(Photo Credit: Thisiscooperstown.com)
The strange thing about the Baseball Hall of Fame’s voting process is that it only allows for a small window for players to be enshrined for eternity into the Hall. After this window closes, the only hope then is to be enshrined elsewhere through other means – namely, the Veterans Committee or the various side awards given out by the balloting process, but that usually takes a bit of time. But the only award most people talk about is the main ballot – the one ballot everyone knows and loves.
If I was given the honour of filling out this years’ Hall of Fame ballot, here’s who I would have filled out:
Ken Griffey Jr.
This one is a bit of a gimme – over 2,700 hits, 1,800 RBI, and 630 homeruns is stacked on his resume. On top of that, he’s considered a hero in not one but two cities – Seattle and Cincinnati. And on top of that, he’s a face of a generation, someone to look up to during the dark ages of PEDs and Steroids in Baseball. There’s no way he doesn’t make the Hall this year. You may think that someone who is a near lock to make the Hall doesn’t really need another vote given that just 75% of the ballots is needed to be elected, but I say, give the votes to the players that deserve them. Not giving Griffey my vote would be a horrendous mess.
Curt Schilling
Like Griffey, Schilling was the face of more than one MLB team. Unlike Griffey, he made the World Series with three teams, Philadelphia (losing to Toronto in 1993), Arizona, and Boston. He was also one of the most feared players in his time. Having a career 3.46 ERA and over 3,000 strikeouts can do that. But he was so dominant during his career that it’s shocking that he never won a Cy Young – despite leading the NL in strikeouts twice and the MLB in wins twice. His determination was also one of the reasons why he was a great player, proven by the now infamous bloody sock. Schilling may be not very well liked in the media these days but he still has all the necessary credentials to be in the Hall.
Trevor Hoffman
When a player goes on the field and the game instantly ends under “Trevor Time,” you know he’s made an impact on the game. Having a 2.87 ERA and over 600 saves, Hoffman was one of the best reliever pitchers of all time. His saves record stands second only to the great Mariano Rivera, who is also another lock for the Hall of Fame. What makes Hoffman’s stats all the more impressive is that he spent the majority of his career in lowly San Diego, who made the playoffs a grand total of 4 times during his time (1993-2008) in the team. His dominance on the mound for the 9th inning of the game made him a great player, and an even better face of the San Diego Padres.
Larry Walker
From hereon in, the votes for the Hall are based on opinion and the mood of the people at that point in time. In my case, I can see the case for the former NL MVP to make the Hall. Sure, his homerun stats may have been inflated due to him playing in thin-aired Colorado for most of his career, but at least it wasn’t inflated due to steroids or any other cheating mechanism. Besides, that’s not the main selling point of Walker’s Hall candidacy – he also has a .313 career batting average and over 1,300 RBI. That isn’t inflated by thin air. Walker was an absolute stud in outfield, and his bust in the Hall of Fame would be a more than welcome, if not well deserved place.
Tim Raines
This may be due to me wanting more Canadiana in the Hall of Fame, but Raines is a more than deserving candidate for the Hall of Fame. He has more than 2,600 hits, ranks fifth all-time for Stolen Bases with 808 (and it should be worth noting that players with a lot less have also made the Hall), and also ranks in the Top 10 among switch hitters in hits, runs, triples, and extra base hits. During the 1980s, Raines was one of the best players, and constantly made the All-Star game during the decade. His Hall of Fame status still remains unlikely, but his stats make him a qualified candidate.
Alan Trammell
Trammell may not have the greatest stats for an automatic Hall of Fame selection, given a .285 career batting average, but what he does have is over 2,300 hits and over 1,000 RBI. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but unfortunately his time may be up for his Hall of Fame candidacy. In fact, my vote for him comes from the fact that this is his last year of his candidacy before he can fall back through the Veteran’s Committee, and that usually takes years. So my vote is purely just a vote of confidence of him more than anything else. Let’s all give Trammell one more good year of Hall consideration.
Fred McGriff
Although he’s known more for being the guy that was traded for future Blue Jays Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, McGriff is a Hall of Famer in his own right. With over 2,400 hits and over 1,500 RBI, McGriff was one of the most known players of the 1990s. What made McGriff great was his consistency at being an All-Star during the Steroid era. McGriff still hit 493 homeruns, a great record to have all things considered, and led both leagues in different years in the same category. McGriff is the kind of player that somehow got great stats during his playing days yet somehow slipped past the usual suspects in each Hall of Fame ballot. Hopefully that will change for the better in the future years that he’s on the ballot. Even if he doesn’t get elected, let’s hope McGriff gets the respect he deserves.
