From The Onion or ESPN?
Bonds says Rose, McGwire belong in Hall of Fame
He's serious with this shit? Isn't this like someone on death row saying the two guys they executed last week should have been granted clemency?
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Sports
Thursday, January 18, 2007
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3 comments:
Not really, since Pete Rose actually does belong in the hall and still nothing has been proven about Bonds and McGuire. Everytime I point that out I have to also mention that I'm not saying they're innocent, but they haven't been proven anything, and I'm not going to take the word of the Sportswriters (one of the lowest rungs of society).
Maybe the death row comparison wasn't apt, now that I think about it, since that's a question of hard evidence, whereas I really don't think induction into the Hall of Fame is based around evidence, positive or negative. Players in the Hall of Fame get there by being voted there by the Baseball Writers Association of America, so sportswriters (for better or worse) are exactly the people who determine that sort of thing. And thus, the qualification become a question of reputation, and guilty or innocent, McGwire's thunderous trouncing in this year's voting is an indication that the voters are holding his alleged sterioid use against him.
Now I happen to favor an approach to the Hall of Fame that recognizes it as a museum first and a shrine second--the Hall should reflect the game through all its phases, including the black eyes and everything. As Bill Simmons pointed out, the most boring part of the Hall of the Fame is the room with the plaques.
Unfortunately, that's not the way it's currently constituted. It is a popularity contest, and when your reputation is besmirched, you're not getting in. That's the message that was sent to McGwire this year, and that's what makes it seem funny to me that Barry Bonds is lobbying for McGwire and Rose to get in. Given his standing with the media, that's probably the kind of help that they don't want.
To bring it back to music, maybe we can induct them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After all, morally reprehensible behavior, drug use and a giant ego would probably be looked at as a positive there.
As NPR's Frank Deford put it, sportswriters are both the chroniclers and the gatekeepers. It's a good ol' boys club: not even Baseball Prospectus gets to vote. Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth are in the hall despite morally reprehensible behavior, drug use and giant egos. Granted the old timers' drug use wasn't performance enhancing, but on the other hand, there's evidence that steroid and HGH use may actually decrease home run yield because it slows the snap reflexes needed. Muscle mass most likely won't change anything (just look at career years by Luis Gonzales and Shawn Green, not to mention almost 20 homeruns last year by Jose Reyes, all 170 pounds of him).
Sorry to ramble, I can't handle the offseason
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