14
2013
Reign Delay?
An article by 
As I was driving home the other night, I was listening to Casey Stern and Jim Bowden on the MLB Network Radio channel on XM. They were discussing with Jill Painter, the L.A. Daily News sports columnist, the Baseball Hall of Fame vote which took place Wednesday. This is the same Jill Painter, member of the Baseball Writers Association of America who thought it made perfect sense to cast one of her Hall of Fame votes for the former Blue Jay, Dodger, Diamondback and Met, Shawn Green. As she was engaging in verbal kabuki, explaining her vote, I could almost feel the indignation boiling over from the two hosts. Big kudos goes out to both Bowden and Stern for having the combined patience of a saint. That interview alone should earn them a few Marconi votes in my view.
It’s a good thing I don’t do radio; I wouldn’t have been nearly as diplomatic as they were. As if there wasn’t enough preordained controversy with this year’s crop of candidates, we get this nonsense and I’m not even going to enrage you with her supposed rationale. I have too much respect for you to even try. It’s almost as bad as the one vote that someone gave Aaron Sele. Again, not going to enrage you with the facts, you can look up Sele’s pathetic career statistics here if you wish. Then you have my permission to curse uncontrollably – - and yes you can practice reading that line in your best Bane voice. Or Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery as I believe they’re one in the same.
Call me naïve but I was always under the impression that those having been afforded the privilege of a Hall of Fame vote would show just a modicum of respect towards it. I’m not the only one who thinks this way as does the great Metstradamus. But this is unfortunately the year that common sense, fairness and respect for the game clearly went over the edge of the train tracks faster than a New York City subway commuter. Ouch.
Now I’ve been very sympathetic to the plight the writers have when it comes to wading through the waters that PED’s have polluted in Major League Baseball. But like Metstradamus, when voters use their privilege to make some grand statement (i.e. voting no one in), peppered with some who find it – I don’t know – comical, to vote for the likes of Sele and Green, it simply demonstrates to me that stupidity isn’t determined by who you write for or what and if you get paid for writing it.
When the likes of Marty Noble, someone I’ve always had tremendous respect for, thinks that because Mike Piazza had an abundance of—wait for it—back hair, during his time as a Dodger and decides to connect the follicles and assume that it meant Piazza used. It shows me just how far we’ve fallen as a people more than anything. We’ll believe the very worst of each other just to protect our own vanity because God forbid a player is later found to have juiced.
We can’t have writers dealing with pangs of remorse now can we? To top it off, Noble then ironically said that as a Met, Piazza had a hairless back, which is ALSO a symptom of steroid use. So if Piazza essentially played with Robin William’s back he’s using yet if he’s smoother than an Abercrombie model he’s also using? Absolutely pathetic, especially that never, not once, has Piazza been accused or named in any report or tested positive for any performance enhancing drugs.
I always believed that MLB needs to be far more proactive of a guide for the BBWAA when it comes to Hall of Fame voting and steroids. I wrote a piece for Metsmerized in early 2011 calling for Bud Selig to commission a panel exploring the effects that PED’s have on actual playing performance. Of course Selig and MLB want absolutely nothing further to do with this issue—at least not what happened in the past. One bright spot happened a few days ago when the MLB Players Association and MLB agreed to year round drug testing for Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone.
The BBWAA and their writers refused to vote for some players and based it on innuendo and unproven allegations; and that is shameful itself. In part I can understand their fear of enshrining someone who later is proven to have used PED’s as players elected cannot be removed from the Hall of Fame. My question is why is that? Hypothetically if a Hall of Famer does something illegal, whether during or after their playing career, why are they not immediately open to removal? That, in my opinion, would allow the writers to choose players based on their careers and not on speculation.
George Orwell was quoted as saying:
“Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.”
Now the real question remains, who was Orwell talking about; the players or the writers?
About the Author: Joe Spector
I'm just your regular Joe. Staff writer @ Metsmerizedonline.com. Happily married and a father to a baby girl. I attended my first Met game at the ripe old age of 3 where my father scored a foul ball and had it signed by Lee Mazzilli, Joe Torre and Joe Pignataro. It was my Holy Grail - 'till I buried it in the backyard. I have my own website where you can read my drivel at your leisure @ www.thespectorsector.net
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
Last updated: 06/19/2013
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I don’t get too upset about odd guys getting 1-2 votes. As long as the rational is that they were one of the real “good guys” (ambassador for the sport?), and it is nice reward for them to see a vote before they disappear off the ballot. As long as the voter did not fill up their 10 slots with “real” votes, not that big of a deal.
the bigger issue is guyes that should be getting voted in, and left off for agenda/make a point reaasons.
What I find most odd is Painter stands very tall on the fact she believes nobody suspected of PED use should get in. I’m fine with that. I assume it is why she didn’t cast a vote for Bagwell or Piazza
But…
From 95-97 Shawn Green had 447 PA and 42HR he then hit 35, 42,24,49, 42.
I’m sorry but if you don’t think there is a slight chance Green took PED then I want to live inside your innocent mind
Exactly.
Great article. Writers in the BBWAA also made a living off of these players and their super-human exploits (knowing full well they were on steroids) for years, now these same writers are electing to vote them out of the HOF? Hypocrisy at it’s best. I agree for the most part that the users should be kept out, but had the media done a better job of reporting the widespread use of PED’s in the first place, the snubbing would have been easier to swallow.
