I just watched the 2014 MLB Hall of Fame inductions. It's great hearing the induction speeches. It brings back the little kid in you and the great memories you have of these great players and coaches. It's right that Tom Glavine, Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux, Tony LaRussa and Frank Thomas all were inducted. In some ways, having such a great 2014 class has made me a little bitter. The non-induction of Barry Bonds has made me question everything MLB represents. I won't mention the statistics or how Bonds numbers compare to other baseball players already in the Hall of Fame. Teams walked him rather than pitch to him. He was walked with the bases loaded, that's how great he was. The shift on defense started as a way to get Bonds out, three infielders on one side of the diamond to take a hit away him. He normally saw one good pitch to hit per at bat, but his numbers are only a part of his impact on the game of baseball. You can make a case that the game of baseball was cheating him out of playing! Yet, Bonds will never get in because of his attachment to steroids.
What Bonds did was cheating, or was it? No doubt, he took performance enhancing drugs. What he did was wrong, but he was doing what everyone else was doing. Hard to say he was cheating when MLB knew what was going on. How do you take away everything that happen in that era? Do you just say that baseball didn't exist? Everything that happened during this time happened, but MLB is not going to acknowledge it. Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt Bonds numbers are tainted. MLB has proud traditions, especially the revered Hall of Fame. Can we prove Frank Thomas was clean? Probably not, because he was never tested! The Hall of Fame made exceptions for Frank Baker. Does Baker have an asterisk by his name because he played during the dead ball era? So the Hall of Fame does change the rules, when they want too. A recent change is that now players can get in 10 years after they retire instead of 15 years.
How clean should players be? Ty Cobb claimed to kill a drifter in 1912. Tony La Russa was arrested with a DUI in 2007. Bobby Cox hit his wife in 1995. Yet, baseball writers who vote for the Hall of Fame want to talk about the integrity and character that it takes to get in. Racists, drunks, cheats and drug users are also ok I guess.
A little history: after the 1994-95 baseball strike, this so called Steroids era saved baseball. The strike angered fans, and attendance in baseball dropped by 10 million! Baseball never recovered until 1998, when the Mark McGwire and Slamming Sammy Sosa home run race took over the sports world. Only then did attendance return to baseball. MLB franchises went from 140 million in value in the 90's to 332 million by 2004! When teams profited, the MLB looked the other way. Yet, the Hall of Fame now wants to draw a line in the sand and make a stand?! Gaylord Perry is in the Hall of Fame. He admitted to using a spit ball while pitching, which was an illegal pitch.
Baseball wants to knit pick stats now. In the NBA every court is 94 feet long and 50 feet wide, every basket is 10 feet high and the foul line is 18 feet and 10 inches from the baseline. In the NFL every field is the same length, 120 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide. Ice Hockey rinks have the same dimensions, 200 ft long and 85 ft wide. No two ballparks in the MLB are the same. How can there ever be PURE records?! If baseball wants perfection of their stats then every stadium should have the same dimensions. In Pittsburg, the Crawford boxes are 315 feet from home plate! Minute Maid Park in Houston has a hill in the outfield! Fenway Park in Boston has a Green Monster in left field that is 36 feet high! It's even more ridiculous to have trains, nightclubs, retractable roofs and swimming pools. If you want REAL stats then every ball park should have the same dimensions.
Pete Rose bet on his own team and they won't let him in. Everything Bonds did is erased because he took a substance that wasn't banned! Why do the BBWAA sports writers hold all the cards to who gets in and who doesn't? As a fan, Bonds deserves to be in. Pete Rose deserves to be in. Certain players should not be black balled. These two players have had a real impact on baseball lore. Playing the game the right way started with Pete Rose, aka Charlie Hustle. Hitting mechanics included watching video of Bonds swing. Babe Ruth is the King of Baseball, but what about the kind of competition he was playing against? Bonds and Rose not being in the Hall of Fame doesn't punish them personally. It's a black eye on MLB. I will never go Cooperstown because it's a farce. Asterisk or no asterisk, the Hall of Fame should be what it says it is. A Hall of Fame.
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