Edgar Martinez
Martinez, like McGriff, also shined during the dreaded Steroid era of Baseball. He had a .312 career batting average and over 2,200 hits during his career. He won the Silver Slugger on 5 occasions, and he is also a batting champion in the AL. He also led Seattle through the biggest playoff run they had (so far), scoring the game-winning double that advanced Seattle to the ALCS. He also had 1,200 RBI during his entire career. Martinez’s stats are more than enough to warrant Hall of Fame consideration, yet he gets dismissed sometimes because he played primarily as a Designated Hitter. But he turned that designation into something meaningful, as he could be counted on to do the one thing he did well – which was hitting.
Mike Mussina
Mussina may be a bit of a wild pick for the Hall of Fame considering there are more pitchers on the ballot with better stats (we’ll get to that later), but Mussina is definitely worth consideration. As a member of the Baltimore Orioles, he was a perennial all-star, a winner, and a player that knew how to strike out. As a member of the New York Yankees, he still became a winner and also still knew how to strike out. He has over 2,800 strikeouts, an impressive number to say the least. He has an impressive record of 270-153, despite the fact that wins aren’t necessarily a Hall of Fame stat. The only stat that may be holding Mussina down may be his ERA, which is at 3.68. Good, but not exactly Hall of Fame numbers. What he does have is his frequency to have near perfect games – he has about 5 1-hit games, which is just completely crazy. Even if he doesn’t make the Hall his tendency to go on a complete tear makes him one of the better pitchers during the Steroid era.
Lee Smith
Like Trammell, Smith gets my vote on the basis that he will be running out of time on his Hall of Fame candidacy. It’s not like his stats are completely bad; he has a 3.03 career ERA, led the league in Saves four times, and has 1,200 strikeouts – as a reliever, no doubt – and has 478 saves to add to his total. That’s third all time in the entire MLB. It’s completely crazy that given his stats, he hasn’t made the Hall of Fame yet. When he retired in 1997, both Hoffman and Rivera were just starting their time in the MLB. Smith will go down as one of the best relievers of all-time, and nothing short of a Hall of Fame ballot will be completely crazy beyond comprehension.
“But wait! Where’s Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa?”
Ah yes. Just about every year since Mark McGwire appeared on the ballot, there has been a constant debate on whether or not players who have taken PEDs/Steroids or who probably have taken Steroids should be in the Hall of Fame. After all, the Hall of Fame highlights those who were the best in Baseball, and doing so by the way of cheating through biological means – i.e. getting an unfair advantage over everyone else because they can’t physically be better than you. At least when someone is stealing signs or putting spitballs in play, there’s still a chance that someone responds to that and ends up overcoming that adversity. But when one person is much stronger than someone else, there’s no chance of overcoming that adversity, because the steroid user is producing more than what even the most fit people are capable of becoming.
So let me say what everyone in the Hall so far is trying to say – those who have been positively linked to drugs or Steroids should not be admitted into the Hall of Fame. Period. Those who blatantly cheat to win (like what I have mentioned above) should be ruled ineligible to be considered for the Hall. When you look at those who have been admitted into the Hall of Fame, you look at those who have a high standard of ethics in the game. Sure, there may be players like Ty Cobb who may have broken a few rules and played dirty tricks like putting sharp spikes on their shoes to gain an advantage. There may have been a few sign stealers in there as well. Heck, maybe even Babe Ruth may have broken a few rules here and there.
With those players, the cheating may be temporary, and is quickly solved through the removal of a tool or an ommittance of an act. With Steroids, that becomes much harder to do. How long does Steroids last inside a person’s system? A day? A week? For years? Nobody truly knows exactly how long. Besides, when someone brings in a corked bat or wears a spiked shoe everyone else doesn’t know they are cheating unless they actually win. With Steroid users, they are always cheating due to their bigger muscles. That causes more batters to be walked, more people playing more defensively, and more cautious decisions to be made against the user in question. Steroids changes the entire complexity of a game.
The use of steroids in Baseball needs to be stopped and exhumed in order to make the game more genuine again. Banning those who have taken steroids from the Hall would ensure that will be the case.