Written by Eric Delgato, New York City
“Hall of Famer.” To me, it’s simple: a Hall of Famer is someone whose accomplishment in a sport was greater than what the average athlete considers to be great.
Courtesy: CBS Local New York
Under my definition Pete Rose, who has the most career hits of all time; Barry Bonds, who has the most career home runs of all time; and Roger Clemens, who has the most career Cy Young Awards of all time—are all 1st Ballot Hall of Famers—as is Mike Piazza, aka, the greatest hitting catcher of all time.
Piazza, as we all know, was snubbed again and won’t be elected into the Hall of Fame in 2015. Speculation of steroid use, something that was never proven, seems to be the main issue. While I disagree with keeping guys like Bonds or Clemens out of the Hall for steroid use, I can still somewhat understand why people refuse to vote for them. However, Mike Piazza wasn’t in the infamous Mitchell Report and he never tested positive for steroids.
In a society where you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, I find it unjust for writers to leave Piazza off their ballots simply because they believe he might have used performance-enhancing drugs. I also find it impossible to believe that people don’t think a man should be in the Hall of Fame who’s in the all-time Top 100 in Home Runs, RBIs, Slugging Percentage and OPS.
Courtesy: shermanreport.com
That conclusion leads to a completely separate issue associated with the Hall of Fame voting system: the limitation of ten-player ballots. If you were told to go to the grocery store and choose ten items, which items would you pick? Eggs? Milk? Meats? Whatever ten products you chose, I’m sure there’d be more items you’d like to buy IF limitations hadn’t been imposed. So why set a 10-person limit for Hall of Fame voting? Shouldn’t you get into the Hall of Fame based solely on the definition of a Hall of Famer?
Unfortunately, the MLB is very slow on change. Baseball is a sport built on tradition and history. While I applaud the MLB for keeping tradition and history alive, we’re also at a point in time where changes are needed to keep baseball relevant.
One change needed is in the Hall of Fame voting system. Instead of having voters choose ten players, have them choose an unlimited number of players they think are worthy of the Hall. It doesn’t make sense to have someone not make the Hall of Fame because there were ten other worthy players on the same ballot.
You could have three or four guys not make the Hall because different writers have different opinions about who’s more worthy of their Hall of Fame vote. But if you were to ask the same writers to make an unlimited list, all players would be on it.
It simply doesn’t make sense.
I understand that a perk of the MLB Hall of Fame is exclusivity in comparison to other professional halls of fame. And I understand why people don’t want to see everyone get into the Hall on their 1st ballot. But there are ways around these issues.
Courtesy: newyork.cbslocal.com
If the BBWAA wants to keep the prestige of having a first-ballot Hall of Famers, that goal isn’t hard to achieve. Simply ask two questions on the ballot: “Is this person a Hall of Famer?” Then, for first timers, ask: “Is this person a first-ballot Hall of Famer?” Set a higher standard for 1st Ballot Hall of Famers and make everyone happy.
As a fan of the game it’s disappointing to see guys like Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio take more than a year to make the Hall. Just two years ago we had zero players elected to the Hall of Fame. That was an outright travesty!
It’s disheartening to see many of the fans I grew up idolizing—players who have the stats to make the Hall—not get elected.
