Baseball was the first sport I fell in love with and my visit to Cooperstown, New York where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located when I was nine years old is one of my fondest childhood memories. By the age of 12, my entire mood for a week could be based on how the St. Louis Cardinals were doing in the standings and I had memorized every winner of the modern (since 1903) World Series. With that kind of backdrop you would assume every chance I get my eyes will be transfixed on the induction ceremony this weekend, short answer: Not a chance. It has nothing to do with the inductees however as both Ken Griffey Jr and Mike Piazza are fine selections but at the same time it has everything to do with the induction process and how distasteful the whole thing has become.
The Hall of Fame is supposed to be a museum, an important museum in America’s long and compelling sporting culture but a museum nonetheless. As it stands Cooperstown is a bit like if the American History Museum had an exhibit on the history of American Presidents and forgot to include Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Richard Nixon, and Woodrow Wilson. It is an incomplete representation of America’s Pastime, so incomplete it feels as though somebody loaned me a book but tore out whole chapters. Although some of what I will term my pet causes have exhibits, to be fully integrated into the Hall of Fame I want each of the men I mention to have a bronze plaque along with Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and all the other greats. There are two (technically four) big obstacles to this happening though the Baseball Writers Association of America and the Veteran’s Committee (all three of them, the old Veteran’s Committee was split into the Pre-Integration Era, The Golden Era, and the Expansion Era). Nobody and I am including the most gullible and pandering politicians in that wide generalization is more sanctimonious about their job than the BBWAA and the three committees (which include old executives and players), although there job is made harder by the arbitrary cap of ten people they can vote for in today’s social media environment it’s pretty hard to believe a bunch of sportswriters can’t meet up about this (I wouldn’t want it done publicly, I’m not quite that aggressive and I don’t want the Hall of Fame board coming after writers for doing their job better).
Although some of what I will term my pet causes have exhibits, to be fully integrated into the Hall of Fame I want each of the men I mention to have a bronze plaque along with Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and all the other greats. There are two (technically four) big obstacles to this happening though the Baseball Writers Association of America and the Veteran’s Committee (all three of them, the old Veteran’s Committee was split into the Pre-Integration Era, The Golden Era, and the Expansion Era). Nobody and I am including the most gullible and pandering politicians in that wide generalization is more sanctimonious about their job than the BBWAA and the three committees (which include old executives and players), although there job is made harder by the arbitrary cap of ten people they can vote for in today’s social media environment it’s pretty hard to believe a bunch of sportswriters can’t meet up about this (I wouldn’t want it done publicly, I’m not quite that aggressive and I don’t want the Hall of Fame board coming after writers for doing their job better).
Now that I have covered the issue it is time to include the most egregious swing and misses by these groups, I will not tackle the issue of banned or ineligible players in this piece (Pete Rose) here. The first two guys are arguably in the top ten players of all time: Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. These two legends will forever be tied together because both of them with reasonable but not definitive evidence could be called Steroid users. One of the big (only) reasons for these two legends being thus far excluded is that they were never warm and fuzzy with sportswriters, who control their fate, jerks would be putting it
One of the big (only) reasons for these two legends being thus far excluded is that they were never warm and fuzzy with sportswriters, who control their fate, jerks would be putting it tamely, the singular form of the word most appropriate for these two after legends is also seven letters but I won’t type it at work. The other is the fabled “character clause” which says “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team(s) on which the player played.”. If you think Barry Bonds, the seven-time Most Valuable Player and Clemens the seven-time Cy Young winner fail in character here is a newsflash: The Hall of Fame is full of nasty people.
