It’s a Mad, Mad Sports World

Harold Baines is inducted into the Hall of pretty, pretty good!

Perhaps the best week of NFL football in recent memory has just been completed but we still have other sports having the audacity to try and muscle in on the champion and take away headlines. Normally we would shew away these other sports with all the effort of an annoying gnat at a picnic, but this week has shown that perhaps our disdain is unwarranted. Where shall we begin?

A few weeks ago, the Bozo’s wrote about the watered-down Hall of Fame and were questioning if certain football players will be in based on absurd stats in the new passing league. The Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) veterans committee recently decided to elect Harold Baines to the HOF since he was a good player for 22 years who never finished in the top 5 in MVP voting and didn’t bother playing defense and was a DH for most of his career. When his nomination was left up to the baseball writers, he never received more than 6% of votes but suddenly he will be enshrined after 20 years because of what? The veterans committee is crossing into dangerous territory here and if we are not careful Ed Kranepool, Ray Knight, Chris Chambliss and Bucky Dent will soon be bronzed into Cooperstown. Don’t get me wrong, Baines was a nice and productive player who reached literally no standard for previous inductees. You may disagree but here is a litmus test: Find one person in America who has ever brought up Harold Baines when discussing the game’s greatest players over beers at the Ale house? I’m guessing outside his Mom and Uncle Bob, this has never happened.
New members to the 16-man committee included Baines’ former Manager Tony LaRussa and old fart white Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. It pads the legacy of these to cronies of Baines to welcome him to the club, however undeservedly. Cronyism will be at the forefront of induction for years to come now that old buddies can slip through the crack if their older pal with the ID holds the door open when the bouncer ain’t looking.

The veterans committee may have committed a grave error and the flood gates for admission may have been opened. Names like Keith Hernandez and Dale Murphy are not in the HOF despite a career that Baines would gladly trade for. Hernandez was a 2-time champion, won an MVP, career .296 hitter, won a batting title and 3 silver slugger awards. Oh, and he played defense and won 11 consecutive golden gloves as a first baseman. Murphy was a towering player and was a 2-time MVP, had 398 career homeruns, led the league in home runs and RBI’s twice and like Hernandez, was a 5 time gold glove winner. Don Mattingly, Donnie Baseball? Baines isn’t even close to the accomplishments of the aforementioned. In their prime, those players were considered the best in the game or at least one of the top 2-3 at their position. More importantly, if Baines’ team had called the Mets or Braves to discuss a straight up trade they would have been laughed at and hung up on.

I can only conclude that baseball was looking for some way to get the football fans like me at least discussing their sport and for the most part it worked. However, this is very dangerous going forward and don’t be surprised next year when Gary Sheffield, Darryl Strawberry, and Eric Davis are suddenly elected to the HOF. Think I am joking? Sheffield hit 509 HRs, had more runs batted in, won a batting title and a world series title and was a 9 time all star. Baines can’t come close to this production. Baines was a compiler, guys who hung around long enough that their stats are great in numbers but not in season averages. Baines averaged only 125 hits per year! The veterans committee could have righted some wrongs but instead chose to blow up the system and lose all legitimacy in the eyes of most fans. Congratulations, we are talking baseball in December because we think you are idiots not because we want to care.
-Bozos