The Cooperstown hypocrisy

Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Frank Thomas are in. Were they worthy? Opinions vary, but after last year when no player got inducted, the geniuses that vote on such matters probably figured they had to do something.

Maddux won 355 games. Though not over-powering, he had pin-point control. He belongs. Tom Glavine won 305, but some of us haven't forgotten the key to his success. While having pin-point control as well, Glavine would constantly throw pitches 3-4 inches outside. Over and over and over again. It's like the home plate umpires were brainwashed. If a guy can keep painting the same spot -- they must be strikes, and they would call them as such. But they weren't strikes. They were outside. Glavine knows this, but he'll never admit it. Nor will the talking heads ever raise the issue, though the videos over the years made it obvious.

Frank "the Big Hurt" Thomas likely merited induction. Over a 19 year career he had 521 home runs, 1704 RBIs, and a career batting average of .301. Nowhere near the top in any category, but taken together pretty impressive stuff. And hey -- if a guy like Al Kaline could get enshrined long ago, while only having 399 home runs, 1583 RBIs, and a .297 average over the same two decades himself -- then how could Thomas NOT get in with vastly superior numbers?

Which brings me to the hypocrisy. Guys like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Pete Rose should be no-brainers for the Hall of Fame. Rose is the all-time hit leader in the entire history of baseball. Ah, but he was a gambler and dared to even bet on baseball, you say. Indeed he did, on his own team to win. In hindsight -- what was so terribly wrong about that? Major League Baseball is like the Vatican, stuck in it's old ways, and always a few decades or centuries behind what's going on and has been accepted in the real world. For Charlie Hustle to be denied his rightful plaque in Cooperstown is a travesty. He will get in eventually, as the fuddy-duddy old-schoolers fade away and more objective voters take their places. But it would be nice to see it happen while he's still alive. The man earned it on the field over a stellar career. Period.

Roger Clemens chalked up 354 victories, far more than Glavine, and one shy of Maddux, over a long career himself. Barry Bonds remains the all-time home run leader. But neither came close to the induction they deserve. Why? Because they were associated with the dreaded PEDs, performance enhancing drugs. Clemens was eventually hauled before Congress to testify. Our "best and brightest" elected representatives didn't believe him. He was subsequently indicted on six felony counts, including perjury, and obstructing Congress -- as if they need obstructing. Ahem. Alas, the pesky prosecutors committed a little misconduct of their own, and a mistrial was declared. In the second go-round, Clemens was acquitted, as in not guilty, of all charges. But nobody wants to remember it that way. He remains guilty in the minds of the knee-jerkers/arm-chair prosecutors. So if he was found not guilty of PED use, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame?

Same with Barry Bonds. He went through a full-blown trial himself. The prosecution spent millions of taxpayer money trying to nail Barry on PED use. When it was all over, like the Clemens case, they came up empty. Bonds was never convicted on any PED charge whatsover. And unless things have dramatically changed in our jurisprudence system, any defendant is "presumed innocent until proven guilty". So if the juries couldn't find guilt with Clemens or Bonds, simple logic -- not to mention the law itself -- dictates they must remain innocent.

But that's not how it works -- is it? People still think they're guilty of something. They just don't know exactly what.

Maddux deserved induction. Glavine, probably, despite what he got away with over the years with all those outside pitches. Thomas? Sure. If Kaline's in with his stats, the Big Hurt belongs.

But to continue to deprive the likes of Pete Rose, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds their rightful place amongst the other immortals of the game, including various drunks, adulterers, racists, and even an alleged murderer (Ty Cobb) in Cooperstown is just wrong.

They earned it, so give them their plaque and marble bust. The people holding this up are the BBWAA (BaseBall Writers Assoc. of America). In order to get a Hall Of Fame vote, these writers have to be members for at least 10 years. In other words, most of them are old-school, and won't even consider any player remotely connected to PEDs, though they didn't seem to have any problem inducting an admitted "spitballer" (Gaylord Perry), and constantly write articles why some of their home team former players should be enshrined, though everybody else around the country obviously disagrees. This makes them popular amongst their home town fans, but doesn't necessarily make them objective.

Lance Armstrong copped to cheating on the Oprah show. All the other guys, including A-Rod and a few others, are guilty of suspicion only.

There's a big difference. In the meantime all the rest can mostly be summed up in one word

Hypocrisy.