Great article. Those sanctimonious SOB’s need to get drug tested themselves if it were up to me. God knows what assortment of goodies we’ll find out.
We had Jeff Pearlman on the Kult of Mets Personalities show the other night. While he does not have a vote via the BBWAA, he is VERY vocal about his opposition to letting anyone in with an iota of a question mark involving PEDs, or “OOOOH they **might** have done PEDs.” Although it’s totally hypothetical, since it wouldn’t have counted anyway, it gave me a good luck at the sanctimonious pricks who have the privilege of voting. Oh and you know the ONLY person whom Pearlman would have voted in? Tim Raines – a known coke user, a device that technically IS performance enhancing or was back when he was using (it’s an “upper” – OH and btw, did I mention is was ILLEGAL to use not just in baseball but in the f’ing COUNTRY??).
Yup. Pot, kettle, etc.
I just don’t get it. Do ANY of them see the hypocrisy? I go back even further to likes of Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry. They ALL admitted to doctoring the ball yet they’re treated like cute little exotic animals. They cheated AND ADMITTED TO IT AND ARE IN THE HALL.
Question somewhat related to this, for those that believe steroid users DO NOT belong in the hall (if you DO believe they do than this question wouldn’t matter). How do you feel about players who have admitted to using Androstenedione (Andro)? Before you answer please remember that this was actually a perfectly legal supplement that one could walk into any GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, or any other supplement retailer, in fact I saw it in my supermarket in the vitamin section. Andro was later found to be a kissing cousin to most steroids (some actually consider it a steroid) and then became illegal and was wiped from the shelves everywhere.
Curious to know what my fellow fans think.
If it was not banned by the CBA, and was legal in this country, than they should not be penalized. IMO.
I totally agree with you. Apparently many don’t and I hear Piazza confessed to trying that in his book.
To those of you who want the steroids users in the HOF, will you go there to take your kids and tell them how they were your heroes? You see because that’s what baseball fans did in the 40s through 70s. Honestly, it’s becoming a hall of shame so let them all in and make sure go there to honor them and tell your kids the stories of the good all days when McGwire, Sosa and Bonds unseated Maris, Mays and Ruth. Put your money where your mouth is and go get your Cooperstown Jerseys for those guys too. Seal the deal so to speak.
You mean the same way people talk about the great Gaylord Perry who knowingly broke a rule in baseball that gave him a competitive advantage?
People frown on the drugs cause they are SCIENCE. Doctoring a baseball is artwork and funny. But you know what? Gaylord Perry knew he was breaking the rules but he did it anyway, why? For the same reasons PED users used.
There’s no “level of cheating” in my book. If you call a PED user, then Perry is a cheater as well and he’s in the Hall of Fame and nobody seems to be bothered.
Gaylord Perry is not a Hall of Famer in my book, no cheats are. Like I said after the 70′s it became the hall of shame. You want to call him great, it’s your right but I don’t have to agree.
That’s fine by me Seligman, but to me you’re just putting your head in the sand. You think Gaylord Perry was the first pitcher to ever use a spitball? What about Whitey Ford and scuffing the ball?
The spitball was banned what in 1920? So you mean to tell me nobody from 1920-Gaylord Perry used it?
You think nobody took any sort of drug to help them play when their god given talents couldn’t get them out of bed?
I mean I admire your Utopian hall of fame world, but it’s a little naive don’t ya think?
I can’t argue with what you’ve said but does that mean PED users, ALL of them who have the HoF qualifications should be in the Hall?
I don’t know the answer to that question. If it was me voting, I’d vote based on the entire body of work rather than a short period of time in which a player made a poor decision to gain a competitive advantage. I’d vote based on what I know and not what I think.
Are you (generic non Clemens voter) not voting him into the Hall of Fame because you think PED are responsible for his career success? Or are you not voting for him because of a stance you wish to take against those who took PED who weren’t good enough to stay in the bigs without it?
There’s a big difference to me.
To me, Roger Clemens was a hall of famer who made a terrible choice. Ken Caminetti is a baseball player who needed PED to keep a job in the big leagues. There’s a difference.
It’s a real shame that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens used PEDs because both would have made the hall without it.
The difference between bringing up a spitball pitcher like Gaylord Perry and comparing them to PED users is that baseball many times is a game about what you can get away with between the white lines.
Hell, it has ‘steal’ as an official stat for god’s sake!
If an outfielder traps the ball then holds it up to the ump who signals out – is he cheating?
If a base runner is tagged by the catcher before reaching the plate but the ump calls him safe – is he going to correct the ump?
If the ump says you were hit by a pitch and you know you weren’t – you don’t go to first?
Part of the game is trying to deceive the umps to get an outcome to your liking. That includes doctoring the balls – not only by the pitcher but sometimes by the catcher. It’s only cheating if you get caught.
Gaylord Perry, for those of you who remember him, made a career out of ACTING like he was cheating – doctoring the ball. He would go through this whole routine of touching himself in different places to get into the head of the batter — again — part of the game.
But shooting up steroids to give you a physical advantage is a whole different thing.
Perry, Ford, Mike Scott and all the rest were never so dominant that they broke record after record with an occasional doctored ball.
You look at Sosa and McGwire and ask yourself if they should be in the same conversation as Ruth and Maris.
You look at the skinny base stealing Bonds and ask yourself if he should have been able to break Aaron’s record.
In my opinion, anything that goes on between the white lines is fair game. Not true otherwise.