Even if tales of his racism are to be dismissed (they have largely been deemed fictitious, or exaggerations by new biographies), Ty Cobb is still documented as jumping into the stands and beating the stuffing out of a heckling fan, Claude Lueker, despite Mr. Lueker lacking most of both of his hands due to factory accidents. Mickey Mantle, the great Yankees slugger was a serial cheater, both in supposedly taking “greenies” a type of amphetamine and in his marriage. I am not in the business of slandering dead men but Mr. Mantle’s transgressions don’t exactly scream good character to me. There is also Rube Waddell the great 1900s pitcher who aside from being a great strikeout pitcher in an era when it wasn’t common wasn’t called Rube because his name was Ruby, he was for his ridiculous borderline criminal behavior. The worst of the rotten bunch though has to be Cap Anson, who pitched a fit about playing against the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884 because their catcher, Fleet Walker, was a black man. His actions are some of the most prolific by a player in terms of creating an
There is also Rube Waddell the great 1900s pitcher who aside from being a great strikeout pitcher in an era when it wasn’t common wasn’t called Rube because his name was Ruby, he was for his ridiculous borderline criminal behavior. The worst of the rotten bunch though has to be Cap Anson, who pitched a fit about playing against the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884 because their catcher, Fleet Walker, was a black man. His actions are some of the most prolific by a player in terms of creating an all-white Major League Baseball for roughly 60 years. If that’s the BBWAA’s idea of good character maybe Bonds and Clemens should be grateful they aren’t inducted with such a disreputable wretch.
The other two men who deserve induction above all other candidates (and there are dozens), both have Man of the Year Awards in their name. One, Marvin Miller former head of the MLB Players Association, is why players make millions as he fought the billionaire owners (who get publicly funded stadiums on sweetheart deals) for the right of Free Agency and the termination of the reserve clause which tied a player to his club indefinitely with as much as a 15% pay cut possible every year. If players were traded they either could report to their new team or retire (now players can veto trades if they have played ten years and five with the same club). Miller will probably never see Cooperstown as some of those who are voting on the Golden Era Committee are former executives, undoubtedly full of bitter angst that this wily union chief outmaneuvered Bowie Kuhn (who is in the Hall of Fame for a reason yet revealed to me) and allowed players to do what every other worker in America can do, work where they want. Without Miller maybe your favorite player would be making only a few hundred thousand dollars and stay with your team his whole career. But, putting aside petty selfishness given that your favorite player generates millions in ticket sales and advertising for his bosses ,who as I said make billions and get to build ugly stadiums like the one in Miami with our civic tax dollars, isn’t it only right that he be made obscenely wealthy for his entertainment work. Isn’t it only fair, that the man who is primarily responsible get his just due and be fully inducted? Or does the Hall of Fame have to be guardianed by the same petty politics that infect the real world?
The fact that this last gentleman is still not in the Hall of Fame is reason enough the whole museum should be scrapped and turned into a parking lot before starting over. To put it lightly John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil is to the story of Black Baseball and the preservation of the rich traditions of the Negro Leagues, which had to exist because of the actions of Mr. Anson and other racists like him, what Abraham is to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The man was until the day he died a pillar of hope, and of knowledge about what hardships black superstars had to go through in an era of legalized segregation and racial abuse. O’Neil was also the first African-American coach in the Major Leagues. It breaks my heart that Buck O’Neil more so than countless others never got to play in MLB because he is so central to the story of our national pastime. In 2006 when the Hall of Fame didn’t induct him but did induct 17 of his worthy compatriots who were involved in Negro League Baseball guess who inducted them? It was Buck O’Neil. I know I dismissed the character clause earlier but if it were ever to be taken seriously it would be for him, for he never once expressed bitterness at the absolute failure that the Baseball establishment had been to him, the least we can do for Buck O’Neil is not to have a trophy with his name on it, but to immortalize him in bronze as a full member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, I don’t care if they have to hold a special election specifically for him he is that important.
Until these things happen, the Hall of Fame will be as incomplete as it would be without Cy Young, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, or Stan Musial. A partial story that by failing to ensure that the best and most important baseball people find their way into the section of bronzed plaque’s that so wowed my nine year old mind is failing every fan of the game who wishes to understand the scope and history of what has been called justifiably by Hall of Famer Sol White (albeit in a different context) “the greatest of all American games-Baseball.”.
