.
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